The Side Hustle : Decentralised Employment and Individual Freedom
One of the hardest questions I get asked is “What do you do for a living?” Often when I am subsequently evasive in answering the enquirer tends to assume that I’m actually an unemployed (maybe even an unemployable) bum and my dress sense often doesn’t help counter this assumption. In essence nothing could be further from the truth and I’ve actually never been fired in my life, but it’s hard to explain what I actually do since I don’t have a boss, nor any staff, nor any clients and I don’t get a pay check….
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So if you’re confused by now then that’s good! You’ll have that same quizzical look on your face that I have grown so accustomed to and we can start off on the same page. First let’s talk about the concept of the Side Hustle. It’s a term I have only really heard very recently and even though I find it to be slightly derogatory (I’m no hustler or scammer – everything I do is legal), I am happy to see that the concept of the Side Hustle is now becoming part of our cultural vocabulary and more people are exploring it every day.
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The definition of Side Hustle is still in flux and it is not well understood, but for me it starts out as something you might be doing “On the side” which might be a hobby business outside of your normal work life. Not to be confused with “Moonlighting” which is defined as having a secret second job at night, finding a Side Hustle was for me the first step in the direction of gaining Decentralised Employment and Individual Freedom. Once my Side Hustle grew to the point where it had the potential to support my living expenses I was free to ditch my mainstream job and let me tell you that moment felt like manna from heaven.
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Nowadays I am all about the Side Hustle, but it’s not just one. I have about 7 or 8 things that I do now and you could add them all up but it still wouldn’t feel like a full time job. If one of my Side Hustles is going badly, or I’m getting bored with it – I take a break and focus on one of the others. I always have something I can work on and my wife constantly gets annoyed with me because I work so much, but it’s all a question of perspective and it often doesn’t feel like work.
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So you’ve probably figured out by now that writing on STEEM is one of my newer Side Hustles. I’ve always wanted to be a writer and I’m sure there is a Fantasy Fiction novel in me down the track, but this is a great way for me to explore and refine my writing talents where really the only thing I can possibly lose is my time. It’s a no-risk venture with no overheads – The best kind! It means that when people ask me that dreaded question “What do you do for a living?” I can simply answer “I’m a Writer” and they’ll understand it straight away. There are about a dozen titles I’ve used in the past, but when I answer with something like “I’m a Sports Analyst…a Risk Trader…a Crypto Investor…” it usually just confuses people and raises more questions that are equally hard to explain when really the enquirer is just trying to make small talk with me (and failing).
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Anyway, this post is starting to sound a bit self-indulgent so I will apologise for that and get to the point. Everyone should have a Side Hustle, or even more than 1. You might be one of those working 9 to 5 Wage Slaves, stuck in a mainstream mundane existence – hating your job and hating your boss….even hating your life. Find something you enjoy, don’t just find a hobby but make your hobby into a business. Turn it into a Side Hustle. If you can get good at it you can free yourself from being a Wage Slave. Be your own boss and achieve true freedom. If you’re here on STEEM then you’re already on your way. We have a lot of new technology now, other than STEEM there are places like freelancer.com where you can bid for jobs, and it’s never been easier to work from home. If you’re good at what you do then you don’t need job security and you can be confident the free market will value your work.
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I’m not suggesting you throw in your day job today, but the lesser worn path is there for you now to wander down and explore. This is the way of the future. With technology like the internet and blockchain, we don’t need centralised banks or centralised governments…..and we don’t need centralised employment any more either.
https://www.tckpublishing.com
https://mekinkade.com
http://blog.ninapaley.com
http://izquotes.com
http://eqcomics.com
https://makeameme.org
I could here the music "Do the side hustle"
Haha, glad to hear your free from your woes. My culture is Anglo-Romany. In the UK many Romani don't go to school and a high proportion don't have any official state ID. Providing for your family is all about the side hustle.
Don't worry, I still have a few woes but being in a shitty job just isn't one of them :)
Thanks for commenting, I actually didn't even know about Anglo-Romani culture and just went on a bit of a google dive. Fascinating stuff! Sounds like you guys have been on the fringe for a while and are maybe ahead of us all with this Side Hustle stuff.
haha kind of,
@buggedout - great post resteemed, we have our side hustles going, but I never really thought about it. I am still in mainstream work though. What your doing sounds great.
I had my first side hustle going in parallel with my work for years before I took the plunge in late 2011 to drop my mainstream work. But it hasn't always been smooth sailing. I've taken 2 more mainstream jobs about 6-9 months stints each since then to shore things up, but now totally independent since late 2015. It doesn't happen overnight but once you get there it is great. You guys are both really switched on so if you consciously work toward it I'd be very confident you could do it.
Your thought is well, but centralised and decentralised both systems are needed for men in the world of employment.
Side hustle everyday. So we can spend our precious time doing more important things than earning money, while earning money - if you catch my drift. @ironshield
This is extremely relatable, I still haven't found a way to properly answer the "what do you do for a living?" question. I tried everything (sports bettor, investor, trader, crypto, making money on the internet, work from home, building passive income,...), but nearly everytime it creates some kind of short circuit in peoples brain and they are unable to process it somehow leaving them with a puzzled look.
Being able to answer that question with "I'm a writer' alone makes me want to get a lot bigger on Steemit so it would not be a total lie.
Absolutely. People just don't get it. It's actually a very difficult question to answer, but if you're in a mainstream career you just respond with your job title and that seems very normal. It works for 99% of people but not if you're living outside the box :)
Great post. It's all part of the gig economy or what some call the uberization of the economy or the Tinder employment market where employees can swipe right or left for a job.
It has its up sides. First, it provides the employee with a lot of freedom to what they want . Second, even before letting you do what you want the gig economy lets you find out what you want to do by quickly and easily switching jobs or doing more than one at a time. Third, it allows for great flexibility.
However, it comes with its problems. First, since you're not an employee you don't have employee benefits and are lacking the protection of many laws meant to protect employees from their employers. Second, flexibility can be good but it can be bad - your work life balance can suffer. Third, a workplace full of gig workers is less fun. There is no core, no heart, just a bunch of people working in parallel but not together. It creates a lonely and isolated workplace. Fourth, just like you can easily swipe right or left on your employer they can just as easily let you go.
All that being said, the gig economy is good for employees IMHO. In the future, employers need to learn how to onboard, engage, and keep their contingent workers because they can swipe left on them and go on to the next job. If employers want to retain the younger workforce they'll have to keep up, and, eventually, they will.
Lots of good info here. I have heard people reference the Gig Economy and it's related though I don't think it's quite the same. I guess you could say I took a couple of Gigs in the last few years to shore things up when they weren't going so well.
I disagree about Gig Workers not being as much fun. I think a dynamic and changing workplace can be LOTS of fun. Always new people to meet, network and socialise with. Nothing getting stale or complacent or bored. I could see the Gig Economy really working great in future too. Side Hustle is more about being your own boss and innovating something or producing/providing something that has it's own niche or market. But it's a fast evolving space so that's just my 2 cents! :)
Man i quit my job about 6 months back and it was an awesome experience. My side hustle was rebuilding macbooks, which paid the bills but was very unsociable. I ended up going back to my hospo job to do a couple of hero shifts purely for the bants, before flying out to Indonesia.
It was really empowering and i cant wait to do it all over again soon - but this time with a different side hustle :)
Sounds great! The thing about having more than 1 Side Hustle is you always have something to fall back on if your new one doesn't work out that well.
I know what you mean about being unsociable and missing the banter. I have to get out of the house and go give cheek to the local shopkeepers just to keep my social skills up :)
I tell people that my side hustle is selling optimistic Koreans bags of digital coins I get from commenting on wealthy people's posts.
I love it! I bet that gets you a few quizzical looks too ;)
Nice article! Would love to hear some side hustles you do.
It is difficult to extricate from the 9-5 work and do hustles that you love 'cause all the joy had been drained in the cube.
Thanks. I guess the point of the article was that you need to find your side hustle and it's probably different from everyone elses. What's your passion? Your hobby? Start there. It took me years to build up and get confident to leave the 9-5 but you have to start with what you love.
Thanks ! Will need the guts to get out from the comfort zone.
I enjoy my workplace, but it's still a work place. My associates are coworkers, but friends. Sure it's social, but we don't socialize outside of work. I look forward to that point where my side hustle can create enough income to become the main hustle. Making progress!
Make friends and you don't need coworkers!