I don’t want to come off as arrogant or like a special little snowflake, but I really do not think I am like most other people. I do not have the desire to lock in on one thing forever, just shut up and do the work some overlord provides me, and eat my pudding like a happy little compatriot.
I want more. I always want to know more.
It’s not even a thirst for more. Thirsts can be quenched fairly easily.
It’s a lust for learning. A never ending hunger to know everything about everything because the world is so vast and beautiful yet cruel and cyclic. It makes me feel like Darth Nihilus on the search for more and more things to learn.
And I feel like I would be seen as a crazy man. And in fact I do feel like one. I feel like I have a problem. Why can’t I just relax? Why can’t I just do one or two or three things at most and have my brain be satisfied and happy with it? Everyone else is like that, right? Everyone else throws everything into their work and sometimes they pick up one hobby and sometimes they pick up something boring like golfing to better relate to their coworkers after they talk about watching another group of men have fun throwing a ball around on TV for 3 hours straight as corporations shove their ads down your throat and you say “Thank you sir! May I please have another!”
But that’s just not me. I have to know and try everything. And if not for Leonardo DaVinci, bless his Italian heart, then I wouldn’t have anyone to point to that I feel like people would understand where I’m coming from.
And where I’m coming from involves the idea that if you don’t like your job and maybe want to boost from it altogether, then start up a side project, a second job you like more, or something or another. People like Mr. Aaron Clarey over at Asshole Consulting call this the Two-Pronged Approach. And I think many others would agree with him. You have your main job that you may not like and you have your side project that you throw everything you can into, usually in hopes of getting it off the ground enough to reach escape velocity to cover your expenses or replace your income so you can escape your current job.
But I can’t relax if I do that. And honestly, I might get a little bored if I do that. And I think someone might diagnose me with ADHD. But honestly, I just want to know everything so I got to try everything I can.
And that’s where the Hydra Approach comes in. It’s a way of poking the defenses of your income problems with multiple options that may be better if you spent your full energy on, but maybe it doesn’t warrant that. And because it doesn’t warrant a full time amount of energy, or really even half a full time amount of energy, you can do just enough in one day or in one week to make it worthwhile. To spend a couple hours on it but not something like 20 hours a week on just one topic.
For example, I am so scatterbrained that there are nearly 14 or 15 different things I want to try to create as sources of income. But two of those, which I am also trying to build up alongside this whole blogging thing, is selling trading cards and Print-On-Demand. There is a limit of Print-On-Demand stuff you can theoretically upload in a day. On one website at least. I haven’t gotten over to other websites yet, but I haven’t been successful enough on my Redbubble store (found here:https://www.redbubble.com/people/Freihalt/shop?asc=u&ref=account-nav-dropdown if you want to take a gander) to warrant diving deeper at this time.
On the flip side, it’s the same thing with trading cards. I have a whole stash of them. And honestly, if I just spent one single day going through all of them, I’d be done for the time being. I would have identified and maybe uploaded all of the cards worth the money at the time and I would have identified and stashed all the cards not worth the money. And at that point I’m basically done until I either get more cards or get a sale.
And then there’s this. This whole blogging and writing thing. And while I’m not really doing it for the money, I’m doing it for all the exercise I need to write, trying to learn how to grow a blog, and trying to relate to people, I do know it could potentially make some money down the line. Potentially. And for a lot of people it doesn’t even come within a year. Or even a couple years. Sometimes it takes 5 or more or worse it never works out.
And I’m not here to pretend I’m going to be different. That I know some secret to make it work out. That I know some way to make sure it works every time. So then why would I throw everything and only everything into a blog that might not even grow, and may never make me the money I genuinely need to get out of debt and to change the course of my life?
So I try to attack all three (3) at once. Or as at once as I can. I write and post stuff this day and look into ways to improve my blog this day and this day. On probably that same day I would have enough time to upload ten or so designs to Redbubble and a card or three to TCGPlayer. And while I am no where near the limits per day of any of these approaches, I think it’s better to try than to do nothing at all and become frustrated when nothing ever happens on the one thing I threw everything into.
And honestly, I can’t always recommend it to people. I think most people find two to three things interesting enough to try to make money off of the most in their life. That’s why they have a job or career, maybe a side job or part time job mixed with either a side project, real estate or something or another. And then maybe they have one hobby, whether it be golf (ew), bowling, volunteering, hiking, cars, traveling, history, literature, foreign languages, etc. It seems like most people usually max out at a couple of things they become super passionate about and then can choose to monetize if they wanted. It’s clear to them, and a two-pronged approach would be helpful and focused while diverse enough.
But not me. I’m too curious about the world. I want to know and become proficient at everything. Perhaps this is the only way to narrow my focus down a bit while still feeling like I’m sufficiently feeding my hunger for knowledge. I mean after all I’ve always admired and wanted to be like DaVinci. Why should I focus on only one thing?
Godspeed.