0:00

So, I just learned Discover credit cards

0:02

do something pretty awesome. At

0:05

the end of your first year, they automatically double

0:07

all the cash back you've earned. That's

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right, everything you earned doubled. All

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the cash back from eating at your favorite soup dumpling

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restaurant doubled. All the cash

0:17

back from that trip where you sorta learned to snowboard

0:19

also doubled. And the best part,

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you don't have to do anything ridiculous to get it. Nope,

0:24

Discover does it automatically. Seriously,

0:27

see terms and check it out for yourself at discover.com

0:30

slash match.

0:43

Hey listeners, hey friends, what's up? Welcome

0:45

to Sadasoul School. Thanks for tuning in wherever

0:47

you are out there. You know, we've got people all

0:49

across the United States and Canada, lots

0:52

of other countries as well. I think the

0:54

last time I looked at the analytics, there are people

0:56

listening from more than 80 countries on a pretty

0:58

consistent basis, which is just so awesome. So

1:01

thanks for being such a big part of the community. You

1:03

are awesome. And of course, I want to get on with the program

1:05

because I know your time is important and

1:07

you're busy. So, this segment is in

1:10

our Failure Friday collection. That

1:12

collection is in fact short stories about mistakes,

1:14

missteps, disasters, and of course, failure.

1:18

All of the non-successes, let's say. Because I'm always

1:20

telling you success stories and we're always hearing from

1:22

people who are getting their business up and running and sometimes

1:24

making a lot of money and that's great. But,

1:27

you know, no business is without challenge.

1:30

No venture, nothing worth doing is ever easy. At

1:32

least it's not always consistently easy. So

1:35

it's interesting to see how people can kind of work

1:37

through a difficulty, what they learn along

1:39

the way, and usually how they end up bouncing

1:41

back in some fashion. Today's

1:43

short story features Billy from Tulsa,

1:46

Oklahoma. Long ago I mentioned

1:48

a story about a guy in Japan who had found

1:50

great success renting himself out to strangers.

1:53

Not for anything weird. I know it sounds weird,

1:55

but he was just doing it for casual hangouts.

1:58

If you wanted to hang out with this guy, you could go and... book

2:00

sometime. He was just a regular person. He

2:02

wasn't like an influencer or anything.

2:04

And Billy thought, let's bring this to Oklahoma.

2:06

And everyone in Oklahoma thought, let's

2:08

not. Okay, so that's the short version.

2:11

But of course, it's all about the details. Let's hear

2:13

the story from Billy

2:15

over to him.

2:27

So there I was, a small town

2:29

factory manager in Tulsa, Oklahoma,

2:32

scrolling through the internet when I stumbled upon

2:34

this intriguing story about a guy in Japan

2:37

who was making a fortune by renting himself out

2:39

to strangers. I thought to myself,

2:41

this is pure genius. Introverts

2:43

and friend seekers unite. This

2:46

could be the next big thing in Tulsa. With

2:49

a surge of excitement and a little bit of naivety,

2:52

I set to work launching my very own

2:54

Rent a Friend business. My

2:56

unique selling point, I would market

2:59

my services to introverts and anyone

3:01

who wanted to make friends but didn't know how. I

3:04

was convinced that I'd soon be rolling

3:06

in cash, helping people navigate

3:08

the tricky waters of friendship in a world

3:10

that seemed to have forgotten how to make

3:13

real connections. I

3:15

invested time and money in designing the

3:17

perfect website, complete with a catchy

3:19

tagline. Don't be shy, give

3:21

Rent a Friend a try. I even

3:24

printed out snazzy business cards and created

3:26

social media accounts to help spread the word. I

3:29

was ready to become Tulsa's very own friend

3:31

for hire, catering to the lonely

3:34

hearts and social butterflies alike. Unfortunately,

3:38

the world had other plans for me. From

3:40

the get-go, it seemed like my unique business

3:42

idea was destined to be more of

3:44

a punchline than a profitable venture. My

3:47

first client, a sweet elderly lady,

3:49

hired me for an afternoon of companionship.

3:52

However, she seemed more interested in teaching me

3:54

how to knit. And this was

3:56

not a talent I had. I

3:59

left her house with a hat.

3:59

finished scarf and the feeling that maybe

4:02

my Rent-A-Friend business wasn't quite the

4:04

goldmine I'd imagined. Things

4:06

did get much better from there. I spent a Saturday

4:09

afternoon playing board games with a conspiracy

4:11

theorist who insisted that the earth was flat and

4:13

that my business was secretly funded by lizard

4:15

people.

4:16

I spent three hours in mostly

4:19

silence, contemplating the life choices

4:21

that led me to this moment. As

4:23

the weeks went by, it became increasingly

4:25

clear that demand from my Rent-A-Friend services

4:28

was virtually non-existent. The

4:30

introverts I'd hoped to help were, unsurprisingly,

4:33

not exactly clamoring to pay a stranger

4:35

for companionship. My clientele

4:38

mainly consisted of eccentric individuals

4:40

who seemed more interested in testing the limits of

4:42

my patience than in making genuine

4:45

connections. With a heavy

4:47

heart and a lighter wallet, I

4:49

eventually accepted the inevitable and

4:51

closed down my Rent-A-Friend business. My

4:54

dream of becoming Tulsa's premier friend for

4:56

hire had fizzled out like a poorly

4:58

planned high school reunion.

5:00

But as they say, laughter is the best

5:03

medicine, and looking back on my Rent-A-Friend

5:05

misadventures, I'm strangely proud of it.

5:07

I may not have made a fortune, but

5:10

I certainly gained a collection of bizarre and

5:12

unforgettable experiences. My

5:15

ill-fated attempt at renting out my friendship

5:17

taught me that it's okay to admit defeat

5:20

and move on. In the end,

5:22

my failure became a lesson in resilience.

5:25

I may not have revolutionized the world of

5:27

friendship in Oklahoma, but at

5:29

least I tried something new and dared to think outside

5:31

the box. And who knows, maybe

5:33

one day I'll stumble upon the perfect side

5:36

hustle and hit the jackpot,

5:37

all while reminiscing about the days when I

5:40

tried to rent myself out as a friend.

5:54

Want to give a shout out today to our partner NetSuite

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to weather any storm. What's that URL?

6:35

It's netsuite.com slash hustle.

6:38

Billy and everyone never confuse a single

6:40

defeat with a final defeat. That's the

6:42

theme of Failure Friday. I love

6:44

the story. I also appreciate the humor and

6:46

the humility as well. So

6:49

listeners, if you have a question or an update for us about your hustle

6:51

or perhaps a contribution to Failure Friday or

6:53

Throwback Thursday, any of our other segments, sidehustleschool.com

6:57

slash questions. Today's notes, sidehustleschool.com

7:00

slash 2337. Once

7:02

again, thanks for being awesome. New episode coming out tomorrow.

7:05

My name's Chris Guillabeau. This is Side Hustle

7:07

School.

7:22

From the Onward Project.