Want To Be A Freelancer? Just Punch Yourself In The Face, Instead

Want To Be A Freelancer? Just Punch Yourself In The Face, Instead
terribleminds.com

The difference is the endless hand-to-mouth treadmilly cashflow problem transforms into something... well, similar and yet different, but I found it a lot more palatable than the idea of constantly writing blog posts for Calacanis^W^W^W^W^W chasing clients for tuppence a time.

Everybody is different, significantly so even. They have different personalities, different educations, different ways of working, different skillsets, different passions, etc. That's why people have different jobs, different hobbies, different friends, different ways of living, and why people do their jobs in different ways. Saying "freelancing will be like THIS" is about as silly as saying that if one were to start painting their experiences would be identical to Van Gogh's, or Michaelangelo's, the likelihood is comparable. I've seen people of equivalent intelligence, equivalent education, equivalent cultural backgrounds doing the same exact job for the same exact salary and having experiences as different as imaginable. Working in completely different ways, generating completely different results, taking completely different degrees of personal satisfaction from their work, working different hours, and having completely different levels of work-related stress.

That's humanity for you. There's a huge degree of diversity out there, and that's true in every career path, don't insult us by pretending that freelancing or working a cubicle or any other human experience can be summed up in one tidy little package with minimal deviation.

Leaving aside the subject I really like the writing in this post. He created some great imagery. Good Friday reading.

So better make sure you enjoy your work! Otherwise doing more of it is going to make you feel miserable. Just like there are employees that are unhappy in their jobs because of the nature of the job so it happens that in freelancing if you don't like your job you're going to feel bad. Especially if you are doing more of it...

> The hunter lives in a hard world

Yes, but when you are kicked out, laid off, fired then work divorces you. Employment is paper-thin security, you are basically living at the whim of someone else. As a freelancer if you are not 'pipelining' your work you are doing it wrong. You need to set up your rates so you can afford some slack (you are that good are you?), and then you need to push a little bit too much work in to the pipeline working prospects and turning them in to customers. Over time you will find yourself with a portfolio of customers. Periodically you review them and you raise your rate in those cases that you'd rather be doing something else. As a freelancer that is good, work finds you.

> weekly paychecks are a luxury

Yep. So a freelancer saves. If you don't have the attitude that will let you save half of your income on the spot for taxes and rainy days freelancing is not for you. Suggest you get a dayjob in stead until you close the hole in your hand and you can plan ahead a couple of months to a year.

> Also a luxury: heartburn meds and that spleen transplant you really need

I have been self employed for as long as I care to remember and have on occasion paid cash for an operation I needed, but now have state required mandatory health insurance. Things actually got cheaper for me. This will vary country to country, and in some places it's really hard to find decent health coverage as a freelancer. But there are ways around that. Incorporate a company, hire yourself and your spouse as employees and sign up for a package with some health insurance provider.

> Hey good luck with that mortgage

Freelancing requires you to be in control of your own funds to a much larger extent than a day job will give you, and banks have learned the hard way that lots of freelancers can't do that. So don't look at a bank to provide you with a mortgage until you have a solid track record. Meanwhile, nothing will stop you from working a bit harder, saving a bit more and buying that house cash in 3 to 5 years time, staying in as cheap a place as you can get away with for the intermediate period.

> oh, and nobody else will get it either

So what. Who are you doing this for? Some audience? What do you care what other people think about you not having a 'job'?

> You might as well paint a face on a volleyball

Freelancing is the opposite of a lonely life for me! I've met more people than I would ever meet in a regular job. Freelancing has taken me all over the planet, caused me to meet some of the most interesting people. It's maybe time that you 'don't make money', but I've set my rates to compensate for that and am in enough demand that that still works out well. A bit of passive income doesn't hurt either, which is how a smart and savvy freelancers spends his 'idle time'. That way that time will still make you money in the future. $20 per day in passive income is definitely doable on a very low budget in terms of time invested. Much more than that will require you to work hard at a project for well over a year but that's something you will not be able to do in the beginning. Freelancing is a stepping stone to being independent completely, I think of it as a way to make money that has more freedom than a job will ever give you.

> So why do it? Because it's awesome

Then why bitch about it? I think the author should go back to a day job for a couple of weeks. Because if you really think it is awesome then any and all of the above is either 'speedbump' variety or lack of success.

Oh, btw, I did get that mortagage. Maybe find a better bank? The tax break made it worthwhile, otherwise I would have saved just a bit longer.