About The Side Hustler — and the real reason it exists. This isn’t a typical “here’s my story” page. This is a documented deadline, a real plan, and the honest truth about why I built this site.
The Side Hustler Story:
Most “About” pages are full of inspirational quotes and carefully curated success stories. This one isn’t. This is just the truth about why this site exists, what I’m building, and why 2027 means everything to me.
The Day Everything Changed
In 2018, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
It was caught early. I was lucky. But here’s the thing about hearing the word “cancer” — it doesn’t matter how early it’s caught or how good the prognosis is. Something shifts in you that doesn’t shift back.
For years I’d been living under the quiet assumption that I had time. Time to eventually build something. Time to eventually slow down. Time to eventually stop trading hours for dollars and start actually living. That assumption disappeared in a single conversation with a doctor, and I haven’t been able to get it back since.
Which, honestly? Turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me.
The 18 Months I Don’t Talk About Much
After my recovery, I went back to work. Because that’s what you do, right?
But those next 18 months were the hardest of my life — not physically, but mentally. I’d stand there watching the clock tick down every single minute of the day, knowing exactly what I didn’t want anymore but still forced to show up and do it anyway.
That feeling follows you home. It drains the energy you should be giving to your family. It makes you short-tempered, restless, and quietly miserable in a way that’s hard to explain to people who haven’t felt it.
Eventually my wife and I had the conversation you can’t walk back from. The 9–5 wasn’t just a job anymore — it was costing us time we couldn’t afford to waste. I made a decision that day that I wasn’t going back to that path. Ever.
The Mediterranean Moment
In 2021, we got an invitation to visit a small island in the Mediterranean.
I won’t pretend it was some dramatic lightbulb moment. It was more gradual than that. But somewhere between the pace of life, the food, the people, and the way time seemed to move differently there — something clicked.
Freedom wasn’t just a concept anymore. It was something I could actually see. Touch. Plan for.
That trip didn’t just change our perspective on life. It gave us a destination — literally and figuratively.
2027. That’s the Deadline.
By 2027, we’re leaving to start a new chapter overseas. That’s not a dream or a vague “someday” goal. It’s a date on a calendar with a plan attached to it.
Every post on this site, every strategy I test, every tool I recommend — it all gets measured against one question: does this help me hit that deadline?
If it does, it’s on the site. If it doesn’t, it isn’t.
That’s not a content strategy. That’s just how I think about everything now.
What This Site Actually Is
The Side Hustler isn’t a theory site. I’m not here to explain the concept of passive income or tell you blogging is easy. It isn’t easy. Building anything real takes time and consistency and a willingness to figure things out when they go wrong.
What I can tell you is that everything here — from SEO and email marketing to Etsy printables and affiliate strategies — is stuff I’m actually using to build my own exit plan. Not stuff I read about. Not stuff someone told me works. Stuff I’m testing in real time with my own future on the line.
I have no interest in building a digital cage that just replaces a 9–5 with 12 hours of screen time. The whole point is freedom — real freedom, not just a different kind of busy.
Where You Come In
You don’t need a cancer diagnosis to wake up. But most people wait for a “someday” that never actually arrives.
If you’re here, something has probably already clicked for you. You want more control over your time, your income, and what your life actually looks like. You’re tired of building someone else’s dream while yours sits on a shelf.
That’s what this site is for.
Not overnight success. Not get-rich-quick. Just real, practical steps toward a life that actually works for you — built one system at a time, at whatever pace your life allows.
2027 is coming whether I’m ready or not.
I’m choosing to be ready.
— Lee