Freelancing Is Not the End Game

It is just a doorway

Working several hours a week from my computer and earning a salary that is well above the average wage in my country is surreal. Freelancing is not the most common thing in Romania, and for some is almost a fairy tale. Nonetheless, it is real, and a great possibility towards severely improving your income. It comes with a vast array of possibilities and eliminates multiple limitations.

The wrong comparison

I am just an early player in the freelancing game, but I am lucky enough to have seen the experiences of other people to have the proper expectations. I don’t think that freelancing can be treated as a job, because it is not. It lacks the structure and the certainty and it is way more chaotic.

A lot of people would be better off with a job, as it ensures stability. Treating freelancing like a corporate job could create the wrong expectations and probably lead to a lot of resentment.

Many feel that trying to work as a freelancer, was mostly a waste of energy. It didn’t exactly bring a higher income, rather it brought a lot more problems.

A more stable direction

Even early in the freelancing world, it is clear that is a different terrain than the corporate environment. Trying to have a stable life and progress in your career, is harder than working with unstable contracts. It can be very stressful and demanding for someone trying to live off that income.

I think the natural path that you might take forward is trying to transform your freelancing experience into an entrepreneurial one.

Having flexibility and more freedom, in general, is one of the most cited reasons for choosing to freelance. I think the entrepreneurial path is the key to ensuring the accomplishment of that ideal. Freelancing is just a stepping stone.

Working with clients, you learn to negotiate, promote and sell your work. It becomes clear that you need discipline and a clear structure for the way you conduct yourself. These meta-skils are essential for an entrepreneur

Gaining that knowledge and understanding will make it easy to construct the systems which will play central roles in your business.

That is on a conceptual level, on a practical note I believe thinking that your freelancing career leads to entrepreneurship is highly motivating. For me, it helps me deal with the hardships that I might encounter and it sets a clear ideal to strive towards.

Why did you escape your corporate job?

I don’t think that everyone should push their freelancing career towards entrepreneurship. For some, it might be too stressful. You might be completely content with what you have and what you can achieve, something that I think it’s completely all right.

However, if you feel frustrated and betrayed by choosing to work as a freelancer because you believed that it will carve a new pathway in your life. You lost your way.

You hoped that you put an end to useless meetings, annoying work experiences, meaningless tasks, and pitiful rewards for your efforts. You might slowly realize that you were wrong.

If you forget why you started, you might fall again into the strong shackles of a job configuration. One without the advantages of a real job, and new ugly challenges.

You need a clear evaluation of why you started and where you want to go, you need to define your end-game.

Entrepreneurship doesn’t mean that you have to create a corporation with tons of employees. It can mean creating assets, like books, courses, and other things. It might be more stressful and even riskier at the beginning but it pays a lot more in the end. It accomplishes the initial ideal, the march towards the freedom you wanted.

You can have yourself at the heart of your work, your craft doesn’t need to be once again, dull, boring, and completely meaningless. Another cog in a more ambiguous machine. Your business can speak about you, about your skills and passions.

Freelancing should start to reflect that, people go away from the terrible jobs and find themselves doing things they don’t care about, and sometimes even hate.

You need to center yourself properly, to launch your being towards that path that you would love to walk.

My end-game is an attempt to create a bridge. A bridge that would permit the depths of my inner world to emerge into the real world. To work, without feeling that I am working, and to simply love what I do.

It is something that I try to remember every day. I believe that having a crystal clear end-game that resonates with your heart and soul, should be the aim for anyone trying to move forward.