I think it’s now as clear as daylight that the youngest members of Generation X and pretty much all Millennials think a bit differently about the old adage of transitioning through school and then immersing oneself in an employed career until retirement age. We don’t want to be tied down like that and if there is a better way to make a living – a better way to make a good living, why not go for it?
It’s not as easy as many life coaches, mentors and the likes make it out to be though, but it definitely can be done if you have the right approach and if you keep at it. Generating a passive income with a skill you acquire and develop entails one additional element which unfortunately needs to be discovered by you and that is just exactly what skill it is that you’re going to acquire and develop.
Align Your Interest(s)
There is nothing in this world which is better than doing something you really love and then earning money from it. The very idea of this has unfortunately become somewhat of a cliché with many people not even giving it a shot anymore, but succeeding at it starts with being honest about your interests. What are you really interested in; never mind the idea you might have about that interest’s monetisation potential?
That’s where you should start and to walk you through a very loose example so that you can get the gist of the idea, let’s say your one true interest is gambling, to the tune of playing Texas Hold ém Poker to be more specific. You like being in the mix and stretching your mind to its limits and you just enjoy participating in something for which there is some sort of accolade to collect.
Right…
Learn the Technical Skills
The next step is to learn some technical skills associated with either the production channels of your interest or with its promotion. So if you love playing poker you would learn the ins and outs of how it’s played to start off with, then you’d learn about competitions you can enter, online platforms you can perhaps play on, poker events, etc.
Hone Your Skills through Practical Application
Sticking with the example of your interest lying in the game of poker, if you were to take a closer look at pretty much all other casino games in existence, you’ll realise that they’re all pretty much a variation of poker, even if only in the slightest bit. So honing your poker skills can take the form of using an online roulette simulator for some practice and doesn’t only take the shape of playing the actual game of poker itself.
You hone your identified skill by learning about the entire industry surrounding it, after which case you can then monetise it in a number of different ways.
Sell Your Knowledge and Experience
There are many ways through which to sell your knowledge and expertise, the best of which are those which can generate you income passively. If you’ve established yourself as a poker ace for example and you’ve made a name for yourself, something like hosting a paid, recorded webinar on poker strategies would be a better route to take than something like attending poker conferences and being paid to give a live talk. Focus on building up the passive channels first, then you can engage in some of the active channels if the mood takes you.