Don't Start a Side Hustle!

1. Redefine Wealth: Beyond Money to Time and Choice

Wealth is an abundance of passive income, discretionary time, and free choice.

True wealth is holistic. Many pursue financial wealth only to find themselves "time bankrupt," lacking the freedom, energy, and relationships that make life rich. The author's father, despite decades of work, died regretting unfulfilled dreams, highlighting the tragedy of prioritizing money over life's other precious resources. This realization led the author to seek a different path, one where wealth is measured not just in dollars, but in minutes and hours.

Money is a tool. While money is essential to buy freedom and pursue happiness, it is merely a means, not the ultimate end. Society often values monetary wealth as an end in itself, leading people to sacrifice their health, youth, and relationships in its pursuit. The goal is to acquire financial abundance and the time to enjoy it with loved ones, ensuring money serves a greater purpose in life.

The ultimate equation. The author proposes a comprehensive definition of true wealth: Passive Income + Discretionary Time + Free Choice. Passive income is cash flow requiring minimal labor, discretionary time is hours spent as one sees fit, and free choice is the agency to live life on one's own terms. Achieving all three elements in abundance allows for an exceptional life, free from the constraints of traditional work.

2. Embrace the Passivepreneur Mindset: Why Work When Assets Can?

Where we’re going, we don’t need jobs.

Questioning the norm. The "antiwork movement" and "Great Resignation" signal a widespread dissatisfaction with traditional employment, with research showing happier countries often work fewer hours. The "Powerball Question" reveals that most people would quit their jobs if financial incentives were removed, indicating that work is primarily for a paycheck, not fulfillment. This challenges the ingrained belief that a job is the only path to security.

Beyond entrepreneurship. While "being your own boss" is often touted as the ultimate dream, many entrepreneurs find themselves working longer hours for only slightly more pay, essentially owning a job rather than a business. The author introduces the "passivepreneur" – someone who builds reliable, redundant sources of cash flow that operate independently of their direct time. This allows for a life of unlimited time, ultimate choice, and true financial freedom.

Passion vs. income. The myth of "do what you love and the money will follow" is debunked. Most passions won't pay the bills, nor should they have to. Passivepreneurs separate their income source from their passions, choosing the most effective "vehicle" to generate money so they can pursue what they love without financial pressure. Money doesn't need to be the source of happiness; it's the enabler of it.

3. The Power of Exponential Growth: Get Rich Quick is a Belief, Not a Scheme

“Get rich quick” is not a scheme! It’s a limiting belief.

Challenge conventional wisdom. The common aversion to "get rich quick" schemes often blinds people to legitimate opportunities for rapid wealth creation. Believing wealth can only be accumulated slowly risks never achieving it, or only doing so when too old to enjoy it. The author argues that "get rich quick" is a mindset, not a scam, and countless individuals move from debt to financial freedom in just a few years by adopting it.

The penny doubled analogy. Linear growth (like a salary) has fixed limits, but exponential growth offers boundless potential. The example of a penny doubled daily illustrates this: after a week, it's 64 cents; after 18 days, $1,300; but by day 30, it's $5.3 million. The initial slow progress often leads people to quit, missing the explosive growth that comes later.

Work for the explosion. Those who choose the exponential path understand that initial efforts may yield little immediate return. The author's own experience involved a year of unpaid work before making millions in weeks, appearing as an "overnight success." This requires unwavering belief in the exponential potential of building assets, rather than trading time for linear income.

4. The Four-Step Path to Passivepreneurship: From WAN to Stacking PIVs

This is the path you will follow (and I will teach you).

Step 1: Calculate your Walk-Away Number (WAN). This is the precise monthly income needed to leave your job, calculated as your monthly take-home pay multiplied by 1.5. The 50% cushion provides both financial stability and psychological confidence for the leap, ensuring you're not just replacing income but exceeding it. This concrete target provides a clear destination.

Step 2: Select your first Passive Income Vehicle (PIV). Choose one PIV that can be worked part-time alongside your current job, with the potential to hit your WAN in 6-12 months. The PIV must be scalable in two directions: increasing income and decreasing personal time required. Examples of non-scalable PIVs include a single low-income rental property or an owner-operated franchise.

Step 3: Scale the PIV until you reach your WAN. This involves increasing the income generated by your PIV while simultaneously reducing the time you personally invest in maintaining it. The goal is to build a system that generates consistent cash flow with minimal direct involvement. Once your PIV consistently generates your WAN, you are officially a passivepreneur, free to leave your job.

Step 4: Stack additional PIVs to build wealth. After achieving financial independence with your first PIV, the next step is to create redundancy and long-term wealth by adding more passive income sources. The author's journey from Airbnb to online courses, digital tools, and books exemplifies this "stacking" strategy, where each automated PIV frees up time to build the next, leading to exponential growth and true financial security.

5. Master Focus and Commitment: Say No to Distractions

When you say no to most things, you leave room in your life to really throw yourself completely into that rare thing that makes you say, ‘HELL YEAH!’

Focused work trumps hard work. The entrepreneurial "hustle and grind" culture often leads to unproductive busyness. Instead, the key is "focused work," concentrating intensely on a few big objectives that directly move you toward your ultimate goal. This skill, even for those with ADD like the author, can be developed and strengthened like a muscle, leading to significantly greater output in less time.

Three steps to laser focus:

1. Choose what to focus on: Identify the single most important project for the day that advances your ultimate outcome. All other tasks must wait.
2. Choose when to focus: Dedicate a consistent, uninterrupted block of time daily when your willpower is highest (e.g., early morning or late night).
3. Choose where to focus: Create an environment free from distractions. This means airplane mode for phones, closing unnecessary applications, and even using a "bat phone" for true emergencies.

Commitment is key. The "Yes Man" philosophy, while seemingly liberating, can lead to chasing too many opportunities and never achieving success in any. True commitment means "killing off" all other options until your chosen PIV is successful. This ruthless dedication, like a marriage, frees up immense resources and energy, making success nearly inevitable and building character in the process.

6. Leverage Expertise: Model Success, Don't Reinvent the Wheel

Modeling is not about mastering a particular arena yourself, but hiring a master to help you get the same result.

Shortcut to success. While mastery often requires 10,000 hours, modeling allows you to achieve extraordinary results in a fraction of that time. Instead of experimenting and failing, you learn from someone who has already achieved your desired outcome. This cuts the learning curve from thousands of hours to potentially just a hundred, accelerating your path to wealth.

Strategic investment. Investing in expert advice, whether through books, courses, masterminds, or coaching, is a powerful shortcut. The author's experience with Mike Dillard's course and Frank Kern's advice, which cost thousands but returned millions, demonstrates the high ROI. The key is to choose wisely, ensuring the mentor has a proven track record and the investment is likely to pay back within 12 months.

"Who, not how." When faced with a challenge, the most effective question is "who has done this before?" rather than "how do I do this?" This shifts the focus from personal struggle to leveraging external expertise. You don't need to master every skill; you need to find people who already have them, allowing for selective ignorance and efficient delegation.

7. Become a Producer: Create, Own, or Control Income-Generating Assets

Every wealthy person is a producer first and a consumer second.

The producer's advantage. Most people operate as consumers, constantly exchanging money for goods and services. Producers, however, are on the receiving end of money, creating value for a vast population of consumers. This fundamental shift in perspective is crucial for wealth creation, as producers get paid, while consumers pay.

Three archetypes of passivepreneurs:

• Owners: Purchase assets that generate cash flow from day one. Examples include real estate (residential, commercial, syndication), automated businesses (laundromats, car washes), or even digital real estate. Owners leverage capital (their own or borrowed) for near-instant cash flow, though it carries risk.
• Creators: Build assets from the ground up using creativity and effort, often with little upfront capital. This involves long hours and delayed gratification but offers immense wealth potential. Examples include online courses, digital products, software, apps, books, podcasts, or private labeling.
• Controllers: Leverage other people's assets for their own benefit without direct ownership. This is a powerful model for those with limited capital. Examples include rental arbitrage (Airbnb), affiliate marketing, drop shipping, or even controlling attention as an influencer.

Leveraging other people's assets. The author's breakthrough came from realizing he could "control" Airbnb properties without owning them, generating significant income faster than when he was an owner. This "ethical hacking" of income streams, like affiliate marketing or drop shipping, allows for rapid cash flow by leveraging existing products, services, or platforms.

8. Invest Time, Don't Trade It: Work Once, Get Paid Forever

Your salary is the bribe they give you to forget your dreams.

The trap of time-for-money. Most people are taught to trade their time for money, leading to an income that is inherently limited and unscalable. Whether hourly or salaried, income stops the moment work stops. This linear exchange prevents rapid wealth accumulation and keeps individuals tethered to their jobs.

The power of investing time. The alternative is to invest time into activities that generate passive income or have the potential to do so. This means dedicating hours outside of a traditional job to building assets that will pay repeatedly, long after the initial effort. The author's journey involved working 50+ hours at a job and then dedicating nights and weekends to his PIV, eventually reducing his workweek to just five hours.

Infinite Return on Time (ROT). When you work once and get paid many times, your ROT becomes infinite. Creating a digital product or software, for example, requires upfront effort but can generate income for years without further direct involvement. This contrasts sharply with being paid once, where income is directly tied to continuous effort. The right question isn't "How can I make more money?" but "How can I make more recurring money?"

9. Beware the Traps: Over-Planning, Distraction, Scarcity, and Impatience

No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.

Prepare for pitfalls. Success isn't just about desire; it's about anticipating and planning for the inevitable roadblocks. Ignoring potential challenges leaves you blindsided and reactive. Understanding common "warnings" allows for proactive strategies, preventing emotional reactions and increasing the likelihood of perseverance.

Common warnings to avoid:

• The Planning Warning: Over-planning becomes an excuse for inaction and fear of failure. The author spent a decade planning an online business without earning a dime. Planning should be brief (10%), execution massive (90%), always with deadlines.
• The Squirrel Warning: Constant distraction by new opportunities prevents focus and commitment. Like Dug the dog, many become "opportunity addicts," never sticking with one PIV long enough to succeed. The cure is ruthless commitment to one goal, "killing off" all other options.
• The Pinching Pennies Warning: A scarcity mindset ("saving money") limits potential. Wealthy individuals focus on abundance and making millions, not just saving pennies. Asking "How can I make my next million?" shifts focus from scarcity to creation.
• The Road-Trip Warning: Impatience for the destination leads to frustration and quitting. Like children asking "Are we there yet?", adults often lose joy in the journey. Cultivating patience and enjoying each step, trusting arrival will come, is crucial.

The cause-and-effect warning. Many desire the effect (wealth) without being willing to create the cause (sustained effort, delayed gratification). This requires asking, "Am I willing to pay the price?" and understanding that significant results often require years of unseen work, like a Hollywood "overnight success" who toiled for 14 years.

10. The Side-Hustle Illusion: It's a Second Job, Not True Freedom

A side hustle is really just a job you own.

The gig economy trap. Side hustles, by definition, are additional ways of making money, but they are fundamentally reliant on your continuous effort. They are not scalable, lack unlimited earning potential, and cannot be automated. The author's encounter with an Uber driver highlights this: while offering flexibility, it's still a time-for-money exchange with limited upside, essentially a "second job."

Who truly benefits? Gig companies sell both a service and an "opportunity," recruiting millions of workers who contribute to making the founders rich. Those who engage in side hustles are working for those who created the platform, rather than building their own independent wealth-generating assets. This perpetuates a cycle of trading time for money, rather than breaking free.

Beyond the hustle. The side hustle should be a temporary stopover, not the destination. True passivepreneurship involves building PIVs that generate income whether you're actively working or not, providing income redundancy and long-term freedom. Ditching the side hustle mentality in favor of strategically stacking PIVs is the path to escaping the gig economy and achieving genuine financial independence.

Last updated: October 6, 2025