This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Do you ever feel like you are too late to something? I don't just mean to an appointment or a meeting. I mean, do you feel like you're too late to an opportunity or to something that's important in your life? You feel like, man, there was a great time to do this thing, but that was a long time ago. Or even if it was a short time ago, I missed it.
You know, the right time to start something new has come and gone. Well, this is kind of a common fear. And that's what we're gonna tackle here in our next question from a listener. Welcome to side hustle school, by the way. And as we'll discuss, it's really never too late to start your side hustle journey, okay?
So if you have ever felt like time is not on your side, pay close attention here because we're gonna hear a question from Robert. He is a longtime school teacher from Kansas City. And yeah, if you think you are too late to the side hustle party, well, hopefully you're gonna hear something encouraging today. So, quick shout out to our sponsor and then Robert's question. [Music]
Hi, thanks for taking my question.
I've been a longtime school teacher residing in Kansas City and I've always felt the need to have something of my own beyond my regular job. I stumbled upon your podcast a year ago and have been a fanatical listener since then. However, I often catch myself thinking that I've missed the boat, that I'm too late to the side hustle party because I didn't start sooner. Whenever I hear different ideas, I think that's great for someone else, but I'm too late. What advice can you give me?
[Music]
Robert, I appreciate your honesty and transparency. I gotta say, I hear this all the time, all the time from so many different people in different variations, iterations and such. And it's not just other people. Like when I started doing most of my projects, I thought I was too late. When I started my blog in 2008, I thought I was too late for blogging because I looked around and saw other people who had started before me.
And then when I started this podcast, which was what, 2017, same kind of thing. I thought, oh man, podcasts have been around for a while. Do I really have something interesting and different to contribute? And I'm so glad I didn't hold back because I was worried about missing the boat or just being too late to the party, okay? So first things first, I just wanna reassure you and say, your concern is not uncommon and even among somebody who's been doing this for a while, like we're always worried about being too late or we missed the perfect timing and such.
But I always think of this proverb about how the best time to start was yesterday or last year, but the second best time is now. The second best time is today. So I was thinking about also like just some of the many stories that we featured. We had a story about Sarah who was a school librarian. She started her side hustle in her late fifties and she had this love of antique books and started an online store selling rare and vintage books.
So she ended up generating really significant income from that. It's maybe not a field you would think could generate significant income, but it definitely did. And she also felt really fulfilled through that process. There's also a guy named Martin who was a teacher, just like Robert. Martin was a high school math teacher.
He was in his mid forties, I believe, and late in his mind to the world of online tutoring, but yet found a way to kind of thrive and succeed in this process of helping students prepare for exams like the SAT and the ACT. So these are just a couple of examples. I got a lot of examples of people who felt like, oh, I wish I'd started this sooner, whether it was sooner in life or sooner in the development of a particular industry or medium or format or something. But they didn't give in to that concern or hesitation. They thought, well, there's still something I have to contribute.
And I'm just gonna try, what's the worst that can happen and what's the best that can happen? You always have to ask yourself this. Okay, the worst is that it's not gonna work out. All right, well, I'm not spending a ton of money here. I'm not making this my life mission.
I'm not quitting my job necessarily to start this business. But the best thing that could happen is that it actually works out. And who knows, maybe it does allow me to quit my job one day or at least make significant money and also just kind of makes me feel really good that I said yes. So I wanna encourage all of our listeners, what can you say yes to today? What can you say yes to that you might look back and say, well, I'm really glad I didn't hold back.
And that's my comments for you on this episode number 2,401. I've been doing this for a while and I'm so glad I said yes to it. Thank you for being a huge part of it. sidehustleschool.com/questions. You've got any notes, questions, feedback, et cetera.
Much more to come in the days to come, including my book launch, August 22nd, "Gonzo Capitalism," and of course an ongoing conversation, which I always look forward to. So thank you, thank you, thank you. Don't be afraid to start, you're not too late. My name is Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to "Side Hustle School." [Music]
