This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
I have recently had a number of questions about employment transitions and what to do when you're looking for work. Especially if you have a gap in between employment, you've got some time, how can you spend that time? And in my book, Born for This, which goes back a few years, I wrote about the concept of perfect versus imperfect information. Or it could also be visible versus hidden information. And if you think about games like tic-tac-toe and chess and poker, a game like tic-tac-toe has perfect information.
You play tic-tac-toe with somebody, like there's nothing hidden. You can see their move. There's nothing they can see that you can't. And chess is like that too. Both players have access to all the information in the game.
You know, it's just a question of, you know, who can think through the best strategies, whose mental faculties and experience with the game of chess turns out to be stronger or more advantageous in that situation. However, poker is not like that. So poker is the opposite because poker has imperfect or hidden information. Like you can't see what your opponent's cards are. And I wrote about this in some detail in that book, but the key point is careers are much more like playing poker than playing chess or tic-tac-toe because there is a lot of hidden information.
There is a lot of things you can't see, you can't figure out. So you don't know. And sometimes you don't know what you don't know, not to get to Donald Rumsfeld here, but there are these unknown knowns or the known knowns, et cetera. So what you wanna do often in these situations is try to figure out, try to make more of that information accessible or visible to you. So I mentioned that because I'm gonna bring it up in the context of this listener's question.
He's asking something a little bit different, but hopefully we're gonna come full circle here in a moment. How to best use a time of unemployment? How can you start a side hustle or do something else for yourself during that time? The detailed question and my detailed answer, right after this message from our sponsor. [Music]
Hey, Chris, this is Michael.
I've been listening to the show for a couple of years now. My company recently did a round of layoffs. I was in the group that got let go. Don't feel bad for me. I mean, it wasn't a huge shock.
To be honest, really I was ready for a change anyway. But since I was laid off instead of quitting, I received a severance package. I've got at least a month or two before I have to get serious about finding a job. So I'd like to use some of this time to focus on creating a new source of income. Now I'm not expecting to replicate a full salary right away, but I am thinking that if I could get going, I'll be in a better place to grow the business while I begin a new job.
So how can I best use this bonus free time that I've been given? [Music]
Michael, congratulations on fun employment. I wish you well and I very much respect that attitude of how can this be a good use of your time? Not just a good use of your time, but how can it be an opportunity, right? Like this is a chance to invest in yourself.
So I would say, you know, you're totally on the right track. Use this time for research and action, like a combination of research and action. If you are brand new to the world of side hustles, you know, and thinking about that concept of how there's imperfect or hidden information, try to reduce the amount of imperfect or hidden information. When you're thinking about what kind of business should I start in this brief period of time, narrow it down, identify a category or two, or maybe three ideas at most and spend some detailed time learning. Now for somebody who is a bit further along and already has an idea, they just haven't really committed the time to it, well, here's your chance.
You know, spend the time bringing that idea to life. Do it really step by step, make a list of tasks, give yourself deadlines, like work on it every day, maybe work on it more than you might normally work on it because you've got some extra time. I really think it's ideal for any of us, like whether you're in a situation of unemployment or not, to look at any kind of time of transition as an opportunity to change something up. Like don't just move forward blindly. Like I get into this myself.
I often just get on a track of doing stuff and I just, I'm pretty good in some ways at just doing the same thing over and over again. And there's a time and place for that. And there's another time and place for saying, hey, what do I really want to do? And what changes do I need to make right now? What do I have the opportunity?
As I said, what changes do I have the chance, you know, to make right now? So another thing I was thinking about briefly from that concept of how to find the work you're meant to do that I wrote about in the book "Born for This" is the importance of creating backup plans. So maybe you can also use this time to create a backup plan. So if you're already working on a couple of ideas, maybe this is the chance to make a backup plan or to begin thinking, okay, I might not commit fully to this other idea right now, but is there something I can start outlining or just, I don't know, brainstorming about so that I have more options? So that ultimately I do have more than one source of income and, you know, hopefully I'm gonna get another job and that'll be a good career.
But if something happens and I'm in this situation again, years from now, I'm even less worried than I am now. That's my take for Michael and anybody else who might be in that situation. So let's all make the best use of the opportunities we have. As I said, I'm speaking to myself here too. It's not just you, but thank you listeners for tuning in today.
I very much appreciate you joining me on this journey. We have a worldwide global community of awesome people out there. And if you have a question or some feedback or you'd like to share your business idea, just let us know how things are going. Come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. Do something for yourself today.
Be sure you come back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
from The Onward Project.
