Everywhere you look there are articles, posts, videos, books, podcasts and gurus of all kinds preaching about PASSIVE INCOME.
They make it sound so easy and like anybody should be able to just dive right in and start cranking cash out of that laptop on demand and almost instantly by the tens of thousands of dollars.
But is it TRUE? Is that really possible? Is it realistic for YOU to believe that you can do it too?
Truth – Passive Income IS Real – But…
There is more to the story. Much more than is usually ever mentioned.
To begin with, what so many people are calling Passive Income is NOT passive income at all. At best it is Semi-Passive Income in some cases and more likely and more often will be ACTIVE Income Production in reality. That means real work is required and work that requires ACTIVE production which is obviously not passive!
What I mean is this – there are three basic kinds of income that you can produce. They are;
- Active Income – Having a job is a prime example. Owning your own business as say a mechanic is another. In other words, you must actively work to produce income. Stop working and your income stops. This is applicable regardless of whether you are a doctor, lawyer, baker, plumber, mechanic, bricklayer, electrician, nail technician, truck driver, store clerk, construction worker – or do anything else to earn money. This is true whether you are a business owner operator, independent contractor or an employee. If you must work to earn money then you are engaged in Active Income Production.
- Sem-Passive Income – Here you are going to have to do some work (probably a ton of work) upfront and then some work to keep it going, but it will continue to produce income even at times you are not actively doing more work. For example – I create online courses as one of the ways I generate income. There is NOTHING PASSIVE about creating a course. It takes a lot of work, time and other resources to create and launch each course. But once it is created and launched it continuously produces income for me each and every month consistently – almost passively. I still monitor my courses, check student reviews, respond to the reviews, and occasional questions and other interactions with my students. That is active and not passive participation. Sometimes courses need to periodically be updated. They also need to be mentioned and in some ways marketed to help increase the income from them. Granted, it isn’t as much work as creating a new course – yet it again is not really passive either, at least not completely. However I can take time away from doing further work on a daily basis but even then sales still happen and I earn money even as I sleep, relax or work on other ventures. That’s what I call Semi-Passive income. Keep in mind also that to increase my income requires me to create more courses and to improve the value of my existing courses along with doing at least some kind of marketing. You can do the same, and it will require the same from you to achieve results too.
- Passive Income – True passive income requires nothing further once the source has been established. For example – you buy stock and that stock takes off and becomes insanely valuable. You get paid periodically without doing anything else. Another example would be that you invest in a company directly in exchange for a percentage of the profits. If the company does well you get paid periodically without doing anything else. That is passive income. Some people claim that real estate rental income is passive income – it isn’t. If you know anything about real estate investing and property management you know that finding, screening, renting to and managing tenant relationships and your properties themselves (maintenance, repairs, etc.) requires a significant amount of WORK. Even if you pay a competent property manager you are still going to have to actively interact with that manager and manage your relationship with him or her – or your investments will very likely suffer.
What the internet loves to call passive income is nothing close to passive most of the time.
Why I think It Matters and Why You Need to Know This…
When you have the truth you also have accurate information upon which to base your decisions. Some income production opportunities are better than others and some are more suited to you than others are. Finding those right for you, and then going into them with a clear and reality based understanding of how much work is really needed, along with knowing what results are realistically attainable and how long you are going to have to work at it to get it to start producing results helps you make better decisions. Better decisions help you build a better life.
Start Building Your Own Income Production Sources Now
Find an opportunity that works for you. Learn about it. Then get started.
Keep in mind that the reality is that you are most likely going to have to work hard and invest time, energy and even some money to get your business off the ground. By the way, if you intend to make money with it – then pursue it that way from day one – as a BUSINESS.
That means you are going to have to WORK.
I know that isn’t popular with some people to say so, but they are doing you a huge disservice by feeding you a bunch of false promises that are not going to pan out. Instead expect work, prepare to do that work and then get to work!
Over time as you learn more, and as you begin to produce income and reinvest some of it back into your business it will get easier. Keep doing that and you will have more and more leverage.
Thanks for reading – and check back often! Better yet go ahead and join our brand new Facebook group!