People often tell me that I'm doing too many things and that I'd be more successful if I focused my efforts on one single project. But, part of why I wanted to be self-employed in the first place was to have the freedom to pursue the crazy ideas that came to me... if I was only working on one thing, I'd feel incredibly stifled.
And after all, there are as many successful entrepreneurs who focus on multiple projects as there are those who dedicate themselves to just one thing.
For me, my side projects help me de-stress from the seriousness of the other work that I do. I'll be honest, it's a lot of fun to jump on Steemit for 30 minutes and write smart-ass comments as my dog, and it helps distract me from the complex user identity provisioning problems that I've just spent 2 hours banging my head against a wall trying to work out.
What's more, I feel like the people who are telling me to focus on just one thing probably have a ton of things going on in their life too. Maybe they're part of a social basketball league, maybe they have a wife and kids that take up a lot of their time, maybe they like doing renovations on their house.
Me? My hobby is business. I'm fascinated by what makes the engine of the world tick over. SO yeah, when I'm not directly working in my primary business, you might find me running experiments on Instagram, Kickstarter, Facebook, LinkediIn or whatever else catches my interest in a given moment.
Some of these experiments work out, some of them don't, but inevitably I satsify my curiosity, and usually I learn something new which I can apply to one of my other business projects.
Now, do I ever overload myself? Sure, of course I do, but even if I was only focused on one thing I'd probably do that anyway, and I wouldn't have the outlet of a side project to clear my head on, to de-stress with.
What's really interesting, is that the concept of a side-hustle is becoming incressingly popular in business circles. If you work for somebody else, managers and bossess still tend to frown upon them (as they're seen as distractions from what you're being paid to do), but the advent of technology is allowing more and more people to supplement their daily income with side projects, and in startup circles hirers are actually becoming interested in what side projects you've worked on, as it shows that you're independently building your own skills.
But it's not for everyone. Some people prefer to just stick to one thing, and i totally get and respect that. After all, whether you're a Mark Zuckerberg doing one thing really well, or an Elon Musk doing a whole bunch of things really well, you've still got the potential to change the world.
So which are you?
I definitely have ADD when it comes to entrepreneurial ventures investing, and learning.... call it "shiny object syndrome". Easily enticed by the latest new thing which can leave other projects neglected.... not a good thing. Trying to get better about it.
As long as your "main" thing is not getting neglected, if that's the one bringing in the bucks.
If you have multiple sources, then well played 😉
I like it - Sounds like the shotgun method!
And I would rather be Musk any day of the world. Can't compare the two!
I feel like Zuck is going to rule the world, but Musk is going to rule the galaxy :D
The original comparison I used to use was "Branson vs Zuckerberg", it's interesting that both Branson and Musk have space aspirations
Yeah I like the galaxy idea!
Pretty sure he mentioned “earth-based revenue” in a report recently
Meanwhile Tesla just announced he's not taking a salary, just options.
yeah amazing way to do it.
There are good points for doing one thing or many things. I suppose it depends on the nature of the venue.
Yeah, nature of the businesses and nature of the individual, for sure.
It's true that in theory, in 2018, you can build a business "in your underpants, at 2am in the morning, from your bed".
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I truly believe in this movement of people waking up and at least seeing there is another option for their personal lives (huge portion of our time on this planet). Consistently executing (what it takes to succeed) on that insight is another story, but the first will have some spillover to the second.
In my case, I am currently a Zucks, with the goal of my side hustle becoming my main source of income and then I might think about switching to Elon 🙂
I love working on mulitple projects at the same time. But I have had my moments were I want to focus on one so that it goes live a lot faster. If I successfully build one business, then the revenue from that biz will help me launch the other projects a lot faster. But I just can't. haha. I just love working on multiple things.
2 great posts back to back you sir got yourself a follow