The best life hack I've ever heard? Monetise what you're bad at | Polly Hudson

Phil Heckels has turned his awful pet portraits into a full-time job. As a blueprint for success, embracing your lack of talent has obvious appeal What do you get if you cross a complete lack of artistic talent with making lemonade out of life’s lemons? Phil Heckels, that’s what – or, rather, who.

The former estate agent from West Sussex has turned being bad at drawing animals into a full-time job after posting a hilariously terrible portrait of his dog on social media. Friends started asking him to do awful pictures of their pets, word spread, and he’s now received more than 100,000 requests. His rules are that he only sees the photos immediately before he picks up his pen, he never restarts a drawing, and he doesn’t spend longer than 10 minutes on a creation. He also refuses to charge for his…