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by burlesona 2057 days ago
A side hustle is just fundamentally different than a full-time job. On the one hand, something else is paying the bills, so you can be patient. But on the other hand, you can't take meetings 9-5, or push nearly as hard on the work as you could if it was full time, so you have to be patient.

It's quite difficult to work on something enough on the side to build momentum and get it rolling, and it's extra hard to maintain that momentum for long enough for it to reach "escape velocity," that is, to become profitable to where you can quit your day job.

So the challenge of managing the two jobs, and specifically transitioning from day job + hobby (at the beginning), to two jobs but one doesn't really pay well, to finally quitting the first job so you can focus on the bootstrapped project...

That's just a whole different beast from somebody who quits their job and starts a business (with or without raising money).

1 comments

The momentum part is key. I have several side hustles and sometimes lose steam so I work on something else.

On the plus side, time away from projects allows me to view them with fresh eyes and identify what could be better and/or pivot.