We’re living in an age where a matric certificate is barely enough to get a job in a retail store. Likewise, the corporate world looks at a BComm Degree as an ‘entry level’ qualification that produces a salary below your very minimum standard of living. It is perfectly normal for your expenses to exceed your income. But it shouldn’t be normal to continue to hinge on one income stream and dream that someday it could change. In the same breathe, in a world where technology is replacing human capital every single day, how can we even still bank on one salary? In an economy that is staggering in growth, how can we still believe that our 9-5’s are guaranteed to exist tomorrow? One income stream will not buy you the lifestyle of your dreams. So just like a matric certificate isn’t enough to make a decent living, the bare minimum (salary) is not sustainable anymore.
Whenever we hear of the word ‘empowerment’, thoughts like ‘enriching other people’s lives with knowledge and resources’ cross our minds, instead of ‘self-enrichment’. The latter however, would lead to the former - if we aimed at being more than just breadwinners.
Now for most young professionals this may not be the most ‘glamorous’ form of alternative income stream. Nevertheless, it is second income stream helping to make ends meet for someone else. And although the young (and old) are not limited in their imagination, they seem to be limited in their implementation and execution of their ideas.
So how does a young professional begin to create an alternative income stream?
Perhaps consider the following:
Since there are 24 hours in a day: 8 to sleep, 4 to travel, 4 to spend time on recreational things (gym, cooking, lunch/dinner and watching TV). Thereafter, the remaining 8 hours a include preparing for school/work for a good 2 hours (for us women). But what about the remaining 6 hours? For most of us, these hours seem inexplicable. We simply don’t know where those hours disappear to, because at the end of a long day after cooking, showering and watching TV, it’s time for bed. Right?
But what if we challenged ourselves and our busy schedules to find those ‘missing’ hours? To push ourselves and reallocate those hours towards generating extra cash?
time wasted, cannot be recycled
What if all we needed was just 2 out of those 6 hours to build the empires we dream of?
So I say, start making trivial changes today that will make a significant difference in your life tomorrow. If it means starting with selling cosmetic products to your colleagues at work or your ‘vintage’ clothes to your peers at varsity, then do that. It is a step in creating another source of income for yourself. One day you may even move from selling Avon to selling your idea to Branson’s of this world. In fact, Richard Branson himself started small. He started off with a school magazine in college and grew to owning multiple enterprises that create wealth for him and his empire. Again though - he started small.
So perhaps reconsider wasting the extra hours of your day scrolling down your social media feeds, following people who are busy following their empire dreams.
By merely using both your imagination and talent, you can make extra cash without even feeling the time fly by. This can range from baking to blogging or even range from selling cosmetic goods to providing services that only require you and your spare time. Whichever seems viable for you, do it!
If we continue to grow the culture of self-empowerment, we will place less reliance on our day jobs and more reliance on finding multiple ways to creating sustainable wealth. This is what will grow our empires – not only for us, but also for the generation we dream to call ‘The trust fund generation’.
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