We can safely see that every single person on the planet has been frustrated by something. The difference between doers, procrastinators and naggers is that doers have a bias for action, procrastinators tend to push forward deadlines to a mythical date when things will be perfect (spoiler alert: things will never be) and naggers find comfort in complaining incessantly.
Most of us happen to be procrastinators. All Network Capital subscribers are ambitious, curious and hungry. We don’t want to do things that don’t work or don’t scale. There is a reputation to protect and there is comfort in status quo.
In this fellowship, we make a case for rapid prototyping and taking micro-actions towards your frustration. Perhaps you find the way people network silly, perhaps your neighborhood is too polluted, perhaps you are tired of fake news..Whatever your frustration is, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
All you need to do is to march ahead and do something small to address it. Who knows where that path might take you…Who cares if the result is favorable…You owe it to yourself to try.
The beauty of weekend projects and side hustles is that they propel us to scale down our vision into something tangible in a few hours of hacking. Instead of whining about why conditions aren’t conducive, weekend projects help you figure how badly you want to do something.
Scaling down is important at times. It teaches you more about yourself than you realize. If you are curious about starting a bar of a pub, you should try to host a weekend popup and see how it goes. Perhaps you will love the experience or perhaps you will realize that it is way too much work and the end result leaves you unenergized. Instead of paying for rent, getting F&B license, seeking permission for music from local authorities to run a massive establishment, try something scaled down.
We know of our community members who wanted to work in investing but realized that their true passion is venture building, aspiring writers who always wanted to write a book but realized they didn’t really enjoy sitting for hours typing out words on their laptop. They liked the idea of writing, not the craft itself. Again, you will know where you stand only if you conduct micro-experiments over weekends.
There is fear of failure and an obsession with perfection that stops many ambitious, capable and curious people from trying. You should be wary of such a mental trap. You goal is not to prove a point to someone but to enjoy the colors and splendors of life.
Perfectionism creates bottlenecks for execution. LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman often says that if you are not embarrassed of the first iteration of your product, you launched too late.
Is Reid saying we should all do embarrassing things? Of course not. He is making a case that embarrassment is a natural byproduct of experimentation and creative people should wear embarrassment as a badge of honor.
Weekend projects and side hustles make us better thinkers by sparking lateral thinking. We are able to develop a broader perspective on the way the world works and what our unique role is in shaping it. Essentially we are able to connect dots better.
Even if there are no tangible benefits, we would have become smarter through experimentation. Principal Economic Adviser Sanjeev Sanyal, in his Network Capital masterclass, said that there are no failed experiments. We test hypotheses through a process of trial and error, we can’t go into them expecting the result we want.
The joy of discovery is indescribable. Weekend projects propel practical innovation, stuff that actually moves the needle. In addition, they add color to our coronavirus fatigued stay-at-home existence.
Gumroad, a company we invested in, was built over a weekend. Patreon, that recently raised $155 Million at $4 Billion valuation was set up in a few weeks of hacking. The first version of YouTube was ready within days as three former PayPal employees decided to act on their frustration of struggling with sharing videos online. The YouTube of today is far more sophisticated but its origin can be traced to a few weekends of trial and error.
You may or may not build the gazillion dollar company over a weekend project or a side hustle but indulging your curiosity in a failsafe fashion has no downside. We hope you consider it.
