You start with an idea (a product, a job title, a career, etc.), and try to make it a reality at all costs.
Good, but what about the rest of your life? And what if your idea turns out to be a dud?
Income-first
You start with what you have, and try to maximize the most likely way to make the most money.
Good, but when do you stop? And what if you hate what you’re doing?
Lifestyle-first
You start with a preferred lifestyle, and try to find work activities that enhance your life and make your lifestyle sustainable.
In the lifestyle-first approach: What you work on, how much you work, how you work, from where you work, etc, are all derived from your preferred lifestyle.
You start with your preferred lifestyle, and you work backwards to find viable work opportunities that are compatible.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
The problem? It's an extremely unpredictable way to make a living. For every successful creator, there are thousands who make nothing or almost nothing.
So, how do you make the unpredictable, predictable? Here's what I learned:
See, there are two very distinct worlds of how to make a living in our universe.
The first world is the one we're mostly familiar with, where you follow a predictable career path.
Say you want to make a living as a programmer, a doctor, a plumber, an English teacher, etc. If you do certain things (learn to code, get a specific degree, etc.) you can increase the odds of getting what you want to very close to 100%.
1. Unlike Twitter, I almost never open the Clubhouse app. Occasionally I get a notification that someone I follow is speaking, and I get the option to drop in. The push system adds random pleasant surprises to my life.
2. I hate parties. The crowds, the small talk, the dressing up, the inability to avoid certain people... ugh.
But I like the idea of parties: An almost free opportunity for chance encounters that could lead to many things.
Clubhouse is my party substitute without the downsides.
Which's the most important skill you should learn if you want to work for yourself? ...
Selling.
I don't think you learn this by reading about it, but by becoming determined to figure out what motivates people to take out their wallet and pay for things.
I started by observing my own behavior when I came to make purchasing decisions. Whenever I found myself choosing to pay for something (or choosing not to), I would try to reflect on why I was making that decision.
How to build a portfolio of small bets (without hating your life):
Remember that to thrive, you must first survive. The order matters.
Instead of trying to succeed, try not to fail. Make sure your self-employment arrangement becomes sustainable quickly by going for the low hanging fruit.
Low hanging fruit are opportunities that require very little cost, time, and effort — even if it means they're not the most enjoyable and have limited upside.
Try as many of these "small bets" as you can, and run them in parallel — no need to wait for a failure to do the next.