To begin, I’d like for you to picture a scenario. You’re at home, bored, on a Friday night. You are thinking about going on that vacation you’ve dreamed of, or maybe you’re thinking about eventually buying a house. But you need money for these goals and lots of it! So you rack your brain for days and weeks, endlessly scrolling YouTube videos and articles in hopes that you’ll find anything potentially profitable. I’m going to stop the scenario here.
Does this already sound familiar?
If so, you’re not alone. Many of us who try making income on our own often fall prey to the fallacy of searching for ‘the holy grail’ hustle. It’s natural, but it’s also incredibly deleterious. This constant testing and hopping from hustle to hustle is the logical equivalent of going from theater to theater, watching 5 minutes of movies, then trying to determine which one has the best story. When you look at all of the people who’ve successfully garnered passive income streams, they typically are in the top 10% of their chosen hustle and are far above average. What does this make you conclude?
A conclusion to arrive at is that specialization is key. In this modern economy, so long are the days of the ‘all-in one’ Jack, we’ve transformed to revolve around the ‘great-at-one’ Jill. This also points to a concept in macroeconomics known as the ‘opportunity cost’. Without turning this into an econ lesson, an opportunity cost is essentially what you lose for doing another activity. So, if you produce 10 guitars in an hour, but you usually make 20 ukeleles in that hour, your opportunity cost is 20 ukeleles.
