Calling All Hustlers
How working for myself changed me and can change the world
I started working for myself by accident.
My 9–5 wasn’t giving me what I needed. I was sick of people telling me how much to work, when to work, and what I was worth. I was constantly bitter about the constraints on my life, but at the time, I didn’t know that there was a viable alternative.
So about six years ago I quit what, on paper, was the best job I had ever had. I started doing contract work as a stopgap as I tried to figure out what my next thing was.
Working for myself long-term was never the plan. My parents own their own business and I told myself growing up that I never wanted that. They have been very successful, but I also saw how stressful it was weathering up and down markets, being responsible for other people’s livelihoods, and working all the time to make sure everything was running smoothly.
But the universe had other ideas.
After a few attempts at careers, partnerships, and other ventures I realized that I actually couldn’t work for someone else. Not that I couldn’t have made it work — I had opportunities to partner with great people on what would have been lucrative and interesting work — the thing I realized was, in working for someone else, I would still be…
