"Will Never Make You Successful
I wasted three years failing to build my cats’ Instagram account. Literally years. I kept posting, hoping one day my consistency and frequency would pay off.
It didn’t.
My cats got up to around 15k followers through sheer persistence, which was a lot! But for me, that wasn’t enough to actually monetize. Brands occasionally sent me free cat stuff, but I didn’t earn a penny.
Maybe I could have sent out more emails to brands. Maybe I could have sold cat calendars or something. But after a lot of work, I was looking at very little reward.
All I did was fritter away my free time on a pipe dream.
I kept posting even though my side hustle showed no signs of success because the predominant side hustle advice is “just keep posting.” Post high-quality content often, and you’ll make it. Eventually.
Influencers don’t talk about how much of a struggle getting past that “eventually” really is. Or how your time could be spent doing something valuable (or just fun). All the energy I spent researching captions, hashtags, commenting on my followers, and just taking pictures? I could have spent it doing anything else.
For some people, posting pictures of their cats is its own reward. That person wasn’t me. I kept posting because I kept thinking, this will be the post that makes me (and my cats) rich. It never came. I stopped and now enjoy my time with my cats much more.
I am proof that you can turn a successful side hustle into a business. But I’m also proof of the opposite — sometimes you work harder, longer, and pointlessly on something that just isn’t going to work.
If you’ve been working away on your side hustle, dreaming of the day you finally make it big and can earn thousands, the truth is that for many people, it won’t be. For some of you, it’s better to quit the side hustle and focus on your job, your hobbies, your friends and family.
Here are six signs that perseverance is not the answer to your side hustle problems.
1. Your side hustle has no potential.
People are always surprised when I share how much money YouTube makes me. (It’s only about $400 a month, not including sponsorships.) And yet, it’s my biggest time drain. I spend 20 hours a month of editing and filming.
One of the reasons I’ve persevered despite the low ROI is I believe it has high potential. I see other YouTubers in my niche do extremely well. I know my content is good enough to get me there. Perseverance might be the only thing I need to succeed — eventually. But that’s not always the case.
Look around at your peers. Do you have a real chance of making it big? How long are you prepared to wait for that moment? Is there a ceiling on the potential of your side hustle?
If you don’t see any profitable Instagram accounts of chinchillas eating vegetables, it may be time to realize your own account may not have a real future.
2. Your side hustle isn’t fun.
The other reason I keep going with YouTube is that it’s fun. Even if it earned half as much, I’d keep posting.
So many people complain about their blogging platform. It bewilders me. They spend so much time complaining about other top writers, their diminished prospects, their lack of income, etc, that it makes me wonder: why be here at all?
We all like a good venting session now and again, but if a side hustle isn’t at least a small source of joy for you, it’ll quickly turn into a burden and will never deliver on its promise of financial freedom no matter how often you post.
3. You’re not good at your side hustle.
When I started writing, I was already a pretty good writer. I knew how to tell a story. I picked up the mechanics of the platform quickly. I was good at blogging and that made my rise a lot easier.
You can and will develop skills by trying your side hustle. But if you don’t already have at least some skills and experience when you start, you’ll find it draining. You’ll be outcompeted constantly, and you’ll find your hard work doesn’t pay off for a long, long time.
I would never try to create an online shop selling my paintings because I know my painting level would take years to improve to the point of making any real sales. It’s not worth my time.
4. You’re bitter when others succeed.
There is not a guaranteed chance of success for anyone on any platform. But griping about how others do better than you will only hurt you in the long run.
Nobody’s asking you to worship at their feet or be thrilled for their every accomplishment. But if you’re serious about your side hustle, study their success. If you can’t bring yourself to at least do that, then do yourself a favor and disengage with this side hustle because, for you, it’s turned toxic.
Even on the slim chance your side hustle does start to take off, you will be a dried-up, bitter husk of a person who prefers to blame other people rather than invest in yourself. Is that worth the payout?
5. You think it’s a get-rich-quick scheme.
Many fraudulent creators make their living by convincing you the side hustle they recommend is a way to make money fast, like Finance Girl on YouTube. But it’s not true.
It doesn’t matter how long you work at it, hoping to strike it rich — if you persist in thinking of it as simply a way to get money fast, you should quit before you spend any more time on this.
6. You try to gamify the algorithm.
Many of the questions I get about my success on my blog and Youtube channel revolve around factors that have nothing to do with that success. Instead, they reveal that these creators are trying to gamify the whole endeavor. They think I press a magic button and they want that button too.
“What time should I post? I’ve heard 3 pm is the golden hour for videos.”
“How long should the article be? I’ve heard articles between 850–900 words go viral.”
“Which publication guarantees 10k views? I’ve heard Forbes is a guaranteed hit.”
The answer to all those questions (and their many variations) is this: good content makes money faster than bad content. It doesn’t matter what time you post, how long your content is, what subject you create content about or any of those other random factors. And even if it did, platforms change quickly enough that knowing the answers doesn’t matter in the long run.
If this is you, you probably don’t have the right mindset to succeed at your side hustle. You just keep posting with various hashtags or topic types, hoping it’s the “right” one that will make you blow up. Consistency won’t fix that.
You can try for as long as you like, but creators who chase that magical algorithm button will fail as long as that’s their focus.
We’ve glamorized hustle culture to a dangerous degree.
I love my side hustles. And I encourage anyone who truly enjoys their own to continue. But “just keep posting” is not a guarantee of success. And if that promise is the only thing that gets you to hold on, it’s time to re-evaluate.
If you are:
- pursuing a low-potential side hustle
- not having fun
- not doing something you’re naturally skilled at
- getting bitter
- hoping to get rich fast
- trying to gamify an algorithm
Then the cost of the side hustle isn’t worth the potential of a faraway payout.
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Thanks to Alessandro Butler
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