The ever popular second gig

I was at an event the other night, making small talk over a glass of Chardonnay and the individual in front of me was talking about her side hustle driving for Uber. I had to pause for a second and take it all in. It’s not like I don’t get out much but I had to connect the dots really fast to avoid playing the fool. Side hustle. Are you for flippin’ real?

Look, I get it: New millennium. New technology. New vocabulary. Like now everyone says uses the term “Sexually FLUID” because what, “Bisexual” wasn’t interesting enough?

So instead of having a second (or third or fourth) job or calling yourself a “freelancer” and moving from gig to gig, Now it’s the side hustle. Oh wait – I forgot to add the hashtag. #Sidehustle. Now I’m good.

Job vs. Passion

A lot of us have jobs and a lot of us have passions. If we’re really lucky our job can also be our passion. But if you have a second job – excuse me – side hustle, is it because you’re not earning enough at your regular job? Are you maxed out financially on your job and can’t earn more? It’s not for me to say.

But maybe you need to devote more time to your primary job and worry less about your sidehustle. Or maybe you just need to embrace the entrepreneurial mindset and float from gig to gig. Heck, you’ll probably be a lot happier doing whatever you want to do.

What gets me, and I’m paraphrasing a friend whose opinion I value quite a bit, is that we as humans need an outlet for our passions. Who’s to say that you can’t make money on the side doing a hobby.

But there’s a huge difference between having a side hustle (that’s singular by the way) and getting distracted.

There’s a recent article on Better By Thought that lists nearly 100 “Best Sidehustles for 2016.” I swear that a year ago the title of that job would have been “Best Part-Time Jobs” but no matter. People are taking on all sorts of side gigs that obliterate what they do for a living.

Do you have a skill or is it a matter of being a jack-of-all-trades and a master-of-none?

It is what it is

If you need to have 5 other gigs in order to make the equivalent of one decent salary then maybe you need to consider going back to school or retraining or learning new job skills. Whatever you do is what you need to do but please just call it what it is: a second job. Or a third or whatever.

Sidehustle? Gimme a break. Oh wait. I forgot the hashtag again.

#sidehustle.

#Eyeroll