It’s time for a reality check
How many times do you hear people saying that their “side hustle” is not happening? That after two years, they are still not profitable? Or that they don’t even have any revenue?
Well, let me tell you something. I am a dentist with a specialty in oral surgery. When I leave the office at night, I turn my laptop on and either write or code for hours.
Do you know how much money I’ve made outside my dental practice? You don’t, so let me tell you: 150 US dollars from sales of my book Android Development for Gifted Primates, which took me months to write.
Yep. $150 (so far, anyway). That’s it.
Dentistry allows me to live a pretty comfortable life. I perform a root canal — BOOM, paid. I extract a wisdom tooth? BOOM — paid again.
Why can’t my other work be as profitable as dentistry? I mean, I put in the hours. It’s not like I’m just sitting around watching Netflix when I’m not in the office.
But let’s think about it. To become a dentist / oral surgeon I had to
- become a luxury giggolo, servicing wealthy octagenarians in Morocco for two years
- meanwhile keep my cover as an undercover agent for MI6, tasked with taking down a local crime syndicate with connections to a former KGB agent in possesion of a nuclear warhead and a grudge against the West
- bust my ass studying in high school to enter dental school
- bust my ass studying and finishing dental school
- bust my ass entering the oral surgery program
- bust my ass finishing the oral surgery program
- bust my ass unbusting my ass
- open a dental practice with considerable investment and finally
- make money
That’s right: it took me
- 3 years of intense studying in high school
- 5 years of dental school
- 3 years of oral surgery training
- 1 year of dismantling a crime syndicate
…which adds up to 11 years of training to even make any money from my profession (ok, I didn’t dismantle a crime syndicate, although I could if I wanted to, alright? I probably couldn’t have been a giggolo though, have to be honest here).
People need to get a grip. Making money is (usually) tough work.
So why would I even expect to be making any money from my “side hustle” (I hate this phrase so much) 4 years in?
People need to get a grip. Making money is (usually) tough work.
And all the tech in the world is not going to change that.