So you’re rich, are you? Or at least you’d like to be?
Rich is a term that in the past just meant one thing: “Money”.
We thought that more money made us happy. And up to a certain threshold, it does. But once we have a roof over our head, food on the table and some spending money, its benefits diminish.
The new rich is more about people that have true wealth.
What’s true wealth, you ask?
I will give you a definition you may not find in Webster’s Dictionary.
“Do what you enjoy while earning enough money to pay for life, achieve independence and maybe even travel and have an adventure.”
It is not a utopia, as you will have to work and navigate an uncertain future and be on the edge of discomfort. And change has a price.
The easiest way to discover it is with a low-risk strategy. Start a side hustle before you leap into the void of a main hustle (more about this later).
So what is true wealth?
- Being happy
- Fulfilled
- Independent
- On purpose
- Following your calling
True wealth is about all round “well-being” and flourishing. At least that definition makes more sense to me.
And the fast-changing digital world is a two-edged sword. It has brought us more “money” and provided us with technologies and tools that have made life easier. Still, the modern pace of life and distractions tests our abilities to adapt and manage the increased complexity and stress.
The future of the digital world
I’ve always been fascinated by the future. The Dick Tracey watch, Maxwell Smart’s shoe phone and man landing on the moon. And that was all happening in the 1960s!
And that makes me sound like a mid-century dinosaur that tells “Dad” jokes and embarrasses his children. Well, that is my job and right as a parent!
My imagination ran riot in the ancient past. It was fueled by technology magazines such as “Popular Mechanics”, the Dick Tracey comic strip and the 1960s TV show “Get Smart” which ran from 1965 to 1970.
I was excited about the future before it happened. Imagination is a powerful thing. And dreaming that which becomes a reality is what humans do.
The future is already here
That future has already arrived. It has crept up on us, driven by human imagination and technology, amidst fixed ideas and practices of the past that wrapped us up in inaction disguised as truth.
It was all based on outdated fixed calcified thinking that no longer quite works like it used to.
Like…
- Commuting
- Having to face to face meetings that waste a lot of time
- Office towers that are half empty and still have all the lights on
- Command and control by the corporate titans
- Working five days a week in a cubicle that’s now moving into a hybrid work world
The bosses are now trying to work out how to provide the right ecosystem as we move forward. Is the command control environment and management still relevant in today’s post-pandemic world?
Has the trust economy now crept into the office space, and no one was told about it? The bosses thought every employee spent all their days on Facebook and having coffees. Maybe some did.
But it appears that we have underestimated the morality of our employees. We can actually trust them to get “stuff” done.
So what does the future of business and work look like?
It’s a bit messy, and we are still working it out. What was a slow evolution turned into revolution. Ten years of change have been compressed into two.
We knew it was coming, but not at lightning speed. And an invisible virus was the facilitator.
So here are my utopian thoughts on what the future of work (and business) looks like in the middle of this short period of a dystopian moment in time:
Business and work are becoming:
- Remote and local. The new formula looks like three days at the office and two days working from home. Who saw that coming?
- Hybrid and sometimes rabid (It is a bit chaotic, and we are still working it out as we go)
- Contract workforce (these extensions of you can be found on UpWork and Freelancer.com, amongst other platforms)
- We can work from anywhere in the world
- The team is connected and supercharged by technology. The new tools Trello, Google Docs, and Slack have become my best friends!
- Free and low-cost technology platforms enable productivity
- High-speed internet enhances communication. Video and audio. All we are missing is the touch of another human.
- Business is now global and not just local. The opportunities and market size has gone from finite to infinite.
- Collaboration is driven by anonymous trust. We do business with people we have never met. So you need to adapt your business practices to reduce risk. But I have been surprised by how well this works.
- We pay people and businesses from payment platforms that didn’t exist a few years ago.
- We sell goods created by someone else and delivered by an outsourced fulfilment platform we trust (Eg: Amazon
- We work and live in offices that are not long-term leases but short-term and flexible (Eg: AirBnB and WeWork)
- Digital nomads roam the earth bringing dollars and prosperity to remote villages and cafes that don’t speak our language
- Business visas are being offered to the travelers that bring “IP” and dollars to countries that see the future. These are now called “Digital Nomad Visas”
This high-speed reinvention of how we live and work pushes the edges of imagination. This evolution of business has compressed a decade of change and how we work into just two years.
It leads to perturbation. But it is exciting.
And one easy and low-risk way to take advantage of this generational change is to start a side hustle.
A side hustle offers the promise of:
- Being happy
- Fulfilled
- Independent
- On purpose
- Following your calling
- And the world paying you for your creation.
Side Hustles?
This term didn’t reach mainstream consciousness until a few years ago (if you believe what “Google Trends” reveals when you plug in the phrase “Side Hustle”).
It is a “breakout” phrase that has reached peak popularity in just a few years. So it is a trend rather than a fad.
In the past, starting a side hustle was too complex and complicated for many of us. Technology has changed that.
It has never been easier to start a side hustle. That’s why I created Side Hustle Strategies, to show you the way to freedom and surround you with a community that will support you.
Join us at Side Hustle Strategies today. Let us inform, educate and inspire you to start a side hustle that will open up a life of freedom beyond the daily commute and the prison of the office cubicle.