Want to Go from Hobby to Hustle? Here's Some Food for Thought
Why you should think hard before going from hobby to hustle
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Today’s issue is brought to you by Shivendra Misra.
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If you’ve subscribed to this newsletter, it’s safe to assume that you want to make money through writing and perhaps make enough money to run your life. That’s great!
But before you put thousands of hours to achieve your dreams, you may want to get clear on why you started on this journey and what you hope to get out of it.
About two years ago, when I started writing online about meditation, mindfulness, and how to live a better life, I was doing it out of joy. I loved to write and saw it as a great service (hopefully not a disservice) to share the teachings that are making me better and happier.
Soon, however, as my writing became more popular and attracted eyeballs, I was faced with a crucial decision. Whether to monetize my craft or to keep writing without aiming to create a business out of it.
To understand my predicament, let’s travel back in time.
Before I rediscovered my love for writing, I had tried my hand at affiliate marketing. I thought — “I like self-improvement and I can sell other people’s self-improvement products. I’ll be doing something I love and it’ll be great!”
Well, it was far from that. I had dreams of trying different products, books, courses, and software to further sell them through an email list. I loved all these different products.
But my mind was completely focused on commissions, subscribers, cheap tactics to get paid quicker, and writing copy to persuade people to buy what I wouldn’t buy in the first place!
Thankfully, it only took me 6 weeks to realize that was not what I wanted to do.
This time, with writing, I was committed to not making that mistake, i.e. not trying to monetize from day one. I kept writing for a long time without any apparent goal in mind. When I saw some interest develop, I condensed my knowledge into online courses.
Most people, however, do the opposite. They take something they love and try to create a business out of it.
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