I took a step this last week that may help me with some of my problems. In one of my classes, I’m required to start a business with $20 and by the end of the semester, I am supposed to have earned $100, then donate it through microfinancing. (I wrote this 4 years ago for one of my college classes) I had created a t-shirt graphic and am paying to advertise it on Google. After speaking with someone who has made thousands of dollars on making shirts through internet storefronts like the one I’m using, I decided to make a few more, quick graphics. I now have 3 up in my “storefront” for sale. While I haven’t sold one yet, the possibility and probability is that I will. I’m always looking for passive streams of income. By taking a moment or two to make a shirt graphic and post it online for sale, I have taken a step that may provide another stream of income.
The alternative to how I’m working now is to be lazy or to slack off. I work harder than anyone I know at the moment, but it’s not just about working hard. I work efficiently. My boss and co-workers love me, and I’m getting good grades in all 7 of my classes (I was taking 20 credit hours this semester). My wife has said once or twice that she would like me to focus more on one of the streams of income, and to that I think I could answer the question posed-I think if I worked harder to solve problems related to one of the passive streams, it would likely become large enough to be sustaining (income-wise). I have chosen to do that with YouTube and I have seen results building, slowly. I’ve done my research, though, and have found that most YouTube channels start slowly, then ramp up after a couple years. I’m at the couple years mark and I have seen an uptick in viewership. Now it’s for me to finish school and see that graph’s “airplane” take off (I have doubled my income on YouTube every year I've had channels).
When I’m better at solving problems, I can help others by teaching them the same process I go through to solve my problems. It’s one thing to offer a solution to someone else, it’s a much better thing to teach someone else how to go through the process so they can use that information throughout their life. Then, if there’s nothing you can do, turn to God. He will help out if we have done all we can do.
Our college president spoke prophetically in his talk, “A Steady Upward Course.” The prophecies he gave will easily become fulfilled because of the caliber of people that attended the college and the caliber of people they want to become. I know that when we work our hardest, we are blessed with an added measure. It is a true principle. Frugality is just wise stewardship. We all benefit from it.
Photo by Ilya Shishikhin on Unsplash
Written as a journal entry for a college class I took 4 years ago.