Preparing for my worst nightmare

Most would be familiar with how bullish I am about self-employment, indie hacking and entrepreneurship. I subscribe to the school of thought that eventually, everyone will be a creator in a creator economy. In fact, it’s already happening, and pushed forward further by COVID-induced remote work. That future is already here, just not evenly distributed.

But looks like before that dream can be realised, I might very soon need to get back into employment. Regretfully.

Freelance gigs are still non-existent. The little bits and bobs of income from my side projects are small change, not enough to sustain a livelihood and a family.

I really want to continue working on them—Lifelog included—but ironically I might now need to get a job to sustain them. At least until this pandemic blows over. Which could mean 2-3 more years, optimistically speaking.

The Spanish flu lasted for two years, from February 1918 to April 1920 in four waves, infecting some 500 million people, or about a third of the world’s population at the time. We are only one year into our current COVID pandemic. Who knows how much more the virus will mutate and stick around for.

So yeah. This sucks. But I got to be mentally prepared to face my worst nightmare of going back into employment. Is it really that bad? Practically speaking, no. On a day-to-day basis, it might not even be very much different from my work right now, since everything is remote.

It’s the loss of autonomy and freedom will be the main killer for me. All in the head, really. My other main concern is if my employer will accept my side projects. If they don’t, would I have to kill them? I can’t ever bring myself to do that.

But if I find a right employer who’s open, it might work. I’m already mentally rehearsing how I would continue to work on my side projects while holding a job.

• Waking up at 4am. Code, write, create. Work on side projects.
• Start work at 9am, end at 6pm
• Rinse and repeat
• Work on side projects on weekend.

Basically, do as many writers and book authors had done. Hold two jobs at once - one in the early morning, and one for the rest of the day. One working for myself, the other for someone else.

In fact, this is the same advice I would give for other indie hackers. Don’t leap. Continue working in your job, work on your own stuff in evenings/mornings and weekends. It makes for a less stressful transition. The only difference is that I’m doing this in reverse.

Now I just have to take my own advice.

I’m praying this goes as far as just a mental rehearsal. But as my runway shortens in the next 1-2 months, difficult choices loom ahead.

As Mark Twain said,

Some of the worst things in my life never even happened.

I pray he’s right.