I am at the point of my life where I see business ideas come and go. For the past 2 months I have been thinking, analyzing, talking to people, and being truly honest with myself on what it is that I want to do as a side business, and that will ultimately help me leave the corporate job that I have right now.

The great business idea that I had was recycling, in this case, paper. I thought of this idea while at work, while seeing the over flow of paper we accumulate during the day and the large amount of still being wasted, even when the big recycling bin in the community printer areas where full, got my mind going. I got to thinking that I could start with my office and form a contract with my current employer.

I began the research phase and got my girlfriend involved. The idea got rolling, ironically, on Earth Day. I printed out how to start a recycling business and more material that was 20 plus years old. I consulted a friend at work, if he knew anything about this, he pointed me into some dead-end directions.

I thought my idea was something of secrecy and didn’t want to tell much people. However, as time went on, I realized that this was some hard shit. I could tell millions of people, even people that lived in Houston, there would be no one starting a recycling business.

Recycling is something that is good for the environment and will benefit everyone in the world. Again, as I continued to dig deeper into the business of recycling, I thought it was something that would take up too much of my free time. I wouldn’t have much time to write or do whatever. I couldn’t image myself picking up paper trash from people’s garbage, stealing paper from work (who already had a contracted company taking their paper), or getting day-labors to pick up trash and not providing me with the type paper that I could sell to a vendor.

This idea became a problem, it stopped being something I thought about on a daily basis, It became a chore that I didn’t want to do.

I also realize that I didn’t care about recycling to the point of making it a business. I do it regularly, but to get tons of paper and only make $15-20 bucks was some bullshit I wasn’t willing to get involved in.

When I finally realized this side business wasn’t possible, I became depressed. Not so much because this idea wasn’t something I could see myself doing, but more in the area of being at my job a little while longer than anticipated, because I don’t have any money generated on the side.

I’m back to the drawing board. I’m thinking of the next big thing. However, now I am looking at myself in the mirror and thinking of ideas that I am truly passionate about. I have a tentative plan to make money with photography. I would love to scale it to the point of me not being in the picture, but I need to make the money first before I can allow myself to plan for the future.

I will let yall know what I do next, I believe the book I’m currently reading will help me in this decision, but we shall see.

Even though I don’t have anything right now that I can grab a hold of, I still love the journey of figuring things out.