Starting a Business Crazy or Inspired

Starting a Business Crazy or Inspired I was reading about a local (Utah) company that has seen some great success. The part that hooked me in was the struggles the owner and his family went through.   The last line of the last comment (as of right now) says:  Starting a business is a gamble, and well over half dont work out, and theres no getting back the investments you made into it. The fine line between crazy and inspired gets crossed many times. Yep. Crazy on one side of the line, inspired on the other, and you kind of walk it like a tight rope sometimes falling on either side. I will say, however, that the power of having any income streams, more than your job (which for most is the primary income stream) is so empowering. Even having something that you put on pause, but can fire up again if you lose your job (aka, primary income stream), is awesome. Imagine this scenario: you have a job, and you have something going on in the background (right now this is called a side hustle). One day you get laid off. When I was laid off in January of 2006, I had no side hustle, and it was a painful and scary journey. When I was laid off from BambooHR (my last day was Nov 30th, last week), I did have a side hustle. Actually, I have three side hustles. One was completely paused (it is now unpaused), another was very passive (I have two rental units), and the third, JibberJobber, I had my team working on it and directed them much less than I had for the previous 12 years. Know what? Getting laid off sucks. It is demoralizing, and has a crazy serious impact on your life in so many ways. There is no way around that. It sucks. But getting laid off with three side hustles? Guess who is not as terrified as he was almost 13 years ago, the last time this happened? It took a lot of work to get here. And now that Im here, and recently laid off, my message is louder than ever. People: Manage your careers!!!!! This includes networking. It includes personal branding. And it definitely includes creating other revenue streams (and managing your spending)! More to come Starting a Business Crazy or Inspired I was reading about a local (Utah) company that has seen some great success. The part that hooked me in was the struggles the owner and his family went through.   The last line of the last comment (as of right now) says:  Starting a business is a gamble, and well over half dont work out, and theres no getting back the investments you made into it. The fine line between crazy and inspired gets crossed many times. Yep. Crazy on one side of the line, inspired on the other, and you kind of walk it like a tight rope sometimes falling on either side. I will say, however, that the power of having any income streams, more than your job (which for most is the primary income stream) is so empowering. Even having something that you put on pause, but can fire up again if you lose your job (aka, primary income stream), is awesome. Imagine this scenario: you have a job, and you have something going on in the background (right now this is called a side hustle). One day you get laid off. When I was laid off in January of 2006, I had no side hustle, and it was a painful and scary journey. When I was laid off from BambooHR (my last day was Nov 30th, last week), I did have a side hustle. Actually, I have three side hustles. One was completely paused (it is now unpaused), another was very passive (I have two rental units), and the third, JibberJobber, I had my team working on it and directed them much less than I had for the previous 12 years. Know what? Getting laid off sucks. It is demoralizing, and has a crazy serious impact on your life in so many ways. There is no way around that. It sucks. But getting laid off with three side hustles? Guess who is not as terrified as he was almost 13 years ago, the last time this happened? It took a lot of work to get here. And now that Im here, and recently laid off, my message is louder than ever. People: Manage your careers!!!!! This includes networking. It includes personal branding. And it definitely includes creating other revenue streams (and managing your spending)! More to come