Use repetition and collaboration to build multiple sources of income.
When I read about all those people doing so many things, I always ask myself:
How can they make all of that happen?
How can one person build a blog, a podcast, write articles for other online journals, make online courses, write a newsletter, and also have time to spend with their family and friends?
They don’t. Which is the answer in most cases. Or they have a secret.
I used to believe the first option. But a couple of days ago, I convinced myself of the latter.
The power of repetition
I was listening to an Italian podcast about memory and how it works, and I discovered something I was assuming without any documentation: our brain gets better with repetition. So I did a little bit of research.
According to Schmelzer, when we memorize new things, our brain passes through two phases. In the first phase, we transfer the data from the external world into our short-term memory. But then, we need another process to pass that data from the short-term to the long-term memory.
This second part, the most important one, can happen in three ways: urgency, association, and repetition.
Urgency
Urgency deals with threats to our integrity. When our body feels threatened, it memorizes the information that can prevent that feeling and remembers it for a long time, potentially our entire life.
Association
Association deals with the power of our brain to learn things by analyzing things it already knows. This is because our brain tries to be efficient, so if there is a shortcut to remember something without building more neural links, it will do it.
Repetition
Repetition is the most solid learning technique because it chemically builds connections between our neurons, and those are physical links harder to break. Our brain often uses this learning type to acquire new skills that become hard-wired to our behavior once we master them.
So if you want to build many successful side hustles, you need to use the most robust learning technique at your disposal: repetition.
The cycle of building side hustles
Let’s talk about creating side hustles now.
Side hustles are minor jobs you can do in your free time. And when you try to make a regular job out of those side hustles, you have two options: increase the output, or build different projects.
Both cases come with a problem: you will lack time. So in both cases, you need to become more efficient and automate most of your projects. In one word: become repetitive.
As I said before, this is the most powerful tool our brain uses to master skills efficiently. So if you want to build many successful side hustles without burning out, you need to use the power of repetition and the cycle it creates.
- Repetition allows you to reach side hustle mastery.
- Side hustle mastery leads to a higher income.
- A huge income opens the doors to collaborations and hirings.
- The possibility to defer jobs leads to more free time.
- And free time allows you to start new side hustles.
This is the scheme that you need to use. And this is how you can build as many successful side hustles as you wish without ever burning out.
Repetition allows you to reach side hustle mastery.
It should be clear by now: repetition is your strongest ally. You can use it to build habits, memorize long books of information, and behave in different situations. And all you need is to keep going until that chemical connection creates in your brain.
If you want to build a successful side hustle, repetition is the primary parameter. At first, you won’t be good at your new job, and it will take your hours to finish it. But after a couple of times, your brain starts automating simple actions, and you get faster.
Then, once you master those simple actions, your brain tries to automatize also the most difficult ones. And so on, until you become a master at that side hustle.
Side hustle mastery leads to higher income.
It is not a proven rule, but if you want to make a job out of your side hustle, sooner or later, it has to pay you well enough that you prefer it to other jobs.
If this doesn’t happen, there are two possibilities: you either didn’t master the side hustle well enough, or you are not doing it decently.
In the first case, you should keep working on it until repetition does its job. Try to remain consistent even in the worst times, and time will pay you back.
However, if your income doesn’t improve, you need to start using other strategies because your current ones are ineffective. For example, you might advertise your business wrongly, so you need to change your marketing strategy. Or it may be an appearance problem. For example, the style of your product may not convince consumers, so you need to reshape it.
Whatever you do, never blame the idea. Most of the time, you just didn’t use the most efficient tools to find your niche.
A growing income opens the doors to collaborations.
Once your income grows, invest your money to grow your business, as many entrepreneurs do. It doesn’t matter if you want to build one big side hustle or multiple ones. The important thing is that you start acting more like a leader, a CEO, and less like an employee.
In content creation, for example, many people hire editors to edit their videos or articles. And with this simple action, you double your free time or even better.
So as soon as you make enough money from your side hustle to live comfortably, invest them into growing your side hustle. And if you already have an income, you can reinvest the entire retribution. This way, your side hustle will grow even faster.
The possibility of hiring people leads to more free time.
In the beginning, hiring people to do the work for you will be harsh. Sometimes, it would seem like nobody can do things better than you, and you will struggle to accept that everybody has their way.
However, with time, it will be easier to collaborate with other people. The main reason is that you accept someone else working on your project. Also, you will gain more faith in your collaborators and see the value they bring to your side hustle.
And if you are not compatible with a collaborator, you can always hire another one. Don’t stop at the first failure, and don’t close your side hustle gates to external help because this is the only way it can grow. Also, as a side effect, you will have more free time.
More free time allows you to start new side hustles.
Once you hire a few collaborators and effectively learn how to manage them, your free time will at least double.
In the beginning, you will enjoy that free time as an exquisite pleasure, but after a while, if you have a side-hustle-focused mentality, you will get bored. And you will mingle with the idea of starting a new side hustle.
Your new project could be an addition to your previous side hustle or a completely different thing, but you will do it. In the first case, your brain will already have some connections that will help you succeed faster. While in the second case, you will have to deal with repetition once again.
Final Thoughts
Free time leads to boredom, and boredom leads to great projects.
If you are reading this article, you are one of those people that love to start projects and thrive on succeeding in them. Maybe you developed a project, and it has been successful, but you don’t know how to grow it, how to make it scale with your available free time.
If this is the case, repetition and collaboration are your greatest allies.
With repetition, our brain learns to do things faster and more efficiently, allowing you to gain some free time for yourself. However, when your project scales out of your reach, you need to collaborate with other people to still make it work.
In the beginning, both repetition and collaboration won’t be easy, but if you keep going, you will understand their importance. Without repetition, you won’t ever master anything in your life. And without collaboration, each of your projects won’t ever scale and surpass your free time threshold.
So if you want to build many successful side hustles without burning out, develop these two skills. There is no other way around.
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