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Stop commodifying your life
Type side hustle into Google and you’ll get list after list of the top 10, best 100, most lucrative 50 ways to make money in your spare time. We are obsessed with side hustles these days. “Everyone has a side hustle.” Or five. Or ten. A study out of Adobe showed that 1 out of 3 Americans has at least one side hustle. This is higher for millennials.
There are many reasons for this. As work hours get longer, wages flatline, and technology keeps us connected to work 24/7, workers are burning out. They want to control their own schedule. Also, loyalty is at an all-time low. Companies lay-off or fire workers at a drop of a hat. Employees too are keen to jump ship every two years for a new opportunity or a bump in pay. Articles bombard us about seemingly everyone earning five figures a month from their side hustles. We want in on that action! But these people are outliers. The vast majority of people can’t pay rent from it.
On a less negative front, technology has delivered incredible opportunities for people to start their own business. You can write and publish your own books, or music. Make videos and documentaries. Become an educator on Udemy or Skillshare. You can run a storefront with little to no cost via eBay, or etsy, or Shopify, and you don’t even need inventory thanks to dropshipping. Look after pets with Rover. There must be three dozen opportunities using your…