My blogger pal Pinyo of moolanomy recently launched a pretty cool news and blog aggregator called Greatnexus.
If there are any Star Trek fans in the house, you’ll remember from “Generations” that “the nexus” was pretty sweet. So you can only imagine what a great nexus would be, right?
Greatnexus got me thinking: are side projects worth it?
I blog here yes, but that is more of a side project for me. But I’m always coming up with other side project ideas. And I would say only about 1 in 10 of them have worked out for me.
So are side projects worth it?
Oh heck yes.
If you don’t even try, you never have the chance to succeed. So long as a side project doesn’t hinder your main work, I think they are totally worth it.
In fact, I’m working on a side project right now I hope to show off in a couple of weeks. It hasn’t been taking up a ton of my time, but it’s been fun, and I think it has some potential.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
DK, thank you for mentioning Greatnexus to your readres. I agree that you should at least try out your ideas. You never know which one is going to take off unless you try.
Side projects are worth it as long as YOU find value in what you're doing. Doesn't matter if you fall flat on your face or it costs you money (nothing unreasonable), as long as enjoy doing it… it's definitely worth it.
I love side projects – they are a lot of fun! But they can also be distracting and take away from the focus of you main projects, or interfere with your personal relationships and other things in life. So yes, I support them, but only so long as you have the bandwidth without sacrificing too much.
Oh yes-yes-yes. Side projects get a gigantic thumbs up from me. If all it takes is time without costing a penny then so much better; and when you actually make a return on that, well… it’s magic.
I agree, it’s worth trying the side projects, as Pinyo said. I’ve started 4-5 blog projects, but only MoneyEnergy has really been worth pursuing to me. But you never know until you try it out. I haven’t analysed really why the others didn’t sit well with me, but they just didn’t. But as Patrick said, be careful that your computer time doesn’t interfere with the rest of life.
My question is, “What would you be doing if you weren’t working on your side project?” If the answer is watching TV or playing video games, the side project probably has a lot more value. Balance in life is always important, especially time with loved ones. How about doing a side project with a loved one?! Double whammy!
Hi Debt Kid,
Just stumbled across your blog (thanks to a few networked hyperlinks).
My personal opinion on side projects is similar to yours. Essentially, I have found with all the successful business owners I work with that they have do things as follows:
1: Live within their means (on a personal financial level).
2: Work in their own business for a ‘Cash flow’ profit.
3: Take the excess cash flow from their business and personal finances and invest for what I call ‘Cash Growth’. This can be done via stocks in public/private companies, starting another business, investing in properties, etc.
The point is that until the first two are in order there is no point starting on the third. It happens when you have excess to multiply (this excess could be time too as opposed to money).
Keep up the good work.