This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Welcome, welcome, welcome. Hey, this is Side Hustle School. Chris Guillebeau, your host, and today I want to welcome you to our weekly segment known as Failure Friday. Failure Friday is a collection of short stories about mistakes, missteps, disasters, and of course, failure. Now, of course, you come to Side Hustle School to hear all kinds of Side Hustle ideas, ways to make extra money without quitting your job, case studies, tips, questions, and answers, and ongoing daily conversation dialogue, if you prefer, that we've been doing for more than 2,000 days in a row. So,
of course, you're interested in those success stories, but the point of this segment is to highlight the things that don't go well. You know, a short story of something, in fact, that went very wrong. And that's because we can learn as much from failure as we can from success. These stories have varied quite a bit since we started doing them last year, but they often began with an idea, an assumption, and then that assumption turns into a reality. And then what does the person learn through the experience? So, without further ado, today's short story
features Nick Snare. Nick describes himself as a former online tutor. Hmm, that sounds interesting. A former online tutor. Let's hear the story from him. Here's Nick.
My name is Nick, and I'm a former online tutor. I thought it would be a great Side Hustle. Flexible hours could pay and the chance to help kids learn. And I thought I was ready for anything. At least until I met one of my students' parents. I was assigned to teach
math to a high school student, which was always my strong subject. The first few lessons went well, but then the student's mother got involved. She was one of those helicopter parents who thought she knew everything and wanted to be involved in every step of the tutoring process. At first, I tried to be patient and work with her, but she was so demanding that it started to affect the student's progress. Every time I suggested a new method or approach, she'd shoot it down, insisting on doing things her way. I started to feel frustrated and discouraged, especially
since the student wasn't making much progress despite my best efforts. And then one day, the mother showed up to an online session together with her child. I was blindsided. I had no idea she was planning to do that. She sat next to my student the whole time, interrupting me every few minutes with her own ideas and corrections. I was so flustered that
I couldn't even remember what I was teaching. To put it bluntly, it was a disaster. After that session, I quit. I couldn't take it anymore. I realized that I didn't sign up for this.
I wanted to help students learn, not deal with difficult parents. I felt like I had failed. But looking back, I learned an important lesson. Know your limits and don't let others push you past them. So maybe this is a success story in disguise. Still not sure, to be honest.
As for what's next for me, well, I'm still figuring that out. But one thing's for sure, I'm not going back to online tutoring anytime soon. I'll stick to playing games and binge watching TV shows for now. At least there, I don't have to deal with difficult parents. Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. That is the theme of Failure Friday.
And Nick, really appreciate you sharing that story. Nick, the former online tutor. Hey, you know, don't let it get you down. Take that experience, move on to something else. That's all that I know. That's all that most of our successful side hustlers know.
Sometimes the first iteration of the first project is not what you're going to end up with. So keep going. And listeners, if you've got a question or an update for us about your hustle, sidehustleschool.com/questions. Thanks for being out there. Take care of yourself. Let's move
forward together. Oh, in today's notes, sidehustleschool.com/2253. I'll be back again tomorrow. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
From the Onward Project.
