Q&A: “How to best use a time of unemployment?”

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

When you are considering making a big change, a big career change, or there's been some situation in which you've had to adapt to change, such as unemployment, there are a few different considerations. And a lot of times we tend to focus on the practical logistical considerations, which makes sense because that stuff matters. But simultaneously, in addition to those practical logistical considerations, something else is happening, the mental and emotional consideration of this change. And sometimes the best answer as to what should I do next? Do I pursue my side hustle full time?

Do I start a new project? Do I go back into the world of traditional work? Sometimes the best answer isn't always the one that pays the most money or otherwise has the best measurable reward, the highest metric, whatever it is, but it's more the one that your heart leans toward. Which might sound a little woo-woo, you know, and we're all about practical stuff here, but I think it's important to consider, like, how does this move make me feel when I think about it? Some of that is what our caller today is going through.

She faces a big decision. So let's see if we can help her out. Detailed question and my answer coming right up. Hey, Chris, this is Lauren from Asbury Park, New Jersey. While on lockdown, I saw your course at LinkedIn Learning and became inspired to find a side hustle that could become my main hustle.

I'd like to pursue a content creation business, making sites, videos, copywriting. I used to work at some record labels, so I've used this knowledge to build sites for either my own bands or other projects, but I'm no expert, so I signed up for some courses to increase my knowledge. My start goal is to build a portfolio by making some sites for some friends' businesses. I also like that these skills can be used to try and get some passive income streams going. So the company I worked for was purchased by another, and they've offered my old job to me.

The responsible part of me says be an adult and take this real job. However, all the self-help books I've been reading say you need to get out of your comfort zone and warn that my subconscious programming will try to sabotage my efforts. My gut says you don't want that old job. It's a step backwards. But the other part of me says so many people are unemployed.

What are you going to do when your unemployment runs out? I'm collecting unemployment, and with the extra $600 check coming, I actually make more now than if I took the job. I know the benefits won't last forever, and I don't expect my side hustle or new business to take off right away, but I was hoping to finish my training so that I could at least try and find something pertaining to my new career goal. I don't know what to do, Chris, invest in myself or take the safe road. All I know is it's super scary and I'm pretty stressed out.

I'd really appreciate your advice. I'll let you know how it turns out on the next Third Way Call. Lauren, I love this question, and thank you, by the way, for just sharing in so much detail. I know a lot of people go through these situations, so it's helpful just to kind of have this relatability and good job as well increasing your skills. I think that's always smart, increase your skills in, I think you said design, but maybe some other skills as well.

I have a bunch of thoughts here, and I just want to be concise. First thing is, let's be careful with assigning so much qualitative value to these choices. What I mean here, the way that Lauren uses some of this language kind of sets her up for being disappointed in herself if she follows one set of the voices. She talked about different voices, be a responsible adult versus the self-help books that are like, get out of your comfort zone. You can still be a responsible adult by pursuing your side hustle or your business, and sometimes it's also okay to stay in the job or to go back to that job, whatever it is.

I do think it's important to pay attention to your gut though, and her gut, her intuition says, this is important, this is a dream. In these situations, the dream is there for a reason. Whatever you do, however you choose to get to it, whether it's like jumping in now or continuing to build the skills, starting on the side and then taking maybe a bigger risk later, don't ignore the dream. The dream is there for a reason. Wherever you can reduce the risk and do what seems best, I think that's good.

Wherever you can say yes, wherever you can make it easy to say yes, I think that's always good. I can't say exactly what Lauren should do, obviously that's a personal decision. I would just say, be careful about doing what you think you should do. It's very easy for us to kind of put that language on ourselves or put that expectation on ourselves because everybody else puts it on ourselves. Instead of doing what everybody thinks you should do or what you think you should do, it's always good to just say, what do I want right now?

What do I want? What is the next step to making that happen, regardless of whether it's through employment or otherwise? That's what I think about that. I'll be cheering you on, Lauren and everybody else. Listeners, if you've got questions, sidehustleschool.com/questions, let me know how we can continue to build out this body of work as we go for more than 2,000 days here.

You can follow or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. It's all completely free. My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School. the Onward Project.