Are side hustles really toxic, or are they the best chance young people have to take control of their future?

The cost of living is rising, AI is already starting to reshape the labor market, and it can feel like just keeping afloat requires a huge amount of effort.

Given this backdrop, the push for side hustles and personal brands is understandably facing backlash as a toxic part of hustle culture.

While it's difficult to gain traction, social media offers an unprecedented opportunity unlike anything before, and that’s something we should celebrate, not demonise.

Today, the opportunity exists for anyone to start making content about their passions, to find communities of like-minded people, and to potentially turn those passions into legitimate streams of income. Is that something that can happen overnight for everyone?

No. But is it something that can happen for anyone who consistently puts in the work, experiments with different content formats, engages with their audience, and constantly strives to improve? Absolutely!

I’ve been working at VaynerMedia for the past 9 years and I’ve built the foundation of a successful career here. Because of that, I’m in the lucky position that I don’t need to pursue a side hustle to keep the lights on or have food on my table - I get to do it for fun.

Through my work at Vayner, a leading marketing agency with deep expertise in social media, I’ve managed to learn first-hand about how and why content succeeds, why certain things go viral, and how to build a brand online.

Even from the position of working for a market leader in the social media space, however, my success on social media was very far from overnight. I probably made a few hundred pieces of content before a single thing got over 1,000 views. My mistake in those early days?

Doing the same thing over and over again, hoping for a different result. Eventually, I started to experiment, trying different formats, and started to see certain things doing better than others. I took those learnings, fed them back into my ideation process, and eventually was able to make a bunch of videos that landed hundreds of thousands, or even millions of views.

Off the back of that reach, I’ve had a lot of positive things happen - I’ve sold over £10,000 worth of art, which, while not a sole income stream, allows my artistic pursuits to be just about self sustaining (nice paint is more expensive than you’d think!).

I even managed to take the lessons I’ve learned about making social media content and leverage them to win a trip around the world, when VaynerMedia ran a global contest for its 15th anniversary, open to all staff around the world, to see who could get the most views on a LinkedIn video.

The years of work I’d put into honing my craft on social media before this opportunity arose, helped me craft a viral video to enter (and win) the contest.

Having something that you want to work on in your spare time - not because you have to, but because you get to, can actually provide a great space to unplug after a long day of work. And it also gives you a clear sense of direction around something you want to achieve outside the bounds of work.

That clarity and purpose outside of work meant that when I was lucky enough to meet Simon Squibb, who asked me his famous question “what’s your dream?”, I had a clear answer ready. From that answer, I unlocked further exciting opportunities, eventually painting a 50-foot-tall version of Simon’s book cover on the side of a building for him.

So yes, the dream many have of being a full-time influencer may be a difficult one to achieve, but a side hustle doesn’t need to be something that causes overwork and burnout. It can be a hobby that also provides a supplemental income, and maybe even some exciting and novel life experiences!

You’ll never know unless you try. And you’ll never know unless you keep trying long after the point when most people will have given up.

You can see a side hustle as a toxic embodiment of hustle culture, and as a seed to an unhealthy lifestyle focused on monetising every waking hour of life. Or, you can see it as an opportunity to learn, to grow, to persist, and to unlock opportunities. But only one of these perspectives has the potential to unlock opportunities you never knew existed.

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Aengus Boyle is the Vice President ofVaynerMedia and Chief Paint Officer ArtByAengus.com

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