Stupid Realization: Being able to find work online will

[Rammsteinfanboy]

Hey

I just realized something everybody also realized (I am slow). If you are unemployed you
can always flip stuff on ebay and craigslist. You can always aquire the skills to do Freelance Work
on Fiverr/Upwork etc. So it doesnt matter what the problem is, whether you are over or underqualified, or if you live in shitty conditions. You just need a shitty laptop and Internet Access.
You can always make money that way.

I bet everybody thinks DUH, but I am truly flabbergasted by my own brilliance.

 

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[Fastlane Liam]

Now the important part: Actually pulling it off

 

[Rabby]

You're not slow, you just crossed an intersection that people have been crossing for a long time.

You're right, you can make money freelancing while "unemployed." But would you be unemployed?

Or you can flip old tools from the flea market, shine up stuff you got off of craigslist, invent a hedge-trimming route in your neighborhood for $50 per house, etc.

Some of these hustles will be better returns on time than others. If you need to be free of a job that takes _all_ your energy, these may be better ways of making ends meet.

I used to freelance in my teens and twenties (writing, web design, and coding at various times) and found in most cases it left me plenty of time to work on my own projects. Even now, I do occasional legal work as an expert witness/consultant for a few people... but I turn down anything that's not fun or not for someone I like.

There's this idea that if you aren't "employed" by someone, you're not "working," you don't have a "job." But these words are like mental short-circuits... they keep you from thinking about what you should be thinking about.

Are you doing something that could be important, or valuable to people? Are you supporting yourself, at least at a minimal level, through your productivity? If so, you are fully "employed," and nobody can say you're doing anything wrong.

And if you can support yourself even in the most basic way, you can start separating your time from your product. Something as simple as making templates if you're a writer, or developing a more efficient process if you're working with your hands, is a start. It doesn't free all of your own time yet, but it does leverage it a little.

And when you start leveraging time, you realize that you can start to delegate tasks. The time leverage makes labor and automation more affordable, and the experience you gain while doing the technical work makes it easier to see how an employee or software investment will pay you back.

 

[The Abundant Man]

True. I see homeless people at the library all the time

 

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