I would say my main lesson is money spent on side projects is money spent on you. It's professional development with the potential upside of your idea taking of

I would say my main lesson is money spent on side projects is money spent on you. It's professional development with the potential upside of your idea taking off. I realized that investing in side projects is a win-win; either the idea takes off or I've gained a lot of operational knowledge at executing on an idea. There is the emotional toll on being tied to the success of the idea but it's much healthier thinking about the idea as a byproduct of your drive to learn something new. This is only for projects that I've worked on alone, in isolation though. I haven't worked on a startup where other people's livelihoods are at stake.