The Hustler’s 9 to 5: How an Entrepreneur Picks a Corporate Job
Being a Music Gigging, T-shirt Selling, Lyft Driving, Graphic Designing Janitor is exhausting (sigh, that was exhausting to write)
When I was 20 years old. The thought of working a corporate job could not have sounded worse. Showing up somewhere every day, having someone tell you what to do, wearing a freaking tie… no thank you. My days were filled with coffee shops, a guitar lesson here, a side gig there. Nobody owned me, I was free baby! My wife and I got married soon after and the “dream” continued. Recording music all day, selling t-shirts, and a plethora of other side hustles. I was even writing ebooks on how to do it.
Then life happened, we had a daughter, a mortgage and bills to pay. The lifestyle I had carved out as the dream, was actually creating a nightmare for my wife and me. The “freedom” we had enjoyed had been replaced by the constant worry of where the next job/paycheck would come from. I was a music gigging, t-shirt selling, Lyft driving, graphic designing janitor who didn’t particularly feel like any of the current titles were solid long term fixes.
My world was messy and filled with pressure at that time. Fortunately, the pressure forced me to make some tough decisions, to try some new things, and ultimately discover that the real enemy was not corporate America. I was able to discover that there were actually companies out there who would welcome my skill set and allow me to flourish as a corporate citizen, an entrepreneur, and most importantly, a husband and father.
But how do you find those jobs? How do you get hired and most importantly how do you keep your soul in the process?
Spoiler alert, I work a 9 to 5 now, have my MBA, and continue to jump in feet first to new businesses. I’m just as busy as I once was, the only difference is the payoff. So let’s do this thing together. If you’re a corporate bro, I’m writing to you. If you’re an entrepreneur, you too. If you’re that music gigging, t-shirt selling, Lyft driving, graphic designing janitor who doesn’t particularly feel like any of the current titles were solid long term fixes… then this is definitely for you. Life is complicated enough, getting paid doesn’t have to be one of those complications.
The purpose of this article is to save you years of anxiety, FOMO, and all the other things that can suck the joy out of your existence.
The formula is so, so simple.
- Realize that Interest is more important than Passion… Passion dies when something is not as fun as it used to be… Interest on the other hand is fueled by curiosity… which is harder to run out of.
- Get off social media — Life for 99.99999% of the hustlers out there is not what it seems. Don’t let false narratives feed into your FOMO.
- Ask your friends, family, and everyone in between… “What do you do?” Chances are if you ask 10 people that question, one of them will do something you find interesting and will be able to give you a chance to get your foot in the door.
Life is so, so… so good. I look back on who I used to be, and although I could get coffee or “jam” anytime I wanted, I was causing way too much undue stress and anxiety on myself and the people I love. We don’t worry about bills anymore, I have a studio I get to make my fill of music in and I go to work at a job that’s work I am more than interested in.
If you are a Music Gigging, T-shirt Selling, Lyft Driving, Graphic Designing Janitor or anything in between… I dare you to make a change. I don’t think you’ll regret it.
