Why So Many Twenty-Somethings Are Building Something of Their Own

Portrait of a Stranger by Jitao

There’s a weird point in your late twenties when you start questioning your job.

You have the salary. You have the experience. On paper everything looks pretty good.

But you’re tired.

You spend Sunday evenings thinking about Monday. You finish work with no energy left for anything else. And at some point you start asking yourself, is this really what I want to be doing for the next 10 years?

For a lot of people the answer isn’t to quit their job and disappear to another country. It’s to start building something on the side.

More than just extra money

A side hustle doesn’t have to mean building the next big business.

It could be freelancing, selling something online, creating content, photography, tutoring or simply turning a skill you already have into something people will pay for.

Making an extra £100 a month might not sound life changing but knowing you made it yourself feels different.

It gives you another option.

Taking back some control

Your job comes with meetings, deadlines, managers and someone else deciding what your day looks like.

A side hustle gives you something that can be hard to find at work: control.

You decide what you work on. You decide how much time you put into it. You get to see what happens when an idea is actually yours.

And it doesn’t have to become a six figure business.

Maybe it stays a side hustle. Maybe it becomes something bigger. Maybe it just helps you figure out what you actually enjoy doing.

The point is that you’re not completely dependent on your job anymore.

You’re building something of your own.

And sometimes having that option is enough to make your 9 to 5 feel a little less like a trap.