This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Hey, what's up, side hustle school community, friends, listeners, so glad you're out there. My name is Chris Guillebeau bringing you another episode of our unending Relentless daily podcast series. It's been going for more than 2,000 days now, all with the mission of helping you make extra money without quitting your job, helping you build an income generating side hustle, key phrase, income generating, not just a hobby, something that actually makes money for you, which can allow you to do more of what's important to you. That's what it's all about. And we try to learn in different ways here through case studies, questions and answers, lots of different features. One of which is called failure Friday. Now just by coincidence,
today happens to be Friday. So I'm talking about failure Friday. Okay, I guess it's not so much of a coincidence. What is failure Friday? It is a collection of short stories about mistakes, missteps, disasters, and of course failure under the principle that we can learn as much from failure as we can from success. And just to be clear, failure is not the goal. Our goal is
actually the other one success, but sometimes it takes some time. Sometimes you have to walk through something to get to, well, that ultimate path of success. So these little stories, they tend to vary. People have shared all kinds of different things from failures, large and small. So I try not to preempt them too much. I just try to let the listener, our caller, our case study,
whoever it is, sometimes an entrepreneur, whoever it is, I'll let them share the story. Today's short story features Joseph. Now Joseph is the aspirational owner of a scavenger hunt side hustle, gave a little bit away there, the aspirational owner. We have talked about scavenger hunts a number of times, including a few people, another guy named Chris, one of them is who has turned it into a big business operating with employees in multiple cities. Now this story is a bit different, or at least it has a different outcome. So without further ado, let's hear it from Joseph.
I had always been a huge fan of scavenger hunts. So when I decided to start my own business, organizing them for corporate team building events, I was thrilled. I spent months, researching different ideas, designing clues and scouting out locations. I was going to be the scavenger hunt king. The first few hunts went off without a hitch. The teams loved them and I was
getting great feedback. But then disaster struck. I had planned a hunt for a large company and I was getting really excited. I had some really creative clues and I was sure the team would have a blast. But as the day of the event approached, the weather forecast started to look ominous.
Storm clouds gathered on the horizon and I began to worry. Despite my concerns, the team was determined to go through with the hunt. They had been looking forward to it for weeks and there was no way they were going to let a little rain dampen their spirits. I probably should have pushed harder to postpone, but I thought, well, maybe it'll be okay. So we set out on the hunt. At first,
everything seemed to be going fine. The team was having a great time and the clues were leading them to some interesting places. But as the rain started to fall, things started to go wrong. One of the clues led the team to a park where they were supposed to find a hidden object. But as they searched, the rain began to come down harder and harder. Soon, they were drenched and
the object they were looking for was nowhere to be found. The rest of the hunt was even worse. The rain made it difficult for the team to see any more clues and they ended up getting lost several times. By the time they finally made it back to the starting point, they were cold, wet and miserable. I felt terrible. At least at first. I had let the team down and I knew it was
all my fault. I had been so focused on coming up with creative clues that I'd completely overlooked the possibility of bad weather. It was a valuable lesson learned. Always have a backup plan in case things don't go as expected. Despite the rough start, the team was able to salvage the day.
We ended up going out for drinks and drying off. And while the scavenger hunt may not have gone as planned, everyone went away with a good story, which is in fact one of the goals for the whole endeavor. Still, I wish I'd thought it through a bit more from the beginning. It's clear I wasn't yet ready to be the scavenger hunt king. Joseph, thanks so much for sharing this story. Remember, never confuse a single defeat with a
final defeat. Often you have to go through things. As I mentioned, you have to go through difficulties, hardships, challenges to figure out, okay, what might be better? What's a better idea for me? Or how can I at least not have this particular problem again? So I think Joseph has
moved on to something else now, a new idea he's working on. Hopefully he'll come back and share a case study of that at some point. But for now, thank you again, Joseph. Listeners, I hope you enjoyed it. And remember, I'm cheering you on whatever you're going through, whatever you're working on. If you've got some feedback or a question, sidehustleschool.com/questions. Of course,
you can just continue to listen passively. That's also totally fine. Later this year, I'll be doing a book tour for a new book I have coming out in August. I'm excited about that. Hopefully we'll get a chance to connect in person at some point. But for now, have a wonderful day.
Take care of yourself. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is sodasleschool. From the Onward Project.
