You do have to work hard, whether it’s a side hustle or a business you own, or flipping real estate or even flipping cars. Whatever you do will require time and discipline. But, what people mean when they work hard and play hard is that they work more for the sake of pulling in more money to keep playing hard. This is a vicious cycle.
You certainly must work hard to succeed. But, financial independence is not about how much you work. In fact, the goal is to work less, and eventually to not work at all. To get there, you’ve got to rethink what you do with your time and money. Many people blow both time and money that could be used to empower them to gain freedom, working hard and then rewarding themselves for working hard. Break that cycle. Take control of your time, and your money. Step back and re-deploy both toward a greater goal than work-hard-play-hard; the goal of financial freedom.
In the beginning, you can use your spare time to work on your side gig. Once you have a side gig, then you’ll still need your spare time to work on the launch of your business or on the acquisition of an existing business. You’ll use your time and money to acquire real estate.