Risk is a funny thing
When I'm teaching at startup accelerators, working with founders, or coaching product managers, one of the points I try to hammer on is the need to identify risks as quickly as possible and mitigate them accordingly.
When I think about quitting my job to go "all-in" on a startup, I never get very far down that mental road because the risk of not having an income is too great.
When I think about relaxing and being content with my (very, very good) day job, I can't help but acknowledge that all my revenue-eggs are in one basket. In my case, it's doubly so as my wife actually works for the same company I do.
The problem I have identified in myself: It's too risky to quit my job, it's too risky to fully rely on my job, and the tactics I teach "all-in" founders won't work for me. I've gotta try something different, so I am!
I wrote a first post here: https://getitbuilt.substack.com/p/a-new-playbook
Last Monday, I sat down with my wife and, together, we walked through all the thoughts floating around my head and she helped me put together a gameplan around a simple prompt:
"You have 2 weeks to put together a live class." That live class (about customer onboarding) is scheduled for May 21.
There's a risk of bombing the class. There's a risk that nobody shows up. There's a risk people show up and don't feel satisfied with the content.
None of those risks are as impactful to me as the risk of not giving it a shot, so here we go!
Investing some of your income is a simple way to become more resistant to your current employer having issues. That's what I did to decrease the risk of having a single source of income.
Of course, a side-gig is always a sweet way to diversify.
Good luck with the class!
I'm doing the bare, bare minimum as far as investing goes. I pay into my 401k and use Acorns to roll over a few bucks every month, but I haven't done much else. Any resources or suggestions for picking up some tricks?
And thanks for the well-wishers on the class. I announced it earlier today and got two signups, so I'm already profitable!
For most of us, the first step in investing is saving some capital.
People tend to spend more as their income increases. The most painless way to save is to stop doing than. Pin your spending at a comfortable level, and save the rest.