These past few days reminded me of that famous quote from Charles Dickens, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Protesters around the country took to the streets after yet another unarmed black man was killed by police, this time in Minneapolis. Floyd George gasped for air and begged for his life as a police officer held his knee to Floyd’s neck until he died. The country reacted. Watching images of police cars on fire and officers in full riot gear using tear gas here in downtown Miami, our usually calm home, really felt like the worst of times.
But almost lost in this surreal news, a team of SpaceX and NASA engineers, launched 2 astronauts into space and returned the first stage booster, after flipping itself around in space and going through a re-entry burn at 4,100 mph, landing within a circle only 282 feet wide. And to think that some of us have a hard time parallel parking! This achievement was a milestone in making space travel more affordable by proving that you don’t need to throw away a lot of expensive equipment to get a vehicle into space.
It’s sad that this incredible achievement has had to take a back seat in the news due to such a horrible act of violence, but it is still an amazing accomplishment that speaks to how sometimes you need to fail your way to success. Now as odd a guy as Elon Musk may be, including naming his new baby X Æ A-12 Musk (and who knows what the kids in school will do with that one as he gets older), you have to give him credit for pushing the envelope of innovation with his companies.
The US ended the space shuttle program in 2004 on fears of another Columbia-like disaster, and a general lack of interest in spending money on a program that appeared to only deliver incremental gains. Meanwhile, in 2002, Musk already had his eye on space travel but commercialized rather than government-run. He knew that to be successful it had to be economically viable, which meant not throwing away the parts you didn’t take with you as you left the Earth’s orbit. But he didn’t get there on his first try. That’s why this compact rocket is called the F9 and not the F1. And even while astronauts Bob & Doug were getting ready to head into space, the company was busy testing even bigger thrusters because ultimately they would like to send 100 people at a time away for a space vacation. And just two days before the successful Falcon launch, the latest starship prototype exploded during a test. Why? Because they’re pushing the envelope and they know it will take several failures to get there.
If you ask most other billionaires, they will tell you that they didn’t get it right the first time either. Mark Cuban’s first business was a somewhat sketchy bar in college that was shut down for underage drinking. He then had a series of mishaps working for others where he either quit or was fired. Then he started MicroSolutions which he ultimately sold to CompuServe for $6 million dollars. And 9 years later he sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in stock. He’s quoted as saying “you only need to be right once, then everyone tells you how lucky you are.”
Jeff Bezos also failed his way to becoming the world’s richest billionaire and growing. Amazon wrote off $170 million when the Fire phone failed. They lost $175 million on LivingSocial and half a billion on Drugstore.com. Bezos is quoted as saying “we believe in failing early and iterating until we get it right.”
Now I know that all of you are running businesses that aren’t quite on the scale of SpaceX, The Dallas Mavericks, or Amazon. And whether or not you admit it, I’m guessing you’re not exactly in a risk-taking mood, especially with the threats of military action on our native soil, catching a virus that could kill you or your family members if you leave home, and forecasts for an above-normal hurricane season. It’s a lot to digest.
Psychologists tell us that what dictates the amount of fear we feel is related to how much control we have over the situation. Less control. More fear. We can’t control where a hurricane will make landfall, but we can stock up and take shelter. We can’t control how serious our health situation will become if we catch Coronavirus, but we can choose to remove ourselves from high-risk situations. This gives us more control, which reduces our fear.
So how can we have more control over whether our current business will continue to earn enough money to sustain us? Two words – side hustle. Yes, things are crazy right now and you’ll tell me you don’t have time. So let me put things into perspective. According to Funders and Founders, there are 1,426 billionaires in the world and 960,830 of them made money from multiple businesses. Some just come from rich families so when you strip them away, only 130 billionaires made money from only one business.
Your financial advisor will tell you that when your portfolio is diversified you’ll reduce your risk, and the same goes for your business. I’m personally grateful that our clients cover so many different industries. I shudder to think about what life would be like right now if we focused on selling marketing services to cruise lines, for example. But diversification of your client base is only one piece of the puzzle. I’m talking about launching an entirely new business. It could be related to what you do but focused on a different sector if that doesn’t fit within your current brand. It could be a different product or service that isn’t a perfect fit for your current business model but you see it as a growth area. Follow where the attention is going. What are people searching for on Google these days? They publish their trends for you to check out. What are your clients and friends talking more about lately? Talk to people and get a pulse on where the interest is. Do your homework but use the LEAN startup methodology and launch your Minimum Viable Product (or service) quickly to test the concept. While you may be a bit nervous to push the envelope and test new things with your main income earning business, you won’t feel the same about taking risks with your side hustle. And who knows? Your side hustle could become the next big thing!