This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey, hey, what's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. So glad you're tuning in today. My name is Chris Guillebeau, your host. Here with a special segment we call Failure Friday.
What is that all about? Well, it's about the principle that we can learn as much from failure as we can from success. We can learn as much from defeat as we can from victory, struggle as much as whatever the opposite of struggle is, I guess something going very easily or simply. And that's not always how it works. In fact, quite often it's not how it works.
So been sharing all these stories, a collection of short stories, all about mistakes, missteps, disasters, and of course, failure. So these stories tend to start with an idea what somebody thought would happen and then what really happened, and of course, what they learned. Today's is a little bit different. It features Gabriela Jacobson from Washington DC. I think she might be in Detroit now.
We told this successful story of her sustainable design studio, Green Upward, on episode 524. But of course, just like any story in the segment, not everything went smoothly, easily, simply. So let's hear from her about an overwork struggle in particular, something goes very wrong. And so I'll let her tell the story, then I'll come back at the end to wrap us up. [Music]
Hello, Side Hustle School.
My name is Gabriela and I founded Green Upward, a sustainable design studio. My lesson is that you can never put your personal health second to the needs of your business. I have long been involved in the entrepreneurship community and have heard plenty of story on how mostly young male entrepreneurs stayed up all night, worked 80 hours a week, lived off of ramen, and so much more to make their crazy dream a reality. I internalized all of these stories as the truth, and I thought I too needed to work like that to make my business dreams come true. So when I started Green Upward in 2017 as a side hustle, I sacrificed a lot.
I'd get home for my day job and go straight to work on Green Upward. I didn't hang out with my friends on the weekends, and sometimes I'd go to sleep at 2 a.m. and get up at 6 a.m. In 2019, I decided to take a break from my career to have more time for Green Upward, and I wanted to maximize that time, so I booked back-to-back trade shows while also planning to move from D.C. to Detroit.
Meanwhile, I started feeling sick at the beginning of 2019. I ignored all of my symptoms because in my head, real entrepreneurs couldn't get sick, need Rusk, and ask for help. So during my sabbatical, I cut costs wherever possible so I could dedicate more money to the business. I stopped exercising, I ate poorly, and practiced no self-care. So while I had a fantastic time at my trade shows, I was also hanging on by a thread.
In late spring of 2019, after the shows and travel, I was so sick, I finally fell apart and had to be hospitalized. It was sitting in the ER at 3 in the morning, wondering how I got there, that I finally made me realize that I needed to stop and take better care of myself. I wish I could say I transitioned gracefully into self-care, but I would be lying. I was mad, so mad, because needing to spend extra time on myself felt like failing, and I had been conditioned to think so. But with the support of my partner, families, and doctors, I stabilized, got my health back, and developed healthier habits.
My lessons to offer are these. First off, no startup or side hustle journey is the same, and all are valid. We need to promote diverse stories of entrepreneurs who are women, parents, LGBTQ, and BIPOC peoples the same way we have idealized stories revolving around typically white young men. We need diverse stories to define the next chapter of what business could be. Second, you always have to put your health first.
You need to get enough sleep, eat well, exercise, and a lot of time to rest. And this will mean prioritizing some time and money to take care of yourself and before your business or other obligations. Which leads me to my last lesson of scale. Know what scale you can operate at while staying healthy. We all dream of being an overnight success, but scaling too quickly can hurt yourself and your business as much as it helps.
I ended up needing to say no to some really interesting business opportunities so that I could develop strength in other areas of my business. Thank you so much for this opportunity to share. - Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. That is in fact the theme of Failure Friday. And in particular, I really paid attention to something that Gabriela said.
She said the extra time spent on myself felt like failing. Now, of course, the time you spend on yourself is not a failure. It's actually not part of Failure Friday. That should be, you know, success Saturday or something. The time you spend on yourself, but it can feel that way.
And this is so common. I hear this from a lot of people. You know, when things are going well or taking off or you feel like you have momentum, you feel like you have to just keep investing and going all in. And sometimes you can't do that. In fact, you can't do that for a very long period of time.
There's a time and a place. There's a season for it, I think, but you know, if you're trying to build something sustainable, you need to be willing to spend time on yourself and to take care of yourself and pay attention to those things. So with that in mind, I present to you Gabriela's story. She explained it much better than I could. So I'm grateful to her.
Check out her website at greenupward.com or on most social networks at Green Upward. If you have a question, if you'd like to update us about your side hustle, just come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. This has been episode 1623. I hope you'll come back tomorrow, 1624 and beyond. My name is Chris Guillebeau.
This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
