Side-hustle

Every so often when I was at bp I got itchy feet, fancying myself as an entrepreneur (the type with a final salary pension).  I set up a HelloFresh-style local food business six years before HelloFresh and all its copycats, a ‘proptech’ business providing human colour to estate agents’ details, a blog I planned to commercialise and a few others.  They were side-hustles – and they usually faded once something more interesting came along at bp.

Nowadays with lockdown, many people are starting side-hustles (even second full-time jobs) away from the glare of our corporate bosses.  Even me.

As I said when I got the Innovate UK funding, something clicked in me, setting off a giant panic that now I had to make Familiarize a reality.  I think subconsciously I was viewing Familiarize as the side-hustle to a bit of consulting I was doing.  I’m pretty sure my wife saw it that way too.  Mainly because the latter involved a paying client, rather than a bunch of bootstrapping startups.

But now it’s role-reversal.  Familiarize is the main show in town.  It’s become more formal because of the million hoops I’ve had to go through with Innovate UK.  And because of the formality of hiring an employee.  And finally I suppose because of Yunus, Familiarize’s first real employee.  The fact he’s chosen to work with me has made me take things a whole lot more seriously.

And if I were to practise “Founder 101”, the rules according to Elon Musk and Peter Thiel that would be it. 100% focus, 100 hour weeks, thinking, talking, doing nothing except Familiarize.

All the entrepreneurial lessons from Elon, Jeff, Jack and Peter.  The stuff that was both setting me impossible expectations (and therefore increasing my chances of failure) – and giving me a way out (because I’m not like them and never will be).

So instead I defined a new narrative – one that’s all about being an entrepreneur with corporate experience and corporate skills, and who can apply them to the challenges faced when business-building.

And, not that there any rules if you want to join me, but there definitely isn’t one about having a side-hustle.  For example if you’ve got a mortgage and kids and a standard of living you’d like to maintain.  And if you don’t want to kill yourself trying to build a business.  Oh ,and if you’re not trying to build a unicorn in two years.

So, whilst I’m very clear Familiarize is my mission, marrying my purpose and experience, where my passion lies. I’m going to balance building it with my other responsibilities and things I love.

Part of the reason I wanted to write this blog has nothing really to do with side-hustles – and more to do with just being yourself, writing your own narrative, becoming the entrepreneur you want to be, in order to fit with your lifestyle and those of the people you love.  Don’t get bullied by the posts on Instagram and LinkedIn telling you how to be an entrepreneur, like there’s only one way.

I think my new narrative explains some of the detached feelings I shared last time – it’s generated a deeper confidence.  I hope yours will for you too. See if these things help:

1. Like most things, it starts with what you have (your skills, experience and what makes you happy) and what you want (purpose, dreams, ambition).  Draw a line between ‘have’ and ‘want’ and you’re most of the way there.

2. Stop reading stuff that makes you feel inadequate.  For me that’s a load of Founder posts (probably by 3rd party agency staff who’ve never built a business) with quotes and ‘lessons’ from West Coast founders.  I stopped when I realised it was actually giving me an excuse to avoid trying because I never could be them.

3. When I was at Launchpad I came up with this idea “Power of Both” – corporate and startup, internal and external etc.  I think there’s a lot of truth to it in life.  Stop believing in EITHER/OR and go for AND.  The points of intersection are always the most interesting, there’s less competition and you can often define your own position.

4. AND doesn’t mean lose focus, it’s not about spreading yourself thin, but rather create a new approach or model or way of doing something that gets you what you want.  You can’t be Elon Musk AND your own variant – that’s a route to burnout and failure.

5. Keep stepping back.  As I look back over the last year, my bleakest times, when I lost my way, felt like I should give up, picked safe options over the right options, were when everything felt on top of me.  Coaching, walking, running, diverse networks and mentors, they all help force you out of your head to see the wood.

I’m going to continue with the side-hustle, because that will buy me time to give Familiarize the best chance.  And because it’s part of the mix in this new life I’m building as the corporate escapologist.

That said, side-hustle is a good label for the consultancy I do so I keep remembering that Familiarize is the main show, the headline act, what I’m here to build.

I might be wrong, but I’m prepared to admit that and try another way. 

Because unlike before, what we are now building is all ours.