All the Career Mistakes I Made As a Freelance Writer
And more importantly, the lessons learned.
I once read a quote that suggested we think of our career as a climbing wall, not a ladder. It’s an especially apt metaphor for a career like freelance writing, which doesn’t have a single tried-and-true path toward success. There are lots of ways to build a career as a writer, and much of it is trial and error.
You move forward a few steps, you take a couple of steps back, you learn, you move on. Before I took on a staff job earlier this year, I worked as a full-time freelance writer for over a decade. As a firm believer in sharing what works and what doesn’t, I thought I’d reminisce on a few lessons learned during that time.
I tried to do everything on my own
Early in my career, when I was still working a 9-to-5, I didn’t want anyone to know I was pursuing a freelance writing career on the side. Maybe it was pride, maybe it was shyness, but I kept that goal to myself and quietly browsed freelance gig sites and applied to jobs on Craigslist.
I’ve always had a hard time asking for help. But it wasn’t until I started confiding in friends, family, and peers that I wanted to be a freelance writer that I actually began to find work. Much of that work came from my…
