You’re Allowed to Ghost Your Side Hustle
Side hustles are like a drug. It’s really hard to quit your side job.
When you work on your side hustle, it represents potential. With a side hustle, you feel like you’re just a few steps away from freedom. There are tons of voices in your ear telling you to keep going no matter what, continue grinding, turn time into money.
You’re tempted to give and give to your side hustle until it fulfills your dreams. It’s hard to step away. But I am here to tell you: you’re allowed to quit your side job.
Quit your side job if it doesn’t spark joy.
Paraphrasing from Marie Kondo here. Why did you start your side hustle? Maybe you’re good at making earrings and someone told you they’d buy some from you. Maybe you started a small business creating earrings.
Maybe that’s going great. But maybe you’re balancing that plus a full-time job, time with family, and a running habit. To make your business successful, you’re trying to post on Instagram, do the right strategies with Etsy, maybe even make a TikTok (all of which are suddenly deemed necessary to grow a business).
And you’re tired. Something you used to do to unwind in the evenings has become an obligation.
If that’s you? Quit your side job. Ghost it. Close up shop and never explain why. It might turn into a success one day, but at what cost? How much time will you have poured down the drain?
Quit your side job if you miss out on friends.
“Hey Zulie, are you coming tonight?” Abbey texted me.
“Yeah! I’m on my way! Just gotta finish something up,” I replied.
I was not on my way. I was scheduling my cats’ Instagram posts for the week, writing captions, trying to change up the hashtags. It took me an hour to find the right shots and edit them to perfection. I showed up late to the party and missed half the fun. That was not the first time.
My cats’ Instagram account was bringing me some free cat stuff, but no money despite growing it religiously for two years. I traded time with friends for minor internet celebrity (on behalf of my cats) which is something I regret to this day.
I ghosted that account. I post occasionally, but maybe 1–2 times a month rather than the daily post I maintained. I got back time, energy, and priorities. I consider that a fair swap.
Quit your side job if you’re half-assing your current job.
I encourage people to cheat on their day job with their side hustle if you can keep up your work quality. If not, you’ll feel guilty. Is a small monthly income worth that emotional turmoil?
Most side hustlers I know take pride in doing good work. That goes for 9–5s, not just side jobs. You might pooh-pooh the idea now, but you might find yourself balancing a dream on one hand and subpar work on the other. It feels like crap.
I maintained my blog side hustle through two jobs. For the first, it was fine and I could easily keep up my high standard of work. For the second, I struggled more. At that point, I stopped working and went full-time on my side gig. Part of it was the income, the allure of being my own boss, fulfilling my dream of being a stay-at-home cat mom/blogger, but part of it was that I hated doing a bad job at anything, even a job I didn’t love.
If you’re sacrificing your ethics at the altar of your side hustle, maybe it’s time to rethink it. Ghost your side hustle and dedicate yourself to your job. There’s no shame in that.
Or, don’t quit your side job.
If you’re reading this and none of the above apply to you? Great. Don’t ghost your side job. I didn’t write this to encourage you to quit, but rather to challenge the idea that a side hustle is worth everything you have.
We romanticize the idea of spending long, hard hours working on our one true passion. That comes at a cost — either your energy, your time, or your morals. Sometimes it costs all three.
If any of this rings true, then don’t feel obliged to keep your side hustle. Don’t feel shame for giving up. You can always try again later. Until then, re-dedicate yourself to you.