The 3 priceless gifts a passive income side business gives you

Aug 05, 2023

Recently, a new manager came into the company I work for and made a bunch of unilateral changes to people’s jobs.

That came hot on the heels of a return-to-office mandate that had everyone fuming.

Not too long ago, I would have been downright infuriated.

“How dare they?” I would have shouted into the void, knowing I was completely powerless to do anything about it.

But now? I kind of just shrugged.

The difference between my current mental state and the one I was in just 11 or so months ago is that, after slaying my biggest demon (alcohol addiction), I set about achieving my life-long dream of starting my own business.

And I’ve since found that having an online side business gives you 3 priceless gifts.

Allow me to elaborate.

The myth of needing millions

Recently, I wrote a piece and recorded a video talking about how my online earnings were already approaching a full-time salary after just 8 months.

In it, I made the argument that, for the most part, people would do well to recalibrate their definition of what “life-changing money” is.

Life-changing money isn’t about being able to collect Rolexes and Birkin bags like Pokemon cards (and as I wrote in my piece earlier this week entitled “One super insightful money lesson from the world’s richest YouTuber” that kind of stuff is ultimately unfulfilling anyway).

Imagine instead what you would do with an extra $20,000.

You could cover a lot of your monthly bills.

You could take a few luxury vacations.

You could build a nice starter stock portfolio.

Even then, the priceless gifts that come with starting a passive income side business are about more than bills, travel, or material goods in and of themselves.

A woman holding work binders walking on the street. — Ever dream of walking away from the office forever? (Image licensed under the Unsplash+ License)

Priceless Gift 1: Options

The first priceless gift that starting a passive income side business gives you is options.

Here’s an example from my life: if I were to simply maintain my current level of extra income from my writing, video, and publishing activities, I estimate I would bring in around $28,000 over the course of a year (keep in mind, too, that I’m working every single day to increase that number).

What options does that afford me?

Well, theoretically I could just quit my job and have a cash buffer while looking for another one or focusing full-time on my business (I would never do this — read this piece to understand why).

I could also take a job that pays less but that I like more because the difference in salary is made up by my side business income.

Right now, I’m fine with my day job.

But it’s nice to know I have options.

Priceless gift 2: Autonomy

My entire goal in building a side business is to achieve complete and total autonomy.

I’ve always had an innate problem with authority.

Some people thrive with a lot of structure and direction, and that’s great.

But my brain just isn’t built like that.

I don’t like that I have to ask permission to take a vacation at a certain time like a child.

I abhor being obligated to work certain hours and drive through rush-hour traffic to do so (I wrote here about an underrated book that inspired me to change that “traffic fighter” life if you’re interested).

I also hate that, until very recently, I knew I needed the job to survive.

What I want is autonomy and self-sufficiency.

Already I feel this freedom coming on.

Recently, my dad booked a trip to come and visit us. I’d been wanting to book a week at an Airbnb cottage to show him our favorite region of the province but money had been tight due to a very pricey spring competitive sports season.

Just for fun, I looked up some cottage options and then considered the amount of money I was pulling in on the side that month.

All of a sudden, it hit me: “Hey, I actually can afford this.”

That was a nice moment. We had a great week at the cottage, and I had zero money stress about it.

That’s autonomy to me. Next step is not having to ask permission to take that week.

Priceless gift 3: Purpose

More important than everything I’ve touched on above is the fact that building a side business gives you purpose.

I truly believe that there are two keys to true happiness:

Motion
Creativity

I wrote recently about how to beat a mid-life crisis where I touched on these points:

“The first one is the easy part, but I can tell you from personal experience: it won’t work without the second.

“You may feel fit, but you will not feel fulfilled.

“What can you create?

“What can you write, draw, dance, paint, build?

“These kinds of activities have been so devalued by our society it makes me sick.

“The ‘learn to code’ crew would have you believe that anything you do should be aimed at making you a cog in the machine of capitalism and that anything else is a childish waste of time.

“This is nonsense, and it’s preventing people from seeing that the secret to a happy second half of life is to keep striving, keep creating.”

Once you’ve gotten married, had kids, and reached mid-career, you can be left wondering, “What’s next? Is this it?”

Continuing to strive and create is the antidote.

For me, creating a business — one built on creative pursuits like writing, making videos, and publishing books — allows me to keep moving toward something that’s important to me and that inspires me.

Otherwise, what’s the point? How many Netflix shows can you really watch?

Change your life today and tomorrow

Having a well-paying day job is great, and as I’ve written before, you should never quit one to simply chase your dreams (that comes later, once your dreams are more fully formed).

But by limiting yourself to being just an employee, you give up the priceless gifts I’ve discussed above.

Stop trying to figure out ways to edit your day job to make it more tolerable.

Start building your own business now so you can edit your entire life later.

This post is re-published from my Medium publication.

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