I’m not a big politics fan, but I have to admit I love some of Thomas Jefferson’s quotes. The man was very wise – perhaps a modern day Confucius? I particularly like some of his quotes around hard work and ambition:

“Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing.”

“I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it”

While the U.S. may have traditionally been the ‘Land of Opportunity’ the world wide web has opened the doors and possibilities up to everyone. Jobs that were once done in an office are now being performed in the far corners of the earth. From virtual assistants in the Philippines, to web developers in rural India. The internet is a Game Changer!

It really winds me up when I hear people say ‘Oh I’m stuck in a dead-end job and I just don’t have the same opportunities as you’. It’s time to wake up and realise that you do and that anything is possible! Some of the world’s leading academic institutes have coursework available online, free of charge. While you won’t obtain the degree certificate or qualification, you still have the same opportunities to learn. Some might say that you have an advantage using such material over attending a mediocre university that you have to pay for.

With Entrepreneurship at an all time high and the education system in a state of disarray, there has never been a better time to do things yourself and try something new. After all, if you are going to create a tech start-up and do things yourself, what does a degree certificate even mean and what value does it hold? Very little I would imagine.

The Beauty of Side Hustles

The thing I love about side hustles is that they are on the side. Simple right? The real beauty of a side hustle is that if things go terribly wrong, you still have your main job / career and the security that comes with it. You can learn from the mistakes, move on and start again.

Whether your side hustle is a Niche Website, a blog, a service or something else – you can create a website and get going for less than £50! Look at this blog for example. This is not my main source of income, rather a side project; I write when I have time and the site has grown nicely over the last year and a half. When I first started the blog, I had no idea how much money I could make. I remember being excited the first time that I made enough money to cover my costs and now I am dreading the complicated tax return that will have to be submitted this year! All you need is inspiration, motivation and dedication. These things come from within.

Side Income from a Job

I like to think of side income as additional income that you wouldn’t have otherwise had. For some this might involve jobs at working mums and others a secondary or tertiary job! One of my friends in Texas had three jobs during the summer holidays which he used to save money for going back to school. I never once heard him complain; he had his priorities and his dreams sorted out and did everything he could to attain them. He is now a very successful engineer earning mega-bucks!

When society complain that there are no jobs available, I say go and create a job. Take my earlier example of a virtual assistant in the Philippines; until the concept was dreamed up and became popular a couple of years back, this was a completely alien concept. Now, individuals have jobs thanks to demand from other countries – these jobs are not dependent on the economic state of the home country, but instead take advantage of other booming industries.

The Travel blogging community hosts a plethora of nomadic, location-independent writers. People with no ties, who are free to work from anywhere they go. They get bored of one country and move on to the next, earning money through advertising and guest writing as they go. These advertisers are not concerned where about that person lives as the internet is accessible in the same way from almost anywhere!

The world is transforming drastically. Desktop and mobile videoconferencing / meetings is slowly removing the need for offices to have the capacity to hold all the staff at a given time. Working remotely is changing the way in which businesses run.

We need to embrace this and be a part of it, or we will undoubtedly get left behind. Look at some of the first family-run high-street stores that didn’t embrace new ways – do any of these exist anymore? Probably not!

The next time you tell yourself or somebody else that you got a raw deal and can’t find a job or don’t have enough money consider this: Maybe you are not looking in the right places?