When It Comes to Choosing Your Side-Hustles — Who You Are Matters More Than Your Why
Knowing who we are drives why we do what we do
Conversations on why we do what we do are misguided. Not all the time, but most of the time.
Because the why is a second step. The first step is knowing exactly who we are. Who we are is the real driving force behind what we do.
This is especially so when it comes down to our choice of side-hustles.
We Don’t Have a Side-Hustle Problem
Yes, we do not have a side-hustle problem.
“Working from home has created the perfect environment for anyone to earn extra money with a side hustle. Depending on your unique needs and your skills, there are thousands of ways to earn a respectable amount of cash during your downtime.”
- 44 Profitable Ideas To Make Money on the Side
Having thousands of ways to make money in our free time mean one thing. There are at least thousands of side-hustles to choose from.
I wrote about a friend of mine running a 6–10 side-hustle (it is a small business today) as a Lizard Hunter. In the same article, I mentioned an Uncle Digital Agony who gets paid listening to issues related to smart devices.
These real-life side-hustles happening all around me demonstrate one thing. There is no shortage of side-hustles. In fact, if there isn’t one that we want to engage in, we invent one.
Who is stopping you from becoming the one and only stray-cat-rescue-in-ninja-jumpsuits? The direct answer is no one. The longer, indirect answer is unemphatically you.
Understanding Side-Hustles for What It Is Matters
Side-hustle is not about the hustle per se. Say what?
A side-hustle, in my opinion, is an add-on to our day job, business, projects we are engaged in daily. The emphasis is on the word side.
Yes, we want to convert our side-hustles into main hustles one day. And that one day may come 5 years later.
The primary reason side-hustles stay on the side is it does not pay for our bills. Side-hustles generate revenue, but not enough to cover our living expenses and fire our bosses.
“The average side hustle brings in $1,122 a month, but the median income is much lower — just $200 a month… you can say that after someone’s side hustle gets over the initial startup phase, 43.4% of side hustlers earn $1000 or more per month.”
- 2022 Side Hustle Statistics and Survey Results
The numbers above from Side-Hustle Nation are not exciting. And we need to be honest with ourselves. What can $1,122, $200, or $1,000 a month do for us to keep us going?
It does make a difference if it is plus $1,122, or plus $200, or plus $1,000 cash income on top of our business profits and monthly salaries.
That is why side-hustles remain on the side for years.
We Have to Understand Ourselves Better to Enjoy and Profit from Our Side-Hustles
Choosing a side-hustle we can stick to for the long term is analogous to choosing a career. We need to understand who we are before taking the plunge.
We must be practical. There is no need to kill ourselves to earn a measly $200, or $1,122. As I explained, these numbers barely elevate our financial well-being. This is not a ticket to financial freedom either. We need much more than $1,122 a month to stop playing the money game.
A different way to think about our side-hustles is to pair time with income. Let us assume the following scenarios.
- Your current side-hustle makes you $1,122 a month. You need to commit 60 hours of work a month. Your side-hustle per hour rate is $1,122 / 60 hours = $18.70.
- Your current side-hustle makes you $200 a month. You need to commit 60 hours of work a month. Your side-hustle per hour rate is $200 / 60 hours = $3.34.
What is important here is the time expenditure, not side-hustle income. 60 hours is my barometer because it equates nicely to 3 hours per day, 5 days a week, 4 weeks a month. It is representative of the hours I commit to getting work done.
We can do 2 things to earn more from our side-hustles. One, we price upwards. Or we reduce our time commitment. We can strive to do both.
Herein lies the real issue. All 3 options point to a combination of skill proficiency and learning immersion. And they require time. Remember the 10,000 hours of deliberate practice thing?
Would you invest 10,000 deliberate hours on the sport you hate just to trash your neighbor?
Would you commit 10,000 deliberate hours to a skill set that you cannot relate to?
I can go on and on. But you get my point.
Side-hustles allow us to express ourselves in ways that we cannot in our workplace or academic institution. I fully agree that we must work on tasks driven by corporate necessity. This set of 8–10 hours a day requires us to suppress our intrinsic self.
And so, we pour our initiative, creativity, and aspirations into our side-hustles. I do that too.
My immediate priority is to self-actualize. I know money comes much later.
What that means is.
- If you love writing, write. Write all forms of content to express yourself and be (really) good at it.
- If you are a visual creative, go create all types of Non-Fungible Tokens that you never had the opportunity to do so in your stuck-in-the-mud marketing job.
- If you believe in helping others succeed instead of drawing the line to defend your corporate turf, go be a tutor and serve the students in need.
The list is long. There is one common thread that connects all examples. It involves knowing who we are, what we want, and what matters.
When we understand (fundamentally) who we are as a person, the why behind our chosen side-hustles becomes obvious.
Summary
Understanding who we are is more important than the why.
This line of thinking is critical for our side-hustle longevity. The financial earnings of our side-hustles barely make a dent in our quality of life. It serves a better purpose as an add-on instead of a lifeline.
Therefore, we must be thoughtful in choosing our side-hustles. It takes time and energy to be good at what we do on the side and to earn a decent keep on the road.
Remember. We do not have a side-hustle problem. We have a self-understanding problem.
Solve the right problem!
As a content contributor, I write my observations from daily life and my business exposure. Because our life experience is the bedrock of our unique perspectives.
