I frustrate my mother, as I’m sure all of us do for a million different reasons. My particular reason is because I do too much. Always trying another projector side hustle. Always biting off more than I can chew. Well, we all have our flaws, and that is one (among many) of mine.
So if you are worried because you just don’t know what side hustle will work for you, I’m here to tell you that you don’t have to choose just one. Different side hustles are right not only for different people, but also for the same person at different times in their life.
My first side hustle (after the age of 10) was a multi-level marketing company. If you have found or are hoping to find success in MLM, I wish you all the luck. With that said, it wasn’t for me. I did all the things one was supposed to do, but some companies just aren’t quality companies, and I finally cut my losses.
However, my MLM experience probably taught me the #1 most important lesson for success in money AND in life: feed your mind and control your mind. As most MLM companies, mine offered extensive ‘professional development’ in the form of conferences, CDs, books, and seminars. Eager to succeed, I dived right in. I read and listened to some of the top names in personal development: Earl Nightingale, Zig Ziglar, Dale Carnegie. They led me to other motivational thinkers like Marie Forleo, Tony Robbins, Jack Canfield.
I don’t pretend to have things 100% figured out. I get in funks like everyone else. But most of the big things that I have accomplished in life have been possible because I kept going. And how did I keep going? By feeding my mind a constant diet of encouragement and focus.
Almost 15 years ago, I broke off an engagement and gave up on the idea of getting married. But I knew with 100% clarity that I wanted to be a mom. With an adopted sister who has taught me more things than I can tell, adoption was an easy choice for me.
What wasn’t easy was the adoption process. I spent 19 months assembling documents, reading about adoption, assembling the necessary funds on a teacher’s salary, and a hundred other things. Oh, and doing them all as a single woman.
Through all the headaches and heartbreaks, I had tremendous support from family and friends. But I also made a conscious choice to keep my mind right. I listened to leftover tapes and CDs from the MLM. I continued to read books.
Ten years later, my husband (so much for giving up on marriage) and I decided to move to Norway. Again, it took focus over time. Over two years after starting the process, we finally settled in Stavanger, Norway. (For more info on life in Norway, you can check out my lifestyle blog here.)
This time, keeping my mind right was a little different. It involved looking daily at housing, checking facts, reading the posts in Facebook groups, and changing my password to NORWAY2018, so I would remember several times a day where I was headed.
Even though I didn’t make millions (or even hundreds) in the MLM, in a very real way, that first side hustle made it possible for me to follow my dream all the way to motherhood and Norway. Life isn’t perfect, but I am loving my life in so many ways. And I don’t really think I would be here if I hadn’t had that lesson from my MLM experience.
If you have big dreams, especially big dreams that are going to take a long time to realize, get your mind right. Find a podcast or two that wlll continually point you where you want to go. Watch Youtube videos, read books. Whatever works for you. But you need to find a way to keep that dream front and center.
Why? Because you’ve got to find a hundred different ways to remember what I am always telling you: You’ve got this.
People overestimate what can be done in one year, and underestimate what can be done in ten. -J.C.R. Licklider
So I’m going to give a little shout out to someone to whom I owe a great debt. That person is Jill 2003. Yes, you guessed it. Me 17 years ago.
In 2003, I bought my first rental property. It was a 5-unit apartment building. After living at home for a year, I had saved enough to put $17,000 down, and with my best friend from college, we had a 20% down payment.
I also need to give another shout out to Jill 2012. Because in 2012, my partner wanted out. I tried to dissuade him. Real estate prices still hadn’t recovered from the great recession in 2009. But he was adamant. So I bought out his half for a price about 25% lower than we had originally paid.
For years, those apartments brought in about $1500/month. That’s money that I didn’t have to work for – very much. It certainly wasn’t what I’d call passive income, but it wasn’t a 40 hour a week job, either. The time I put in was minimal.
Then, in 2018 when the real estate prices had rebounded, and our family was trying to move overseas, I sold them and deposited a check for over $200,000 in the bank.
So those two chics (Jill 2003 and Jill 2012) really hooked me up!
Now why am I telling you this? Do I want to impress you with my riches, and how smart and disciplined I am, and possibly make you feel like a loser? Well, actually no. It’s because it’s a personal example of what can be accomplished over time.
Let me repeat that quote from the top of the post again.
“People overestimate what can be done in one year, and underestimate what can be done in ten.” J.C.R. Licklider
This is what I want you to remember when it all seems overwhelming. Whether “it” is raising a child, getting out of debt, building a business, or becoming the teacher or the person you dream of being.
When I was 25, and hyperventilating because I was writing a check for $17,000 (six months’ income for me at the time), I literally couldn’t have believed that I would later deposit a check for over $200,ooo because of the action I took that day. And let me tell you, it wasn’t all sunshine and roses. There were tears, and tantrums, and that fun time we got sued for something our tenant’s kid did. There were a hundred times I felt like quitting.
And no single year made a big difference. It just added up. Pay off a little bit of principal. Chase down a tenant who hadn’t paid. Replace the carpet between tenants. Wash and repeat ad infinitum. It wasn’t one thing that did it. It was all those things.
So give yourself some grace on those days when it doesn’t seem like you will ever get there. And keep at it. Even when it seems like you’re making no progress. ESPECIALLY when it seems like you’re making no progress.
We all want big wins. Run a marathon. Write a book. Break $100K in income in your business. And we often hear talk about BHAGs (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals) and how setting an audacious goal will push us to achieve more. If you shoot at nothing, you’ll hit it everytime, right? So you’d better shoot for something amazing.
Except, NO.
Those big, frightening audacious goals might actually make you LESS likely to finish your goal! What?
Amy Porterfield for the win
OK, I’m going to take a quick sidetrip here and recommend one of my favorite podcasts to you. Amy Porterfield’s “Online Marketing Made Easy” Podcast is not just about online marketing. It is full of not just marketing stuff and not just online hacks. It’s about running a business and being a person.
So anyway, I was listening to one of her episodes a week or so ago, and I thought, “I’ve just got to share this one.” She was interviewing Jon Acuff whose latest book is Finish: Give yourself the Gift of Done. It follows Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average, and Do Work that Matters and a couple of others that look good, but I haven’t had time to read yet.
What REALLY helps you finish
So for this book, Acuff actually did research on what helps people finish projects – tough projects like writing a book or losing weight. What he found was that people are actually MORE likely to stick with their project if they set a goal, then cut it in half. The example he gives is losing weight. People who set a goal of losing 10 pounds, then lost 8 were discouraged. However, the people who cut their goal in half, were thrilled. They had totally slammed that goal. And as Acuff said, “I’m more interested in your long-term success than your short term success.”
Starting a business is great. But what I really want for you is to have a viable business that still works with your personal life 5, 10, or 20 years from now. Getting to stay home with your kids for a year is nice, but I don’t want you to have to go back to teaching before you feel ready simply because your finances dictate it.
What it looks like in your life
That’s why I encourage you to take it one step at a time. Don’t implement 5 frugal habits all at once. Choose one and do that until you make it a habit. Then choose another one. Don’t try to give up your morning coffee, prepare all your meals at home, pack lunches, quit going to the movies, and start shopping at consignment shops all in the same week. It will all come crumbling down, and you’ll create an image of yourself as a loser in your own mind. Instead, cultivate an image of yourself as a winner by giving yourself SMALL wins.
In the income building area, this means that maybe that big, hairy audacious goal isn’t what you need. Maybe what you need is to set a realistic goal, then cut it in half. Maybe instead of saying, “This year I want to go from $0 to $20,000 in revenue,” you honor all the work that goes into a business before you ever make a penny, and say, “You know, I’m going to celebrate EVERY time I make $1000. And my goal is to make $8000 this year.” You know, $8,000 isn’t chump change.
It’s not easy for me, either.
Of all the things I have shared with you, I think this is the hardest concept for me. I want to do it ALL. PERFECTLY. TODAY. And then get even better tomorrow. So right now, I have limited myself to one goal for my blog. My goal is to post every week for three months. That’s it. By the time you read this it will probably be a year or so from when I am writing it. Why? Because I don’t have any readers yet. Nope, not even one. But my goal isn’t to get readers right now. It’s to post content that will help my readers. So that when they come, they will find not one or two blog posts that help them, but 20 or 30. And because they find quality content, they will come back again. And again. And again. And – God willing – their lives will change for the better.
