People work way too hard at their jobs. Most people sell too much of their time and energy to their employers. Let’s talk about the costs of working for a company, feeling stuck in your job, and why you should probably be working on other things as well.
It seems to me that I am one of the lucky few. What I do for a living and what I love doing are the same thing. I wish this were the case for everyone. Unfortunately, liking your work is often highly optional. Most of us need to work to survive, even if it comes at the cost of freedom and autonomy.
I don’t know about you, but I want more freedom and autonomy. I want more control of my time and my energy. And, quite frankly, I don’t want to wait until I’m 65 years old.
To clarify, working for a company has so many benefits. The overwhelming narrative is that you should get a job. The better your job, the more successful you are. I’m not going to focus on these benefits.
Instead, let’s discuss the costs of working for a company.
Working for a company is not inherently bad. It does, however, come with several costs. Some of these costs are hidden, subtle, or operate over such a long timescale that we only realise the true price in hindsight.
Essentially, when you work for an employer, you trade time for money. What many of us fail to consider is that we are selling our best time. Our salary costs us our prime working hours for all the days of our prime working years.
This is also true for our energy. A day at work is pretty draining. Any free time is used to recharge, recover and catch up on chores. We leave the leftovers for ourselves and our families.
With less time and energy at our disposal, it becomes more difficult to keep on top of our personal growth.
Organizations don’t always care if you’re learning or growing, just that you are doing what you were hired to do. If that is the case then your growth is entirely up to you. If you’re not paying attention to this then it is easy to stagnate for several years.
A company is focused on reaching its goals, not yours. It’s a rude thing to wake up to a few years down the line, especially when you realise that you’re far from achieving your own goals.
Because we’re not optimizing for personal growth, it means we’re not always ready when a life-changing opportunity presents itself.
Opportunities come and go. Not only do we miss them, but we also forgo the benefit we might have gained from them. There is a bigger problem here. Preparedness.
Opportunities are all around us. They can even be created. Some require us to be on high alert just to see them. Others require preparation to take them on. Many great opportunities are missed because we simply were not ready for them when they came.
We give up much of our time, energy, personal growth and potential opportunities to work at a company. It’s good to be aware of these costs and factor them in to your decisions. It’s no wonder many people end up feeling stuck.
Many people feel stuck in their job. They feel locked in. Worst of all, it seems that there is no way out. I think in many cases people adopt a mindset of learned helplessness: believing that they are helpless reinforces that they are helpless, even when it is not true.
There are many factors that contribute to feeling stuck.
This is obvious, but I’m going to mention it anyway. Many rely on their job for survival. They have bills to pay and their job is their only means to pay those bills. Some rely on it to support their current standard of living. Either way, they work harder and harder, trying to make ends meet, constantly on the backfoot, striving to get ahead.
We spend so much time at work that it becomes part of our identities. Our work contributes heavily to the way we see ourselves, and it affects how we assume others see us. We all want to do important, meaningful work. We want to have an impact on the world around us. This leads us to identify strongly with our jobs. Failure at work feels like personal failure, and success at work feels like we’re winning at life.
A healthy employer-employee relationship should contain mutual reliance. It is, after all, supposed to be an agreed-upon trade of time for money. Over time, it is easy for the balance to be disrupted. Employees feel replaceable, expendable, and completely dependent on the employer. What might have started out as a mutual relationship becomes one-sided. Employers often have a dangerous amount of leverage over their employees.
If this is the case, then it may become increasingly difficult to keep healthy boundaries in place. An employee might feel that they are required to do more than they signed up for. Not having any leverage makes one feel helpless.
Are we as helpless as we feel?
Okay, so we’ve considered the implicit and potential costs of working for a company, and we’ve briefly discussed why people feel stuck in their jobs. Now what?
The objective is to find a way to counter those costs and not feel stuck. We want to free up our time and energy, improve ourselves, take on opportunities, and do impactful, meaningful work that we enjoy.
It might sound like I’m suggesting that everyone should quit their job and start a business. That’s not the case. To most of us, myself included, that would be detrimental. It would be a race against time.
Companies run efficiently because employees serve specific functions and perform specific tasks. If you start your own business you’d need to do just about everything (unless you can pay someone to do it). It’s a monstrous learning curve.
Companies also spend years building their brand, image, and a network of clients and partners. You, on the other hand, are a nameless, faceless employee. If you start your own business you’d likely be building all of these from scratch.
Acquiring new skills and garnishing reputation take time. A side project gives you the incentive and motivation to work on your skills and reputation, without needing to plunge off a cliff.
I love hanging out with people who are curious and inquisitive. I find it extremely energizing. They have things they want to try out, amazing ideas and are doing all sorts of things that I wish I could be a part of. At the root of it all, they’re constantly asking questions.
A side project asks you to venture into the unknown, face uncertainty, and overcome obstacles. You’ll be forced to ask and answer questions that you’ve never considered. You’ll find that questions beget questions and, much like the proverbial rabbit hole, will lead you to down some interesting paths.
Each question presents a small opportunity to grow.
A side project gives you the intrinsic motivation to ask questions. Most importantly, they’ll be your own questions. Answering your own questions gives you a profound sense of satisfaction, and a grand sense of ownership.
It’s so easy to give up on our passions early on in life. Perhaps they seemed to be an inferior career path, or were a lesser source of income compared to alternatives. Or maybe you didn’t have the opportunity to study what you really wanted to.
Most of us have things we are passionate about. Unfortunately, these things don’t always overlap with our jobs. A side project is a great way to work on things you’re passionate about. You’ll also find that there are people who have figured out how to make a living doing similar things, which leads me to my next point.
The internet is a wonderful place precisely because it allows all sorts of people to connect with one another. You’ll find people who are on a similar journey to you, some years ahead of you and others just a few steps behind.
If you’ve ever felt like you’re alone in something, it’s great to realize that you’re not. You can ask for help, get input from experienced folks, learn from their mistakes.
You can include people in your journey, and you can also be part of their journey. There are some folks doing amazing things out there. It’s humbling, inspiring and motivating all at once.
Where you start and what you work on is entirely up to you. That is the beauty and the challenge of it. It can be anything, and look like anything. Here are a few suggestions.
Drastically limit the scope of your project, especially if it’s your first one. Keep it stupidly small. The idea is to try and finish it. It will likely not be your masterpiece, and that is okay. You’ll learn so many new things the first time round that you won’t get to spend much time on the actual thing.
It’s not a hobby. Hobbies are easy to put down when you don’t feel like doing them. You should have some level of commitment that transcends the initial excitement of starting a new project. However, this doesn’t mean you have to work on it for the rest of your life. It’s okay to shelve a project that isn’t going anywhere and move on to the next one.
The idea is to incrementally build up your skills over a long period of time. Carve out some dedicated time to spend on your project. That being said, do pace yourself. It is, after all, a side project. Don’t burn yourself out for it.
Whatever it is you decide on, share it. Friends and family are great practice if you’re still too shy for internet strangers. It gets easier. That awkward feeling disappears pretty quickly. Most people will be excited for you.
Side-projects are awesome. I think everyone should have one. My own side projects have been a catalyst for rapid personal growth over the past year. The journey I’m on has just begun, and I’m beyond excited for the future.
There is so much to unpack on this topic and I only got to scratch the surface. Let me know what you liked and didn’t like.
Thanks for reading!
I have friends and family that are working on some cool projects. Some of them are still side projects, others are already transitioning into careers. I’m excited for all of these.
My mother-in-law was retrenched at the end of 2020. She saw this as an opportunity to take the plunge and start a business that she’s wanted to start for many years now. She’s tapping in to her love for children and years of experience in the children’s ward as a registered nurse. Kid’s Inn is a safe place for children to spend a couple of hours while mom and dad go out.
My wife is pursuing her life-long dream of being an artist. It’s been an amazing journey to cheerlead and be a part of. She’s a total geek when it comes to art, and I love it. She’s done all sorts of projects, in different styles, using different mediums, for all kinds of people. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed seeing her creativity blossom. Check her work out on Instagram.
Dan is one of my closest mates. He’s always had a love for character back-stories, lore, and lyrics. He recently started writing. His written voice is so different from his spoken voice that I don’t recognize it at all, even though I’ve known him for more than 16 years. His writing completely blew me away, and I can’t wait to see where he takes it.
Here are a few resources that have had the most impact on how I think in terms of work, side projects, and long-term thinking. They are worth your time.
Jordan O’Connor on long-term thinking: https://youtu.be/zUV-uSnmJYc
Michael Lynch on why he quit his job at Google: https://mtlynch.io/why-i-quit-google/
