7 min read ⌚ 

How a Side Hustle Can Change Your Life

You are stuck in the wrong job, and you have no courage to get out of it?

Susie Moore is sincerely interested in offering you a way out!

All you need is a “side hustle” and few practical tips and tricks to turn it into a regular job.

And, yes, the mental attitude of someone who asks:

“What If It Does Work Out?”

Who Should Read “What If It Does Work Out?”? And Why?

“What If It Does Work Out?” promises to teach you to turn your passion into cash, make an impact and live the life you were born to.

In other words, there aren’t many categories of people who aren’t targeted by Susie Moore.

The only thing you need is a hobby and a desire to live a happier, more fulfilled life.

And even if you lack the former but have an abundance of the latter, Moore doesn’t forget to offer advice on how to find your side hustle.

So maybe Carly Pollack of “Nutritional Wisdom” is right when she says that “this book is the only resource you need to start your own side hustle.”

About Susie Moore

Susie Moore is a business coach and a writer.

After leaving her “highly profitable yet ultimately unsatisfying career” as a Fortune 500 sales director, Moore has directed most of her energy and attention to business coaching, advising mainly Silicon Valley startups, all of which have sold for hundreds of millions of dollars.

A regular contributor to “Fortune” and “Greatist,” she has also appeared on “The Today Show,” “The Huffington Post,” “Time,” “Business Insider,” “Forbes,” and many other outlets.

Published in 2017, “What If It Does Work Out?” is her first book.

Find out more at susie-moore.com.

“What If It Does Work Out? PDF Summary”

Prepare to give an answer to one of the most dreaded questions ever uttered by a human being:

Dear reader, what do you do?

How many times you’ve been asked this question in the past! And how many times you’ve tried mumbling an answer under your teeth, masking it with a smile and some enthusiasm, fully aware that, essentially, your job doesn’t make that much of a difference, and that, much more importantly, it doesn’t make you happy one bit!

Then why should your job define you?

Why should the answer to the question “what you do” be synonymous with the answer “who you are,” especially if you don’t like your job?

In the fourth chapter of her debut book, “What If It Does Work Out?” Susie Moore is both adamant and straightforward when she writes:

You are not your job. You are much bigger than and not restricted by whatever your job title says you are – even if you love your current career.

It’s only natural that you confuse your job with your identity: you spend about a third of your life in your office, and most of the free time afterward either discussing what you do for a living or worrying over the tasks you didn’t manage to complete the day before.

Well, that doesn’t make any sense!

And that’s exactly how Susie Moore felt at her job as a Fortune 500 Sales Director – which, we guess, is probably both much more engaging and profitable job than yours!

So, she decided to take advice out of James Altucher’s books and, instead of waiting to be chosen by someone else, she chose herself.

She started focusing more time and energy on her hobby – reading personal development books (over 550 of them!) – and, in time, she started coaching on the side. Slowly but surely, her side hustle became her job, and her job became history.

The first thing she needed to do: getting over her fear. In the words of Suzy Kassem “Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will” – and you should learn to get over it.

All fear, writes Moore, comes from either believing that you are not enough or thinking that you don’t have enough.

However, what “enough” means shouldn’t be decided by other people, tradition, or society.

It should be decided by you and nobody else.

Susie Moore was told this by none other than James Altucher, and she quotes his words of brilliant advice:

We’ve been taught by parents, teachers, bosses—even friends—what is ‘good’ for us. We are also taught by trillions of dollars in marketing what is ‘good’ for us…

This is all fine. But we are not standardized widgets inside a giant robot. Ultimately, we are unique people who have lives to live. We have to develop our own rules that we will adhere to. Rules that will give us well-being, happiness, and success.

If we don’t come up with our own guidelines of what will make us happy, then who will?

Speaking of which –

Susie Moore says that important and motivational people are really much more approachable than you believe and that they can help you personally to get over your fears of starting a side hustle.

In fact, you can even call James Altucher if you want to!

Now that you have the fear and motivation part sorted out, you’ll need to find your hobby and the time to turn it into something more of a side hustle.

First, use Moore’s three-step Skill Disaster formula to uncover your “skills that will pay the bills”:

#1. Think of three big problems you’ve solved or successes you’ve had.
#2. Identify the skills that helped you achieve these three things.
#3. Think about how you can apply your skills in a new way.

Because, after all, “a successful side hustle is all about doing the best you can with what you have.”

As for the time – it’s really a question of priorities! And managing your 24 hours as perfectly as you can!

Since a third of these you spent in your bed, and another third working, you have only 8 hours to transform your side hustle into a day job.

So:

Commute wisely: “Pitch Perfect” and “Fifty Shades of Grey”” have earned their authors millions of dollars and they have been largely written on trains.

Use “wait time” well: “Most people have up to one hour of idle wait time on an average day” – and there’s no point in dumping that hour in the trash can.

Say no, then say it again: Don’t be a slave to FOMO, the Fear of Missing Out! Say “No” to what you don’t really need to do.

Run errands on work time (if you can): Of course, use discretion while you do it. Shhhh… We won’t tell.

Make phone calls on the go and Unsubscribe from 90 percent of the websites you’ve subscribed to! Drop some of your projects and Forgive yourself for doing it. Watch television only when doing the mindless stuff – and don’t binge watch anything!

Finally, get to know your flow and outsource the tasks someone else can do.

Now, you have the time to master your hobby.

In the words of Susie Moore:

Over to you.

Key Lessons from “What If It Does Work Out?”

1.      Why Start a Side Hustle?
2.      Shift From “What If” Mode into Action
3.      The Spiritual Imperative of Starting Your Side Hustle

Why Start a Side Hustle?

The main point of Susie Moore’s book is “why not?”

But, even so, at the very end of it, she gives few whys we believe deserve to be quoted in full:

It’s ’cause you have to.

’cause you are good enough.

’cause you matter.

’cause your contribution matters.

Shift From “What If” Mode into Action

You can – and should – start your side hustle right about now.

So, do it!

First, schedule dedicated time (few hours a week may be enough) to get your side hustle going. Then, commit to a policy of zero excuses and remove all distractions (yes, that means absolute silence: you and your hobby!) Now, set a deadline and start progressing, while enjoying the process.

Finally, celebrate!

The Spiritual Imperative of Starting Your Side Hustle

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose,” says Steve Jobs. “You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

And, indeed, there is none: not following their hearts is the one thing people regret failing to do on their deathbeds.

So, do yourself a favor and write a letter from your eighty-year-old self now.

Find out what you really want while you can still act upon it!

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“What If It Does Work Out? Quotes”

’Is this all there is?’ I contemplated one morning while feeling restless at work. Click To Tweet

Knowledge, as Napoleon Hill says in ‘Think and Grow Rich,’ is only ‘potential power.’ You’ve got to do the work as well. Click To Tweet

Look at your calendar for next week and find three things you can skip—a social event you don’t really want to go to, a workout class you can live without, an errand you can do quickly during work time. Cancel cancel cancel! Click To Tweet

You have to position yourself as a professional. Click To Tweet

There is much value in failing! Don’t let personal or professional setbacks negatively impact your outlook: reframe them as learning and growth opportunities! Click To Tweet

Our Critical Review

“What If It Does Work Out?” is – in the words of Molly Beck, host of the “Forbes” podcast Two Inboxes: Interviews with the Side Hustle Generation, the kick-in-the-pants side hustlers need to start living the life they want! An amazing reference for anyone who wants to not be 100% dependent on their ‘day job.

In other words, unlike many other books which focus solely on the theoretical problems of having a side hustle, “What If It Does Work Out?” is all-practice and applicable advices, a sort of an energetic book-length Q&A from someone who has walked the walk and has thus earned the right to talk the talk as well.

So, what are you waiting for?

Emir Zecovic

Emir is the Head of Marketing at 12min. In his spare time, he loves to meditate and play soccer.