Your Passion Project Is Just Your Second, Worse Job
The packing tape screams off the roll. It’s a sound that has burrowed its way into the part of your brain that used to register birdsong or laughter, and now it just means another order is done. Your thumb joint aches from pressing the tape down, tracing the seams of a cardboard box that smells faintly of dust and industrial glue. The thermal printer on your desk, a squat black box you bought with your first $233 of profit, spits out another shipping label. It’s 11 PM on a Sunday. The fluorescent glow of your monitor is painting shadows under your eyes, and the joy you once felt creating these little things-these hand-poured candles, these polymer clay earrings, these custom pet portraits-has been replaced by the dull, metallic taste of a deadline.
This isn’t a business. Not really. It’s a ‘passion project.’ A ‘side hustle.’ You sold it to yourself as freedom, a creative outlet that also pays for itself. But as you stare at the 13 orders left to pack before you can even think about sleeping ahead of your real job’s Monday morning meeting, a cold realization sets in. You haven’t created a new stream of income. You’ve just created a second, worse job. It’s a job with no sick days, no benefits, no HR department, and a boss who is a relentless, perfectionistic, exhausted version of you.
Success Rate
Success Rate
The















