I struggled with this thought for a while, specifically the decision between putting significant effort into revenue generating side projects (I have ideas for a few saas services and a couple domain-specific books that I would likely be qualified for writing), or giving all my intellectual power to my employer and getting a higher compensation than people who have stuff going on on the side (on average, that is).
I opted for the second, so I haven’t done even a single side project in my life and have completely focused on my full time job. It allowed me to quickly grow my net worth and now I’m in the 7 figures after 8 years of full time work, and the effect of having large assets invested in index funds can be felt now.
So, I humbly think my “strategy” is also a form of “passive income through talent, wit, or execution”. I’m 100% sure that if I dabbled with side ideas and put in the hundreds of hours required to write books, courses, ... I wouldn’t have been able to obtain the impact I had at my job, so my net worth would be significantly lower.
As I said though, I thought about it a lot so I haven’t necessarily come to the conclusion that it’s the best thing to do, there are certainly other factors that go in side projects, such as personal satisfaction, pride and sense of ownership, which are only relative when contributing to an employer.