I was working in innovation and I
remember when I first my first day there
I thought my job was all about coming up
with these world-changing sort of
products and services and I realized
quite quickly that you can't disrupt an
industry on day one what you have to do
is build a culture of innovation and my
job was all about working with my
colleagues and with the business so they
had the skills and the confidence to be
able to come up with ideas choose the
best ones and make them go forward and I
think that's the really amazing thing
about innovation is it's a skill it's
one we can all learn but before I dig
into how to do that I'm going to talk a
little bit about hustle what do you
think about when I say the word hustle
does it bring to mind 1970s disco you
know the dance fan McCoy what about con
artists the hustler out to trick and
deceive you or how about the kind of
startup hustle it's called the grind you
know the work hard sleep when you're
dead
this kind of really toxic a mantra
that's going around at the moment I
really love the word hustle because it's
complex it's contradictory and it's
changing all the time but when I talk
about hustle today I'm talking about
side hustle so a side hustle is work
that you do in addition to your main job
it's something on the side that you
often do to earn extra income but it's
also not a couple of things work is
changing a lot now and the gig economy
has really erupted and a side hustle
isn't the same as the gig economy
and it's also not the same as sort of
monetizing a hobby a hobby is something
you do for its own pleasure a side
hustle is most often done for extra
income so let's talk a little bit about
the era of the site hustle so there was
research done last year by Henley
Business School and they found that one
in four of UK adults had a side hustle
it's a huge number and it's not
surprising really work is changing so
fast the whole structure of it the job
for life is gone it just doesn't exist
anymore
people have multiple jobs they change
their jobs faster they have portfolio
careers they become what's called
slushies where you have multiple streams
to your kind of job and that that makes
so much sense because we are more than
our nine-to-five so if you want to do
more or be more it kind of makes sense
to go and do something on the side and
that's a chance for you to use more of
your own skills and experience but it
also gives you a chance to get new
skills and experience it's a really
aspirational thing which is why it's
different to the gig economy which is
often forced upon people so people want
to have a side hustle so I asked them
why and I was surprised that the top
answer wasn't about those skills and it
wasn't even about the money what they
were looking for was fulfilment and that
is exactly what the Henley research
found which was a much much bigger study
a much more rigorous 73 percent of
people who start a side hustle do so to
follow a passion or to explore a new
challenge but we're so often held back
we feel that we don't have the time we
feel we don't have the skills the
experience the confidence these things
stop us starting on setting up something
and exploring new avenues I believe that
if you do want to make ideas happen then
you can
there are approaches that are used the
world over in innovation agencies
they're taught in business schools and
universities that you can learn those
and you can build those skills that's
what I was doing my day job was in
innovation but in my spare time in the
evenings in the weekends I was working
on a side hustle and that's now my
business so it's not a secret how you do
this you don't need to pass exams you
don't need permission to do it you can
follow these approaches and build an
attitude and that growth mindset is so
important because we want to go out into
the world curious and open to ideas and
opportunities and that will also help us
build the resilience to cope when things
don't go to plan because in innovation
and making ideas happen nothing ever
goes to plan making ideas happen it's
really hard work particularly if you do
have a full-time job if you've got
family and caring and other
responsibilities in your life it's not
easy I mean that's why it's a hustle
it's hard work but if you want to do it
you can you can learn from the tools and
techniques that are available to you you
can build your confidence as you gain
new skills and try them out in the world
you'll grow and learn from the
experience and have fun along the way I
really do believe that you can have a
happy hustle you just need to start
[Applause]
[Music]