Freelancing: Confronting the Big Questions
What am I good at?
What do I want to be known for?
What would I rather do for the rest of my life?
How many of us really take the time to think about these questions? And how many of us are just buying time until we figure it out?
When I decided to explore a career in freelancing, I quickly realized that these were the fundamental questions every freelancer had to start with. Not only that, I had to go so far as to figure out how to package my answers in a way that I could sell to other people for money.
What am I good at?
What do I want to be known for?
What would I rather be doing for the rest of my life?
Where do you even start when trying to answer these questions?
From my personal experience, I seem to come closer in figuring out what I want to do by first learning and experiencing the things I don’t want to do. I was lucky enough to have a brief internship at a pretty big agency, and even though I picked up a lot of new skills and experiences along the way, for some reason I didn’t feel fully engaged and satisfied with my work at the agency.
Although I wanted to be in the digital marketing space, I couldn’t really find a particular role or position that I would be satisfied with. For some reason, the jobs around me didn’t necessarily offer what I was looking for.
So what would be a job or career that would satisfy me?
And thank god I at least had an answer to that one…
If there are 2 things I love doing, it’s solving problems, and meeting new people. What’s a career that would let me do that? Maybe, in the long run, I could be a consultant of some sorts.
But to become that, I’ll need some sort of credibility and network right?
Some people tell me that I’m good at making friends, but what kind of service could I offer and help people with (and possibly earn some $$$ at the same time)?
If I had the to rely on the skills I’ve picked up throughout my undergrad, I would say that I could probably help others with online marketing and advertising for their businesses or stores.
So since that’s what I decided to do, how do I make sure that I’m constantly meeting new people? And the short answer is — to not get tied up with just one company, advertise yourself as a freelancer and work with different people to maximize the time you get to meet new people.
It’s fascinating how at the beginning of every freelancer’s career, that they would have to answer these questions at such an early stage. At some point in life, we all try to answer these questions for ourselves — not just freelancers.
Sometimes when I think I’ve figured out exactly what I want to do with my life, something would just happen that would make me want change my mind and re-evaluate my life all over again. It can be frustrating sometimes, but I think it’s really important to not punish yourself for not having the answers in the moment, and also allow yourself to change your mind whenever you want.
For me, I was lucky enough to eventually find the answer to what I wanted to do and what I was good at, by first asking myself “What would I be doing if money wasn’t a factor?” And then once I had an answer to work with (solving problems and meeting new people), I then ask myself “How and what I can do to get myself to a position that would let me to do that?” And hopefully, with enough effort, I just might succeed.
And while I continue to learn the things I need to work on to be a successful freelancer — I feel like I’m frequently confronted with questions that force me to think long and hard about myself and what I am capable of. Questions that require you to ask yourself things like “what am I good at?”, “What do I want to do in life?”, or “What kind of activities bring me joy and purpose?” are all important and valuable questions that I think every one should ask themselves, and not just freelancers.
