My friend T.K. recently struck up a conversation with his Uber driver in San Francisco. Let’s call him Cal. Cal is retired and driving for Uber as a way to get out and engage in stimulating conversations with passengers who are randomly selected via the Uber app to receive a ride. Tourists heading to the airport. An administrative assistant bound for her job with a hedge fund in the Financial District. A tech entrepreneur like T.K..
What’s even more interesting is that Cal takes all his driving income and donates it to his favorite charity. He doesn’t need the money. He wants to be part of the rich fabric of living in the Bay Area and give back at the same time.
More and more “just-in-time” roles like Uber will be available to us, but wider in scope and contribution than driving for a private car service. What if you could be on call every Tuesday afternoon for a bank as a small business lender? What if you could create a storyboard for a commercial video while waiting in the airport boarding area for your flight?
One of the benefits of “drop ship” expertise is that you may finally recognize the value of what you know (or who you know) to close the gap between your true economic value and what someone might pay you as the “going rate” as an employee. By generating income in short, intuitive bursts (where your skills and expertise are super-deep), you keep tremendous flexibility for family commitments, travel or other personal pursuits.
All you need is someone to create the right marketplace, in order to connect talented, experienced individuals and corporate needs for services. Once that occurs, and you win the bid for the work, what you do with the income is 100% up to you.
– Jon Obermeyer