Active reserve duty is the Swiss-inspired alternative to side hustles that builds skills, networks, and meaning — far beyond extra income.

Here’s how to monetize your newsletter in 4 weeks.

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This article made me $ 157.61 in 24 hours.

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You know all those headlines about side hustling on the internet, and you know just as well as I do that most of those success stories aren’t the norm but the exception. It takes a lot of time to build a successful thing, no matter what you’re aspiring to.

Do Something Else

Here is my suggestion: Do something else than side hustling with your spare time.

Most side hustling happens online, and it happens in loneliness: You, yourself, and your computer.

Not cool.

Not a good setting for personal growth.

How about performing tasks for no or very little pay for the sake of your nation and society, besides your everyday job?

Uh, why would anybody do this?

Let me tell you one thing: In Switzerland, my home country, most people do it. We call it the active reserve system.

Get Involved

Originally, the active reserve system was created for military purposes. Instead of keeping a standing army, an active reserve was kept and mobilized if and when needed. This is still the case to this very day, and Switzerland is one of the few European countries that hasn’t abolished conscription — although it has become easier to get out of conscription in recent years as opposed to earlier epochs.

Most officers are active reserve officers. Even as an active reserve officer, it is possible to rise to the general ranks.

Besides the army, most fire brigades in the country are also organized using the active reserve principle. Only the largest cities have professional fire brigades. The rest is called if and when needed. And in contrast to military service, the fire brigades are open not just to Swiss nationals, but also to foreigners living in the country.

In Switzerland, we cherish direct democracy. Direct democracy means that ordinary citizens take charge of politics, irrespective of an aristocracy or a detached upper class. This fosters acceptance and representation of different walks of life in communal and national politics. As a consequence, most political mandates are exercised under the active reserve system — although the number of professional politicians on a national level has increased over the past decades.

The boundary between active reserve and volunteering is grey. Many people who are active in school councils and associations claim they work under the active reserve system — in other countries, you would most probably call them volunteers.

You see, there are plenty of opportunities to get involved: The military, fire brigades, politics, school councils, and associations. Much cooler than spending your spare time in front of a computer, when you have already spent your 9–5 job time in front of a computer.

Build Skills

I am a fierce supporter of the active reserve system. Over the last 23 years, I have dedicated more than 1’000 days of my life to military service as an active reserve officer.

Uh, that’s a lot of time. You spent more time in the military than you spent on holidays, for 23 years in a row!

That is true. But I have built so many skills besides the military skills during that time, that I would do it again any time.

Crisis Management. What I learned in the military has helped me during many crises in my entrepreneurial life.

Teaching. A reserve army teaches its soldiers using reservists. So the higher up you get, the more involved you are in teaching people. That’s an invaluable skill for any life situation, and can also earn you assignments as a guest lecturer or course trainer in your field of expertise.

Knowing your limits. Ever walked 100 km? Confident that you can work through a night and still be productive the day after? Convinced that you can handle difficult situations involving injured or even deceased people? It wasn’t always fun, but certainly something I wouldn’t want to miss.

The military is one thing. I have also been involved in the local school council for some time now. This is a completely different area of activity than the military, but again it has allowed me to build invaluable skills.

Handling the media. Ever tried to merge two music schools? I did it, and I suddenly found myself in the middle of a media shitstorm. I had to learn how to handle the media on the go. Remember the crisis management and teaching skills I learned in the military — they came in handy to assist in fast learning.

Finding back to the roots. My involvement in music and primary school councils brought me back to playing music, something I had stopped 20 years ago. As a consequence of my school involvement, I started playing the saxophone again — now together with my son.

Meet Interesting People

In a society, everything is connected. There is no single entity or person that can solve a problem alone. The active reserve system brings together people from different walks of life, with different expertise and experience. It’s always astonishing what solutions a group of seemingly unconnected people can come up with — just by taking advantage of their different perspectives.

Usually, the professional experience active reserve staff bring to the table helps them find pragmatic solutions you wouldn’t find if you’d missed out on their diverse backgrounds.

People don’t just bring their professional experience to the table in active reserve service, they also benefit from their active reserve efforts on a professional side. Active reserve service is ideal for sharing problem-solving experiences in a new setting. As an entrepreneur engaging in active reserve duty, I am often asked how we handle certain problems in our company. And yes, now and then I am asked to give a demo of our product, leading straight to new leads and customers. And yes, I have hired many people I knew from the military.

I have met many great people I would never have met without that very special system that sits at the foundation of my home country. When I was conscripted, who would have imagined that I would meet my co-founder with whom I would start Yonder, a B2B SaaS company, 15 years later, or the godfather of my daughter who would be born 10 years later?

Conclusion

I’m OK with diversifying income streams and doing more than your average 9–5 work.

I’m also OK with writing online to share knowledge and experience.

However, as a practicing allrounder, how could I write about such a wide range of topics without the broad experience I gained from my active reserve involvement?

I would probably write about how much my latest article made me in the first 24 hours, or how to get rich quickly.