How to Gamify Your First Steps as a Freelancer
The tennis strategies used by tennis champions can work for you, too
As someone obsessed with tennis, I could not help but eavesdrop on a conversation at my local coffee shop.
“Between Federer and Djokovic,” the guy asked his friend, “Who has style and who has substance?”
Well, Federer for style. Also, substance. Then again, Djokovic is a powerhouse and never seems to miss.
I went back to my desk at home and opened up a client’s creative brief, and thought about it some more: What if you could talk about freelancing as you can about tennis?
When I compared the two — freelance writing and tennis — I came to an uncomfortable conclusion.
Are you playing a loser’s game?
In a curious book called Extraordinary Tennis for the Ordinary Tennis Player, Dr. Simon Ramo studies tennis players’ strategy at every game level. He sums up the difference between professional and amateur tennis this way:
Professionals win points; amateurs lose points.
Charles D. Ellis pushes the idea further in his essay called, The Loser’s Game. Ellis goes on to explain the difference between how players view scoring points in a game:
