Mooning the Merry-Go-Round

“As the effects of the Great Recession grow weaker and weaker, moonlighting may provide a side benefit for you.”

Build new skills:  Try out a startup by the light of the silvery moon.

Mooning.

A grand ritual practiced not that long ago along the rails connecting San Diego to Los Angeles.

In LA chances are high that your server, bartender or barista like at the cafe in Atwater Village is moonlighting while waiting for their big break in the entertainment business.

Instead they feel like they’re stuck on a never ending Merry-Go-Round and can’t get off.

The last time I checked, in the throws of the Great Recession, the primary causes for the explosion of moonlighting and working second jobs were no surprise: layoffs, cuts in wages and rising expenses.

• In 2009 employees averaged a 33-hour work week; during the first 6 months of 2009 7.5 million people (or just under 15%) of workers held multiple jobs.
• As if you could blame them, 28% felt less satisfied in their jobs if they had one compared to 2008.
• And, 68% confirmed they weren’t making as much as they desired.

Is taking on a second job the right choice for your?

Career-shifters need to take a step back and ask themselves four questions before jumping into a second job.

In your heart of hearts:

• Who are you and what do you really, really want?
• Where are you now and why are you there?
• What will you do about it and how will you do it?
• Who are your allies and how can they help?

As the effects of the Great Recession grow weaker and weaker, moonlighting may provide a side benefit for you.

Not too long ago I read about a Vice President of Sales working full-time marketing technology systems to restaurants.

So, by day he’d come in contact with servers, bartenders, baristas, you name it – many working to pay the bills, but aspiring for a creative life.

“At night he works on his start-up, boolaka.com, a social-networking site for independent filmmakers that’s something like LinkedIn meets YouTube meets the Sundance Film Festival. 

Filmmakers and others in the business can post their needs for a project or resumes seeking work and resources, tools, and expert advice to get a project done and noticed and upload finished films for visitors to watch.”

Does all this work sound crazy to you?

Here’s the upside for him.

• He thrives on the constantly evolving challenges of a start-up.
• And, more importantly it keeps him from getting burned out on the job.
• He makes a break.
• He doesn’t obsess over his daylight job.
• He unplugs by pursuing his passion.
• And, he comes back to work recharged with a new perspective for tackling a new set of problems.

If he manages not to stay up too late and pursues his business model, he’ll be able to make money “while he sleeps.”

Or said a different way, he’ll be able to turn his passions into deposits using his very own knowledge banking system.

He will have built himself a mobile knowledge company (Mobile KnowCo) featuring virtual “Knowledge ATMs.”

Even better, those deposits free him to live anywhere else he wants.  Minnesota, Austin, Texas or Lake Tahoe, California.

More on that later …

An excerpt from Book Two in “The Knowledge Path Series” dedicated to helping you pick the right business model that harnesses your passion, freedom and independence.