This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
All right, all right. Hey, what's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. This is Chris Guillebeau, your host. Today, we're gonna talk about breeding rabbits, breeding rabbits or bunnies.
In the "100 Side Hustles" book, I told the story of a woman who paid her way through college by breeding rabbits. I like to find unusual stories. Most people who breed rabbits aren't gonna be able to cover their college expenses, at least not for all four years. And today's story, in fact, is one that doesn't go so well. It is a hop, skip, and a jump away from a huge success because it's actually a story of something that goes very wrong.
That's right, today is failure Friday, a collection of short stories about mistakes, missteps, disasters, and of course, failure. I offer you these stories with the principle that we can learn as much from failure as we can from success. So just like our "Throwback Thursday" segment, you get to hear directly from a side hustler who has struggled to get something off the ground. These stories tend to vary a bit, but there are all kinds and they often start with an idea and then what actually happened. Like you think something's going to happen, this is your assumption, and then that assumption meets reality.
So today's short story features Carmine from Las Vegas. As mentioned, Carmine attempts to start her own breeding farm. Unfortunately, it turns out she's living on borrowed time. All right, let's hear the story and what Carmine learned. I'll be back at the end with a very quick wrap-up.
[Music]
Hi, my name is Carmine and this is the story of my failed attempt at breeding rabbits. You heard right. I had always been fascinated by rabbits and their cute fluffy little selves. So when I heard about a local rabbit show and the potential to earn some extra money, I jumped at the opportunity to breed rabbits as a side hustle. I started off small, just getting a couple rabbits and setting up a small pen in my backyard.
I did my research, read up on the best practices for breeding and caring for rabbits and joined a few rabbit breeding groups online for advice. At first, everything seemed to be going great. My rabbits were happy and healthy. And before I knew it, I had a whole litter of baby bunnies. I was thrilled at the prospect of selling them to good homes and making a profit.
But things started to go wrong when I realized I had severely underestimated the amount of work that went into caring for a whole litter of bunnies. I was constantly running around, making sure they had enough food and water and cleaning up after them. It was a lot more work than I had anticipated and I started to feel overwhelmed. To make matters worse, I had neglected to properly research the rabbit reselling market. And as a result, I had a hard time finding homes for my bunnies.
I was starting to worry that I would have to keep them all, which would not only be a lot of work, but would also eat into any potential profits I might've made. Fortunately, just when things seemed at their worst, I received a message from a local pet store owner who had seen my ad online. They were interested in buying a few of my bunnies to sell in their store. It wasn't exactly the big payday I was hoping for, but it was enough to cover my expenses and even make a small profit. I learned a valuable lesson from my rabbit breeding side hustle.
Sometimes things don't go as planned and it's important to be flexible and adapt to the situation. After that, I decided to keep just one rabbit for myself and not for income generating purposes, which I know is the point of a side hustle. I may not have made a ton of bunny bucks, but I gained valuable experience and the satisfaction of knowing that my bunnies would ultimately be okay. And to me, that was worth its weight in carrots. [Music]
Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.
Indeed, the lesson is worth its weight in carrots and maybe more than that. Thanks so much Carmine for sharing this story. I guess it could have been worse. And now you know to try something different. So if you've got a question, listeners, or an update for us about your hustle, you've had some crazy experience, let me know, sidehustleschool.com/questions.
Today's notes, sidehustleschool.com/2232. We have a new episode every single day. I hope you'll subscribe, follow wherever you get your podcasts. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
[Music]
- From the Onward Project.
