One year ago today we were celebrating July 4 with grandchildren in Wisconsin Dells. Floating down the Lazy River at a water park, eating hot dogs, and later watching fireworks from our hotel balcony. It was a grand way to celebrate our nation’s independence!

This year we are hunkered down in Arizona with families thousands of miles away. There will be no fireworks here, but there are still hot dogs and we may splash alone in the pool. It has been a strange year — a triple whammy of COVID-19, riots, and a deteriorating economy. A time to reflect on where we have been, and where we are going.

If you are suffering economically, perhaps it is time to consider a course change. Maybe a side-hustle, or maybe a more drastic move like you own JumpToConsulting. 

It took two economic setbacks for me to finally see the light of personal independence.  

• The first setback was a layoff from my first engineering job (with a wife eight months pregnant.) That started me on a path of side-hustles and eventually my independence from corporate bureaucracies.
• The second setback was suddenly being fired from a startup I helped launch. That led to my first JumpToConsulting, which failed after three months. But I learned a lot, and the next time I jumped I succeeded.

I offer the above examples as encouragement. If you are sequestered at home, this is the perfect time to consider, and then initiate changes. Either as part time side-hustles, or full time jumps to something better.

• For side hustles, I recommend the free daily Side Hustle School podcast by Chris Gullibeau, which has now run for several years. Over 1000 examples of successful side hustles. And check out his books Side Hustle & the $100 Start Up.
• For consulting, I recommend riding along here at JumpToConsulting. Over 300 blog posts. Join us for the free monthly teleconference, and view the free 45 minute IEEE webinar I recorded last year, So You Want To Be a Consultant. More to come.

Happy Independence Day! In spite of our problems, we still live in the land of opportunity even as we continue to work on our founding fathers’ dream of a more perfect union.

We still have a ways to go, and I challenge anyone reading this to continue to work on that dream, both at the personal level and at the larger community level – to make the world a better and fairer place with freedom for all!

In the spirit of the holiday, you may also like:

• Independence Day Musings – 2011
• Happy July 4th – 2018

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