This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey there, what's up? Welcome, my name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School here with you, bringing you the weekly recap. Now we've just finished week number 50 on the show. Can you believe it?
Two weeks left to go in 2017. Can hardly believe it myself. Now I've got a bunch of stuff to share with you today. I wanna talk first about stealing ideas. That's right, stealing ideas.
What if somebody comes along and steals your idea? What if you got this idea, but you're afraid to say something about it or ask somebody for advice about it or even get started putting it out to the world, making a website or whatever. This question comes up over and over. I have been amazed. One of the things I've been so surprised about this year is how many people are really worried about this.
Now, this might be best illustrated through a conversation I recently had in Los Angeles at an event there. Probably talked about this at some point elsewhere in the year as well, but like I said, it keeps coming up. So somebody said, I'm worried somebody's gonna steal my idea. And in fact, he said, I've had a bunch of ideas and people have stolen them and run away with them. And I was like, okay, well, let's talk about it.
So we kind of talked it out and something didn't seem quite right. And so somebody else actually in the audience ask, well, wait a second. Like how many ideas have you had that people have actually like really stolen from you and run with? And it turned out the total was zero. This was much more of a fear than an experience, which I thought was interesting.
And a friend of mine who happened to be there, his name is Harry Campbell, talked about him before, he's the ride share guy. He was a guy who was an Uber driver and ended up creating a next level side hustle where he coaches Uber drivers. I wrote about him briefly in the side hustle book and also in "Born for This," my previous book, he kind of said, you know, do you mind if I just share a little bit of a story? We're gonna live this experience myself of starting a side hustle. Now I do it full time.
Never did this before. This was just totally new. He said, here's the thing about your idea. Your idea is like 1%. Your idea is like 1% of the value and everything else, like the execution, the implementation, the making it happen, that's the 99%.
So even if somebody's gonna come along and steal your idea, which is pretty unlikely, but even if it happens, maybe they get a 1% head start, but who cares? Because 99% of the value is in making it happen. So I thought that was a great little story, a little analogy, a way of thinking of this. Completely agree with Harry. I don't think this is something you have to worry about for the vast majority of people, the vast majority of projects.
I would also add, the time you spend worrying about these things is holding you back. And the time you spend being anxious or uncertain or thinking of all the bad things that can happen, well, that's time that you could be spending actually making something happen. So that's my encouragement to you right at the top of the show today. Don't worry about somebody stealing your idea because your idea is 1%. Everything else is the 99%.
And with that in mind, let's have a comment from a listener. I got an email I'm gonna read to you as well as a listener voicemail that we'll talk about with some other concerns. So here's the first email, this is from James. And James writes in to say, "Hey Chris, last week I found a new reason to recommit myself to finding a side hustle. I work for a company that lays off a percentage of its staff every year.
Each November or December, I have to say farewell to two or three coworkers that I've been working with for years. It's become a sad annual tradition. Well, as expected, we had our annual layoff last week. I'm relieved to say I'm safe, but I know it's only a matter of time before my number is up. So having a side hustle or two or three would go a long way to relieving the anxiety, the stress, and even the survivor's guilt that I've gone through every year.
I wish I knew what was holding me back. I'm rereading your book and I listen to your podcast every day, but every time I explore a potential hustle, my inner critic pops up and lists all the reasons why it will never work. You're not an artist. You don't know anything about web marketing. Other people are already doing that a lot better than you could, so don't bother.
I'm really not sure why I'm self-sabotaging like this. Why don't I have the confidence exhibited by the folks you highlight on your show? I have to remind myself there's a chance I only have one more year of my enjoyable, well-paying benefits-providing job before I find myself out on the street. So in the meantime, I'll keep listening, reading, thinking, and talking myself into believing that I can do it. Thanks for all your work, your encouragement, and your advice, James.
Wow, James, thank you for the note. Thanks for the details. That does sound like a sad holiday tradition there at your company, and I also agree it sounds like you're self-sabotaging, which is pretty common. So first of all, a lot of people have fears, a lot of people have anxieties. A lot of people are worried that someone's gonna steal their idea like I was just talking about, and a lot of people have all these kind of doubts that you just mentioned.
Like, can I do this? Do I have what it takes? Somebody else is better than me, and so on. I feel like this is a common issue of life, not just side hustling, but I also agree with you that you should think and act proactively. You shouldn't wait for that layoff to arrive.
You should take 2018 and say, "Okay, this year I'm actually going to do it." So since it is self-tabotage that's holding you back, I guess the first step is to acknowledge that, and then maybe not allow that thing to make your decisions for you. And say, "Okay, that's that." Like, that's a reality, I understand. But the other reality is I need to do this for myself. How can I create a structure, an environment, maybe some kind of routine to where I have a bias toward action? To where it's actually gonna be easier for me to do this, to get started and see what happens, than it is for me to not do it.
And there's a couple of different ways you can do that. You can create accountability. You can talk to a friend and say, "Okay, I'm working on this." Maybe somebody else who's working on a side hustle, we're starting this project, Side Hustle Society, where you can interact with lots of different people who are doing this in different ways. Maybe for yourself as well, it's just like, what kind of side hustle do you want? What are you motivated to do and spend time on?
How can you create a situation where you're looking forward to that? Maybe lastly as well, just kind of recognize the value within yourself of things that you are good at. You're obviously good at your job. You've survived like all these years. What else are you good at?
What are people asking you about? What comes easy to you that's hard for other people? Like all the usual questions I think about when I encourage people to start a side hustle. Let's go through that and let's try to take action. And if I can support you in any way, please let me know.
But mostly I want you to know that there's a lot of other listeners out there in similar situations. And we're all in this together. So not just for you, but for me and for everybody else out there. Let's see what we can do to overcome that self-sabotage so that we can create the outcome that we want. And I'll be thinking of you as we go into the next year.
Thanks again, James. Let's turn now to a listener call-in. Now, just a quick reminder. If you have a call-in question, you can do that a couple of different ways. First way is to call the Hustle hotline.
Leave your question or comment at 8449 Hustle, 8449 Hustle, or 8449487853. If you prefer, you can use your phone, either iPhone, Android, flip phone, whatever you got. And just record a little voice note and email that to podcast@sidehustleschool.com. We'd love to hear from you and possibly feature your question or comment on the show. And speaking of that, let's hear from someone now.
- Hi, Chris. My name is Stephanie. I'm an artist who dabbled in entrepreneurship ever since I started working painting murals for friends and family in high school. In art school, I began working as a graphic designer. And then I started a side hustle as a calligrapher/illustrator.
And that side hustle became my full-time job and has since grown to a very successful six-figure business. I still cannot shake the itch to start something new. And I'm worried that anything overlapping, for example, in an art-related side hustle, would cannibalize and devalue my current job, my bread and butter. And so I'm wondering, the question I guess is, should I avoid anything similar and channel my overactive entrepreneurial urges into something I'm less good at or something completely unrelated that I am good at? Thanks again for the show.
I love it so much. I listen every day and I'm always so inspired. Bye. - Hey, Stephanie. Thank you for listening and for the fun question.
This is really interesting. It definitely is not something we've talked about, at least not in this way. So I guess what I kind of take from your question is, like you have this specific talent, you have the artistic calligraphy skills, but it also seems you are quite entrepreneurial. I mean, you say you're a multi-passionate entrepreneur. You started different projects.
You have the desire to do something different. So I hear what you're saying about the cannibalization. I think what it sounds like is you want to protect, you know, that bread and butter, as you call it, maybe in the same way that other people want to protect their day job. You know, you might want to not have, you know, your next project, your next side hustle be similar to what you're doing now. As for, you know, you only being good at that thing, it seems like there's probably other stuff that you could be good at.
Like you've thought about this quite a bit. So I'm wondering, like, why not try something different? Since you have that sustainable income already, yet you have the desire to start something new, which is common. And a lot of our listeners share that desire. I do myself as well from time to time.
So why not do exactly as you say, you know, protect your existing asset, but branch out a little bit. And see what happens. Because obviously, as you know, from listening to the show and your own experience, you're not necessarily taking a lot of risk. You're just trying different stuff and seeing how it goes. So, but this is a very curious case study.
So I would love to know what happens. Definitely let me know. We can pass it back on to the listeners as well. Good luck. Thanks again.
[Music]
Looking back on this week, I want to focus on just a couple of things, mostly found in the first two episodes actually this week, 345 and 346. That first one is software engineer designs, a wallet tool earns $50,000 in first year, actually goes on to sell something like 500,000 units of this little pocket monkey tool. And I really like this story because it illustrates such a practical need. It's not necessarily that sexy to say, oh, I got this like, you know, credit card tool that helps me unlock my house, you know, when I get locked out. That was the origin story for this guy, but it's a hugely practical, useful, helpful thing, which is valuable in life and work and everything else.
And turned into this very, very, you know, not just financially successful, but eventually lucrative project for this guy. Now he actually went on to make other products all within the same kind of realm, the same kind of zone of like simple little practical things, you know, to make your life easier, to solve common problems. And I think this also illustrates where we started, which was nobody's going to steal your idea or even if they are like, it's kind of irrelevant because ideas are 1% and 99% is making it happen. Probably lots of people who've been locked out of their apartment and thought, oh, I wish there was a way to fix this, but this guy came along and actually did something about it. So keep that in mind.
It's not just the idea, it's actually making it happen. And then in episode 346, the next one was an ESL teacher who turned into a travel planner that sends clients on surprise vacations. This was a fun project. I realized we actually earlier in the year, there was a similar project. I think maybe this one here that we featured was a bit more successful and also more targeted.
You know, the other one was great too, but overall I prefer this one. And I talked about in that episode how there were three things that she kind of combined, three little skills she combined or topics, and it was planning, travel, and surprises. And I liked that kind of trifecta. We talk about trifecta sometime. I like that trifecta because planning is essentially the skill, the skill of planning, of research, of being able to identify an itinerary that best suits somebody's needs and travel style and preferences.
Now, travel itself is the topic. That's, you know, her field of expertise, what she spent a lot of time in learning herself. And then surprises, that's kind of the differentiation. You know, that's kind of what makes it interesting because there are lots of travel planners out there. Most of them aren't really that successful.
It's kind of like most travel writers, most life coaches. Some of them are successful, but a lot of them aren't because it sounds so generic. But here are this idea of a surprise vacation. There's real differentiation there. And like we talked about in the episode, it's not for everybody.
It's actually a lot of people who this service is not a good fit for. A lot of people are like, well, I like to plan. I like to do my own research. Other people are like, I don't like to be surprised. So there's two big groups of people that are excluded, you know, from this service, but that's good.
Because again, it's specific, it's targeted. She's found people who, you know, this is a really good fit for her. And she's had a bunch of clients already this year, I think something like $5,000 in profit. This is definitely a side hustle, but she's hoping to take it further next year. I think there was a lot to learn from that episode.
And, you know, like I say often, I continue to be surprised at all the different ways that people can make money, perhaps even you. Love to hear how you're making money or what you're thinking about the side hustle that you're gonna start either before the end of this year or perhaps in 2018, as we all work on our stuff together. By the way, side hustle school will continue in 2018, just in case you missed the announcement. Every single day, seven days a week, I'm gonna be bringing you more stories. People doing this in different ways, trying to teach you a lesson through the story, but also trying to keep it light and fun because you're busy.
You don't have a lot of time, so I wanna make that time count for you. So speaking of looking ahead, whether it's a 2018 or just next week in general, got a bunch of stuff coming up. Next week is Christmas week, at least if you're listening in real time, only six shopping days left for all the side hustlers on your list. And here on the show, we'll be featuring something about gorilla socks. At least that's the note I have here.
I'm not quite sure what it is yet since I haven't recorded it. Gorilla socks, something to look forward to. Also a story of a picky ear coach, as well as someone who teaches ethical hacking. And of course, so much more. You never know what you're gonna hear on the show.
That's what's fun about side hustle school. That's something that I look forward to. It's like, what are we gonna hear about next? And there's so many different ways that people are being creative and creating freedom for themselves, which is ultimately the goal of the show. And as I close things out for the week and thinking about goals in general, you're the reason I do this.
You, the listener, you're why I make the show. Coming to the end of the year, I said at the beginning of the year that if you make the commitment to make this part of your routine, I will be here for you. I'm here to support you fully in your quest to create that new source of income, that side hustle that's been on your mind, but you haven't turned into reality, at least not until now. I wanna say thanks of course to our wonderful production team. Side Hustle School is recorded on location all along the way.
It is then magically transported to Brooklyn, New York and Washington, DC at the Panoply Studios. My production team is led by AC Valdez, assisted by Barry Carruthers and in Portland show notes and host wrangling, all kinds of other stuff are by Whitney Karinek. The official show cat Libby Gillibo has been off on annual review, setting all kinds of goals for herself, 2018. Can't wait to hear what that's all about. And we, Side Hustle School, are part of the Onward Project, founded, led, curated by Gretchen Rubin, good friend of mine and also the author of The Four Tenancies, The Happiness Project and many other books.
Onward Project is a collection of podcasts full of concrete, actionable ideas to make your life happier, healthier, more productive and more creative. Check it out at the onwardproject.com or just search Side Hustle School or Gretchen Rubin in iTunes, Apple Podcasts, wherever you listen to shows. And speaking of that, last but not least, only once a week usually I ask, if you've been enjoying the show, it'd be wonderful if you could support the show by telling your friends about it. Like I'm not here to ask for your money, the show is free, you know, one or two very simple advertising messages each episode. We try to keep it light and relevant.
If you can help by telling your friends about the show, give us a quick little rating or review in Apple Podcasts. That goes a long way. Really makes a huge difference and I appreciate you doing that. The show is meant to inspire you but to actually inspire you toward action because inspiration is good but action is better. And I hope to be able to feature your story next year.
Listening to Side Hustle School is an investment in yourself. I hope you'll join me next week, tomorrow and every single day. More stories and actionable ideas. Episodes go online at 601 a.m. Eastern time every day.
I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.
