Good Life Project - Side Hustle Secrets. Crying Over Failure (it's a good thing?)

Episode Date: September 21, 2017

What if melting down after a failure was actually a good thing? Or doing what you love, as a side hustle, was the best way to do it? That's what we're talking about on today's episode.Good Life Riff: Today, we've got a special guest riff, featuring friend-of-the-pod, New York Times bestselling author, podcaster, world-traveler and entrepreneur, Chris Guillebeau. In his new book, Side Hustle, Guillebeau takes a contrarian view of entrepreneurship, arguing many of us are better off doing that thing that blends passion with money not as our day jobs, but on the side. He shares why, along with a few great case-studies, in today's riff. Grab a copy of Side Hustle, and check out his 100-city tour today!Good Life Science: And, in our Good Life Science segment, we're diving into some fascinating new research on how we respond to failure. Turns out, all those people who say, "hey, don't take it personally, don't get all emotional, just let it be a teaching moment and move on" may be giving you bad advice. A new study shows that responding emotionally to failure, instead of rationally, may just set you up to be more likely to succeed in a future endeavor. And, as always, for those want to go to the source, here's a link to the full study.Rockstar Sponsors: Audible has the best audiobook performances, the largest library, and the most exclusive content. Learn more, start your 30-day trial and get your first Audible book free, go to Audible.com/goodlife.RXBAR Kids is a snack bar made with high-quality, real ingredients designed specifically for kids. It contains 7 grams of protein and has zero added sugar and no gluten, soy or dairy. Find at Target stores OR for 25% off your first order, visit RXBAR.com/goodlife.Are you hiring? Do you know where to post your job to find the best candidates? Unlike other job sites, ZipRecruiter doesn’t depend on candidates finding you; it finds them. And right now, GLP listeners can post jobs on ZipRecruiter for FREE, That’s right. FREE! Just go to ZipRecruiter.com/good. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey, it's Jonathan with today's Good Life Update. And as usual, we blend together some fun segments to bring you interesting ideas, hopefully, and some cool science and maybe a little bit more as we move further into the fall. Today, we have kind of a fun thing. We've got a guest riff to kick us off from my friend, Chris Gillibeau, who's the author of a great new book called Side Hustle. And he's actually going to kind of dive into one of the big myths about entrepreneurship and building something on the side. And from there, I'm going to take over and we're going

to dive into today's Good Life Science update. And this is kind of a really interesting, cool thing because it deals with being emotional after we fail. And there's a bit of cool science that shows that it may just make sense to have a bit of a meltdown. So that's where we're going on today's Good Life Project update. Now turning it Chris. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hit man.

I knew you were going to be fun. January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot him. We need him. Y'all need a pilot.

Flight risk. The Apple watch series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple watch ever. Flight risk. The Apple Watch Series X. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone Xs are later required. Charge time and actual results will vary. Have you heard that story about how you should quit your job and become an entrepreneur? Maybe have a startup. Maybe be a digital nomad. Maybe risk it all for one of those stories of someone who tries 20 times in a row only to succeed on the 21st attempt. Well, guess what? The times are changing. In fact,

they may have already changed. What if everything you've heard about that story is wrong? What if there's a totally different way, a totally different approach for you to create more freedom and options for yourself without jumping off a cliff, without climbing out on a ledge, giving up your only source of income, or otherwise going it alone. My name is Chris Guillebeau. For my whole life, I have worked for myself. In fact, I say that I'm unemployable. I don't necessarily think that's an aspirational thing. I just know it's true for myself. And my definition of entrepreneur is someone who will work 24 hours a day for themselves to avoid working one hour a day for someone else. And there may be some folks out there that resonate with that. But I also know we're kind of a minority, and that approach doesn't work for everyone. In fact, maybe it doesn't

actually work for most people. Now, for years, I've been writing about entrepreneurship and independence, and I've been hearing from readers and listeners, thousands of them, who say that they actually enjoy their jobs. Not only are they not like me, they are employable, they're good employees, they're contributing a lot to a company or an organization that they believe in, and they like the social environment, the chance to collaborate, the sense of being part of something bigger than themselves. My mom, for example, has had a long career working for NASA and other aerospace contractors. It's what she's good at. It's what she enjoys. If you want to support the astronauts in space, which is obviously very noble work, you can't do that as a

freelancer. In my last book, I wrote about Shelley Varela, who became the first female firefighter in Mississauga, Ontario. She had this whole quest she went through to overcome lots of challenges and obstacles, ended up serving the fire company more than 20 years. And guess what? You can't be a digital nomad firefighter. You have to be on site. You have to be part of a structure. Alternatively, maybe you do want to do something totally different. You actually do want to quit your job at some point. You have a dream or something that you're working on, but you realize it's going to take some time. You have a family, a mortgage, other responsibilities. So in those situations, it's not wise to give up your only source of income.

You shouldn't do it. In fact, I believe that there is an increasing backlash at a lot of these entrepreneurial messages you hear about how you can only be fulfilled in life if you're working for yourself, if you've rejected corporate and organizational structure, if you're not backpacking around the world, then somehow you're a lesser person. And obviously that's not true. Well, all that to say, there's more than one way to live your life. Years ago, I built my platform on this message. You don't have to live your life the way other people expect. And guess what? You don't have to be an entrepreneur, but here's the thing, pay attention, don't miss it. At the same time, you still need more than one source of income.

Now, I passionately believe even if you love your job and have no plans to quit, having income coming in from at least one other source is just smart. It's a good thing to do. It's good for security. It's good for a backup plan. If something does change, it's good for a creative outlet. And it's also good to look at that extra source of income and say, you know what? I made that. I made that thing myself. Might not be doing it full time, but I created this thing, and now it's working for me. It's not just a part-time job. Like I go to bed at night, I wake up in the morning, I can check my PayPal account, and maybe somebody sent me $50 or $100 or more. So my new mission is to take this message all over the world. I have a new book called Side Hustle, From Idea to Income in 27 Days, and I'm doing a 100-city tour to meet readers and listeners

and show them a process. That message is don't quit your job, create a new source of income while you're there. Let me give you a couple of quick examples. I'm actually recording this in Seattle, Washington during the first stop of my tour. And in the book, I wrote about someone named Sarah Everett from Seattle. By day, Sarah is a construction project manager. She coordinates with developers, architects and planning teams for new apartment buildings. And she's good at her job. She likes problem solving. She likes helping people. But Sarah is also an artist, and a few years ago she had this idea. When she would walk by new apartment buildings, she would notice that the common areas either had no works of art at all,

or they would have this kind of manufactured, duplicated, generic kind of art, just like the kind of prints you would find at Ikea. Now, if you're furnishing your first apartment or your dorm room, there's nothing wrong with prints from Ikea. But as an artist, as someone who is connected to the local artist community, Sarah thought, wouldn't it be great if she could create a connection between some of those artists and the developers, the architects, everybody in charge of building those apartment buildings, so that some of those buildings would actually be filled with original works of art, something that would add character to the building, perhaps even foster a sense of community, depending on how it was done. So because she had these two sets of skills, the skill of real estate,

the skill of art, she was able to create a side hustle as that connector between those two groups. And because of the work she's done, there are now several major buildings in Seattle that look and feel completely different. It's a big improvement, and she's getting paid for it. There are a lot of definitions of the phrase side hustle. Here's something else I have a strong opinion about. A side hustle is not just a hobby. It is an income generating project. Nothing wrong with doing something as a hobby or for love or for art or for whatever. But the kind of work that I'm talking about is something that increases your economic empowerment, your financial stability, or to put it in simpler terms, pays you cash money. I also know a woman in her mid 50s named Teresa Greenway, and Teresa

is an expert baker. She'd always been skilled at and really enjoyed baking bread, in particular sourdough bread. Two years ago, she created an online course teaching people how to bake bread. Once again, sourdough bread. She wasn't an entrepreneur. She didn't know how to use YouTube or a lot of advanced technology, but she figured out how to make a course and put it up on the platform Udemy. And within the first year, she had made $25,000 from this course. Year two, she ramped up, she created more courses, four to six more courses all about baking bread, highly specialized. And last year, she earned $85,000 from it. Now, as I said, Teresa didn't come from an entrepreneurial background. She didn't have a lot of money growing up or as an adult. But now in her mid 50s,

she was able to use that side hustle income to put a down payment on her first home. So these things can be powerful, not just something small. Now on my podcast, Side Hustle School, I share a different story each day of someone like this. Two weeks ago, I featured a Target store manager who earns $45,000 a month from a blog he started in college the same year he started working for Target. And yeah, if you're wondering, he's actually quitting that Target job soon. But it's also people who sell something on Etsy and earn an extra $500 or $1,000 a month. Whatever the amount is, like I said, it's empowering to see this money coming in from a different source, even if you love your job and have no plans to quit. So in the new book, Side Hustle, I've tried to provide a 27-day plan to help you learn where good side hustle ideas come from,

to select the best idea for you right now, to develop a product or service, put it out into the world, and then regroup all within this very short period of time using the skills you already have. I'm not going to tell you it's easy. I believe a lot of things worth doing are hard, but I can tell you I made this plan for busy people who don't have a ton of time, but still want to invest in themselves somehow. And here's your takeaway. By taking small actions each day, you can create this kind of freedom for yourself. If you've never resonated with the message, be an entrepreneur, this alternative plan is for you. And if you've tried before and failed, first of all, I failed in a lot of different things. And so has everybody who's ever lived. But second of all, you may have failed because you didn't have the right plan. And you followed

somebody else's advice that may have been better for a startup, or better for a bigger company, or just not right for you. But also, it doesn't need to be that complicated. It doesn't mean you have to take a ton of risk. You don't have to spend a lot of money. You don't have to go back to school. You don't need to write an 80-page business plan. So all this stuff that you've heard before, we can just remove that from the picture, focus on what's essential, and create what's right for you. Well, I hope this has been helpful. I'm very grateful to Jonathan for sharing the Good Life Project space with me. I've been a big fan for many years. If you're starting your side hustle, I'd love to know about it.

I'll be wishing you much success. I can't wait to hear your story. So thanks so much, Chris, for those thoughtful words. I know it's always so great to sort of explore different ways we can bring ideas into the world without necessarily leaving behind everything we've built, our career, our life, or having to commit to a full, you know, full spectrum, new entrepreneurial venture. We're diving to today's science update, where we're going to talk about how we deal with failures and whether it might be better to get emotional rather than stay rational. the fastest charging Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series 10,

available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required, charge time and actual results will vary. Mayday, mayday, we've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were gonna be fun. On January 24th.

Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're gonna die. Don't shoot him, we need him! Y'all need a pilot? And we're back with today's Good Life Science update. So I always love sharing, you know, sort of geeking out on the science that I find that in some way touches on how we deal with life and how we process what comes our way in life. And, well, I don't know if you've ever experienced this, but there's a little thing called failure that I have to admit I tend to knock up against on a pretty regular basis, if not every few minutes or so in my life. And I'm always kind of fascinated by how I actually deal with failure,

how sometimes it completely knocks me to my knees or knocks me out, knocks me back. Sometimes I kind of move more gracefully through it. And I've always wondered, you know, is there sort of a bigger approach or methodology to dealing with failure that is most constructive? You know, is there something that would let me move through this moment in time and be kind of better equipped to be able to handle it, to process it when it happens again? Because guaranteed, it's going to happen again in my life, in your life, especially as somebody who's really on a bit of a quest to live a good life because part of living a good life is living an engaged life.

And that means that we don't run from opportunity. We don't run from uncertainty, the other side of which may be possibility. We look at it. We realize that we don't know if we're going to succeed or fail. And we embrace it and we lean into it. And we hope for the best.

We prepare for the best. But sometimes we don't get what we want. and we lean into it. And we hope for the best, we prepare for the best. But sometimes, we don't get what we want. Sometimes we get knocked back. So I'm always fascinated when there's actual some sort of, you know, academic or scientific information on the best way to deal with these moments. And that's what today's science update is about. It's about a study that was just published actually in September 2017. The study was done by Noelle Nelson, Selin Malkoff, and Baba Shiv of Stanford. And if you've ever heard me mention that last name, by the way, because he is a researcher whose work I followed, and he's done some really fascinating work on working memory and willpower and how slight increases in sort of cognitive load on working memory actually can tank your willpower

in ways that we wouldn't think was possible. So this is based on a study called Emotions Know Best, the advantage of emotional versus cognitive responses to failure. And here's what the researchers did. They took a group of students, as they always do, as a general rule, and they gave them a task to do. In this particular case, they asked them to research the cost of a blender online. And they told them that they wanted them to find the cheapest available price. And if they found that available price, they would win a certain amount of money. If they didn't, then they wouldn't.

Unbeknownst to the students, the experiment was rigged. So at the end of it, they could go and search and come up with the best possible price. But then they were told at the end that the real lowest price for this was actually a couple dollars less than the price that they found. So what they were essentially doing was guaranteeing that these students would fail at the task that they were being given and not win both just the satisfaction of knowing that they had succeeded at it and also whatever the award was. But what was really interesting was how the participants in the study processed this failure and how it affected them when they tried to do something that was a similar task in the future. And what the researchers realized is we tend to default to one of two ways of processing failure. So one of them is to get, you know, quote, cognitive, to really think this through,

to get in our heads, well, okay, so, you know, I did my best work, let me debrief, let me deconstruct, let me figure out what I could have done differently, and let me sort of rationalize and justify what I did do so that I can try and, you know, come up with a linear, cognitive, sensible approach that'll let me do better in the future. The other approach to failure, and this was seen in some of the students as well, is getting emotional, getting annoyed, getting pissed off, getting frustrated, saying like, this sucks, you know, and being really bothered and feeling, allowing yourself to feel the frustration, the upset of failing. And you might think of this and say, okay, so if I asked you, which reaction do you think would be most constructive to somebody's next attempt at

doing something? You know, a lot of the popular wisdom kind of says, well, you know, don't get all emotional about it. Don't take it personal. Just look at what happened. Extract the pure data from it. And then apply what you've learned forward. What the research found is that the opposite was actually true. That when you get emotional, when you allow yourself to, quote, feel the feels of failure, that when you do that, somehow it kind of lands in a way where when you're then faced with your next task, you end up actually investing more effort in doing a better job at that task. Now, exactly why that happens, we don't have a real clear reason for, but there's some pretty good hypotheses around this. And that is, we don't have a real clear reason for. But there's some pretty good hypotheses

around this. And that is, when you really emotionally anchor the feeling of a loss, the feeling of failure, the feeling of not getting something that you wanted to happen, that tends to stay with you. And it gives you this deep emotional compulsion to draw upon and to motivate behavior and a deeper action when you actually want something next time around. And you see this in athletes, you see it in people in life. If you take a hard win and you allow yourself to feel the loss, to feel the failure, then yes, it's more taxing, it's harder, it hurts more. But it also very likely serves as a strong resource of motivation for action taking when you return to the next challenge. Whereas when you just kind of,

you know, when you cut off the feeling side of failure, and you say, let me stay completely rational about this and just analyze it, we tend to default more towards justification. And that justification kind of lets us off the hook. And it doesn't serve potentially as similarly strong motivation for working harder, being more innovative, trying something different, pressing a bit more when we're faced with our next challenge or our next quest. So it's kind of interesting because it also, you know, on the one hand, gives a certain amount of validation for becoming emotional after you work really hard for something that

you don't get. And it also, it kind of goes along with the idea of allowing yourself to feel, allowing yourself to not just cut off the emotion and deny the fact that actually, yeah, there is emotion that goes along with failure, but saying, no, go ahead and feel what you want to feel. Don't wallow in it. Don't allow that to completely paralyze and destroy and demoralize you, but feel what you need to feel.

Feel the fact that you didn't get what you wanted and allow that emotion then to become a motivating force to come at the next challenge, the next quest or trial in a more meaningful, in a more effortful, in a more innovative or different or creative way. So really interesting research. And I think something that is useful. So as you attempt your next quest or challenge, or you're working, striving towards a goal or a vision, and if you don't hit it and you're feeling kind of bummed, allow yourself to feel the feels of failure. And then

when it comes time for the next attempt, remember that feeling and leverage it. Don't wallow in it. Don't say, well, I'm no good. And no, say like, that was how I felt and I don't want to feel that way again. I'm going to leverage. I'm going to leverage the energy of that emotion to figure out how to do things better, different, more with more's riff from our special guest, Chris Guillebeau, talking about how we can realize some of our purpose and passions in a lower risk, more humane way through side hustles. As always, thanks for hanging out. And as we wrap up, I want to give a final shout out to our awesome sponsors and supporters. Zip Recruiter, RX Bar Kids, Movement Watches, Audible. Bring more people into the conversation by visiting our amazing sponsors who help make what we do possible. Most important, if something has really resonated, don't just spin it around in your head. Share it with others.

Turn it into a conversation. When ideas become conversations that lead to action, that's when real change takes hold. I'm Jonathan Fields, signing off for Good Life Project. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era, dive into Peloton workouts that work with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not.

Just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are. So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. Hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series X. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone Xs are later required.

Charge time and actual results will vary. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were going to be fun. On January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is?

You're going to die. Don't shoot if we need what the difference between me and you is? You're gonna die. Don't shoot him, we need him! Y'all need a pilot? Flight Risk.