Are You About That Life?
The glitter is usually gold… but sometimes it’s not
So you think you’re about this Freelance life, eh? Are you sure?
Well… before you go and blow that popsicle stand, let me tell you a thing or three…
The ebb and flow from project to project… client to client is the plight of the Freelancer.
It’s definitely not for the timid, or faint of heart.
Along with your impeccable expertise, you need thick skin, patience, organization, and a sense of humor.
The life of a successful Freelancer is very attractive to those of you on the other side of the glass, but what you may not understand is… that while the “glitter” is usually “gold,” sometimes it is not. Sometimes it’s aluminum foil. Or a Double Mint gum wrapper.
It can be “feast” or “famine” no matter how skilled or how well known you are. You are a Contractor and you are golden as long as you have contracts.
In those times of “feast”, we scurry like creatures preparing for hibernation to prevent “famine,” but alas, all of the planning, belt-tightening and penny-pinching cannot shield us from things that are far beyond our control.
Occasionally, a harsh, unrelenting, economic tornado blows through on a blind seek-and-destroy mission weaving through our clients, our industry, our niche like a pinball in a machine on full tilt.
Some of us are spared completely.
Some of us narrowly escape with minor, yet recoverable damage to our lifestyle.
Some of us are completely destroyed and left to suffer in our own personal great depression. Left to grasp at any and every measly opportunity to keep roofs over heads, food in mouths, heads above water.
Selling ourselves short just to sell ourselves.
An ebb and flow, indeed.
If you have the thick skin, the patience, the organization, and the sense of humor to weather the economic and entrepreneurial storms, your phoenix will always rise from the ash.
If not, please return to your cubicle.
You are definitely not ready for this.
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This is my standard response to those who say “I want your life.” If you are “about this life” and living it, I hope you got a kick out of reading this. If you aren’t, I hope you learned something. In either case, please consider giving me a little green heart and share with your friends. Thanks for reading! Follow me… there’s more fun where this came from :)
