Don't Quit Your 9-to-5. Use it to Build on the Internet.
But not in the way you think...
It’s been a while.
It wasn’t my plan to fall off the face of the Earth, but weeks turned into months. It’s been nearly 3. I just looked, my last post on here was 10th September. So 85 days. Not as long as I thought.
So where have I been?
Well, a lot has been going on, and though I was once a believer in the fact that I could do everything all at once, this time I admitted defeat. I have been on a business journey that I will write about in due course, but it sucked up every ounce of spare time I had.
Now, things are different once more, and I’m back (I think). I can tell you, though, time away from writing, from the constant treadmill, has felt like a breath of fresh air.
Time to lift my head up and think about what I really want to do, what I want to write about, and how I want to do things moving forward. And while I’m not 100% clear, it certainly feels like the fog is settling and I’m seeing the frosty grass for the first time in a while.
A sigh of relief.
(PS, as part of my time off, I consolidated all the courses, masterclasses, and databases I’ve ever made and put them here)
With that, I want to talk to you about a concept I came up with yesterday, in a supermarket.
This newsletter is for anyone stuck in a job, and they’re thinking — how on Earth can I use what I do every day to build something on the side?
Let’s dive in.
1. Recognise your strengths
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” — Albert Einstein
I’ve long since thought about that quote.
The trouble being, of course, that fish don’t have mirrors. I think humans are the same. The problem is not that we have a load of metaphorical fish climbing up trees, it’s that you don’t realise the place for you to thrive is in the water.
AKA you don’t know you’re a fish!
And how would you?
How do you know what you’re good at? Who tells you that, actually, you probably will find it much easier to use your fins to swim, rather than trying to scamper up that tree while you struggle to breathe?
Nobody.
And so you find yourself in a place that feels uncomfortable, where you push a rock up a hill and nothing ever goes your way. Meanwhile, people all around you are finding their pools. They are thriving.
People from school seem to be going from success to success, while you stay stuck. It feels unfair. It feels like you’ve got the rotten end of the deal. It feels like you’re never going to figure it out.
But one thing that might help is looking at the space you occupy differently.
Let me explain.
2. Reposition your context
Sometimes, ideas collide.
It’s one of my favourite ways to think. To allow two entirely different spaces to collide. When you take an idea from biology and apply it to how you think, or when you pull from your physical environment and apply it to your mental environment.
I did that the other day and had much joy in the phrase ‘think with your legs’ — aka crack on with it (maybe it’s just me, I get an odd joy out of new ways to phrase an idea).
Anyway, I’ve been looking into something new. Albeit very briefly but a new idea has taken hold - they often do. Sometimes they fade, sometimes they get stronger. Right now, I’m feeling it out before I commit any more time to it.
That idea is Amazon FBA.
Anyway, as I was pondering that idea, whether I wanted to invest any time and money into it in the coming months, I was walking down the aisle of the supermarket.
I’d learned that morning that there were a few ways to think about Amazon FBA, but one was buying low from supermarkets.
You find something that sells well on Amazon, let’s say, deodorant, and buy it on sale at the supermarket and resell it at a higher price on Amazon.
And then, as I watched the customer service assistant fill the aisle with deodorant, I thought, Who is the best person in the world to know when these items go on sale?
Oh, it’s the guy loading the shelves.
And then it made me think about the life you lead and the position you are in. You might be sitting on treasure, looking for it in the distance.
In other words, you might be in the perfect position right now, but you’re busy climbing a tree, rather than jumping headfirst into the water.
The point being that you might not think you’re in a unique position for anything. You’re not top of the class or the most experienced in your job. That’s okay. You don’t have to be.
3. Start with what you know
The best place to start, like with most things in life, is with a list.
I’ll give you an example, I work in the public sector, so here are all the things I know probably more than the average Joe about:
How to roll out changes to products across the country
How large technology teams actually work
The recruitment process
How decisions get made
How policy works
You might not think of these things as things that you can use, but you absolutely can; it just takes some out-of-the-box thinking.
If you’re struggling to figure it out, use this prompt: