I Drank the Side Hustle Kool-Aid
And it taught me something unexpected.
For years, I was completely consumed with finding a way to leave the 9–5 life and “make it big” through developing and monetizing some sort of side hustle. I absorbed entrepreneurship content like a fire hose, surrounding myself with the same “work for yourself” message from all angles. Podcasts, Medium articles, Youtube videos — all of them urged me to find my passion, do it on the side, then make it your living.
The advent of the gig economy has landed our Western work culture in an interesting place. For some who have rejected a life of selling out to a 9–5, the hustle to climb the corporate ladder has disguised itself as a new, more sneaky career beast — the dream of the Side Hustle Success Story. That is, the notion that if you work hard enough in your free time, and if you’re passionate enough about a given project, eventually you’ll reach a point of critical mass, and your life (and finances) will take off.
I had been drinking this side hustle Kool-Aid for a few years now. If I could just make it big enough on some social media platform, I thought, I’ll have made my big break. But what would my “big break” look like, once I got there? In my mind, it meant not having to work as hard I do in my 9–5, and only having to answer to myself.
I briefly tried my hand at writing on Medium, tried getting into the #WomenInTech Instagram influencer space (each accompanied by the realization that neither was as freeing as I thought it would be, and, in fact, felt a lot like work), and ultimately landed on starting a podcast that would shine a light on the lives of us regular 9-to-5ers. This is it, I thought. “The” idea. My big side project break.
I proceeded to record five episodes, four of them solid enough to release, and then dragged my feet for another six months to put everything together. The more it felt like work, the less I wanted to do it. Keeping up with consistent release schedules, always needing to line up an interview…as an introvert, the thought of this all sounded horrible long-term.
Interestingly enough, as I interviewed friends for my podcast, the topics we covered helped me let go of the pressures I was putting on myself to chase this very side hustle. In the end, the conversations led me to develop a healthier relationship with my 9–5 job altogether. Interviewing a series of people who both were and weren’t pursuing their “passions” through their jobs highlighted that, at times, even the most passionate of people still experience the drudgery of going to work.
Perhaps the most important lesson of all was that what you do is not the ONLY important factor in a job. Who you work with, and why you do it (financial independence, contributing to an important mission, providing for your family) can be just as valuable and rewarding.
It’s now been more than a year since I released those four fledgling episodes. Unsurprisingly, creating the podcast did not, in fact, give me my “big break.” Despite it being a rewarding project to complete, I had no intention of ever making another episode again. I still feel 100% at peace with this decision. For someone who was constantly searching for answers and career satisfaction vis-a-vis the promise of a successful side hustle, I’m still glad I tried it out. While it didn’t bring me a sense of purpose I expected to find, I learned invaluable lessons about appreciating my more traditional career choices. It helped me answer a lot of “what ifs,” and ultimately brought me back down to reality.
As it turns out, sometimes, what you already have might give you more purpose than you realize.
