The Passive Income Myth
“Passive income” has become a bit of a buzzword lately. When people think of passive income they imagine themselves making money with little to no effort while sitting on the beach. While that’s sounds lovely, that’s really not how it works no matter what you’re seeing on Instagram. Sorry.
True passive sources of income means there is no effort required on your part to make money. Most ways to make income require some amount of labor along the way which technically makes them additional income streams. Additional income streams aren’t a bad idea by any means, but adding more income streams doesn’t necessarily make your life easier. Especially if you’re still struggling with your first income stream: Your practice.
Asking yourself why you are seeking other income streams outside of your day-to-day practice is going to be an important place to start. Do you think you want more passive income as an actual financial strategy to grow your wealth quickly? Or is it because you’re tired and burnt out right now and are looking for something else to make you feel better?
More income streams is not an escape. People who have multiple income streams usually started by killing it with their first one, then leveraged the results of that to create more. Not because they had to, but because they wanted to.
Before you start thinking about adding more income streams, honestly ask yourself:
Have you actually gone all-in on your first?
Is it providing the living that you want? Does it run like a well-oiled machine? Is it managed well? Does it have an emergency fund? Do you love what you built? If the answer is no, then now probably isn’t the time to start something new. How can you successfully start another income stream if you haven’t met the basic goals of the first? If you’ve built a business that you’re now trying to escape from, then you’re just going to end up in the same place with the second one if you don’t do the work to understand why that happened in the first place.
If you’re feeling burnt out, changing your circumstance is not going to solve it. What is causing your burnout is stressful thinking, poor planning, and scarcity thinking. If you do not solve for these, you will continue to bring them into every venture you attempt.
So instead of pining for your beach escape lean in, get laser-focused, and finish what you started.