The Superpowers of the Successful Side Hustler
Art by Pixabay
Like many writers, I had a day job and a side hustle for many years. By day, I was a mild-mannered public relations professional working for a wonderful nonprofit organization. By night—and early morning, weekend and holiday—I was Super Woman.
Not really. Actually, I was Freelance Humor Columnist Woman. And instead of a cape, I wore jammies to my side gig. Eventually, I was overcome by shame that I was still in my PJs, so I’d change into sweatpants for the rest of the day. Anyone who saw me on the weekend thought my other job was teaching aerobics.
A couple of years ago, my side hustle became my only job, so I’m hustling less and wearing sweatpants more. And looking back on my years as a moonlighter, I think if I had to do it all over again, I’d be too tired to do it. There’s a reason second jobs are called side hustles and not side strolls or side saunters. It would have been handy to have some superpowers back then. Come to think of it, it still would. Here are just a few of the superpowers I think anyone with a side gig could benefit from:
Superpower #1: Self-reliance. Like many moonlighters, I worked alone. The upside was, I always agreed with my coworkers. “Excellent idea! I wish I’d thought of it myself. Oh wait! I did.”
The downside is, when you work alone, you have to wear many hats—and capes. For example, the office building where I worked my day job always looked presentable thanks to the genuinely nice and efficient custodians who cleaned it. If anyone cleaned my home office, it was me and I was neither nice nor efficient while I was doing it.
Likewise, when I had computer problems at my day job, I had an entire IT department at my disposal. When I had computer problems at home, all I had was me—and a hammer. I never used it, but only because I was afraid I might void my warranty.
Superpower #2: Patience. Quite often moonlighters share their workspace with family members. This can be handy when they need cheap labor. But there are challenges. At my day job, my stapler, scissors, pens and computer were all mine for as long as I had the job. At home I had to share the office and everything in it with my husband and son. Pens walked away. I wouldn’t see my stapler for weeks at a time. And I remember one morning turning on my computer to find that my background screen had been changed from a family photo to a picture of a Dodge Power Wagon. I didn’t find it nearly as inspirational as my son did.
Superpower #3: Self-discipline. You might think that with all the time I saved not dressing up for my side gig, I got a lot done, and I might have were it not for the five varieties of solitaire on my home computer. There was no solitaire on my work computer. Most businesses remove it because of the effect it would have on productivity.
Also, there’s a refrigerator exactly 15 steps from my desk. If you call me while I’m working in my home office, you’re likely to hear me chewing.
Superpower #4: The ability to set realistic expectations. On the rare occasions I found myself off from my day job and home alone, I would immediately make a to-do list that looked something like this: Do laundry, get groceries, exercise, send invoices, answer all 1200 emails in inbox, update website, write column, write novel and teach cat to fetch. If I could have pulled all that off, I really would have been Super Woman.
Superpower #5: The ability to prioritize: Having a day job, a side gig and a family is like spinning plates all day long. The moonlighter must spin the most important plates and let the others fall where they may. I know a lot about this because while I was moonlighting, things were falling down around me most of the time. And not just plates.
Some plates are like fine china—your family, your health, the work tasks that are due today…or yesterday. There are dire consequences associated with letting these drop. But plenty of other things are the Corelle dinnerware of plate spinning. If someone walked into my home right now and volunteered to wash my windows, I’d let them do it. But otherwise, it can wait.
On the other hand, if there’s an unimportant task that you really want done, you can always pay someone else to do it. Be careful though. Too much of that, and you’ll need another side hustle.