Living on your own terms

The bulk of my writing on this blog is about the mechanics of freelance writing: how to land clients, how the Upwork platform works, how to get good-paying clients, and so on.

But there is more to it than the nuts and bolts of how to make it work. These steps are critical to making it work, but there is a more profound, more philosophical question: why you should do this?

Individual Freedom Begins With Vocational Freedom

Your individual liberty begins with how you make your money. Unfortunately, all of us alums of public education were well-conditioned to accept the bad practice of sitting still for eight hours a day and having our creativity broken.

So we went to work. Or we went to college for a few years, maybe picking up a semi-useful skill…and a hefty bill. Then we went on to work.

Somewhere along the way, we decided that forty to sixty (or even eighty) hours a week is a fair trade for a livable wage.

“The bennies made it worth it.”

But did they really? Are there any benefits that make up for trading that much of your life away? Maybe you need those health benefits due to the years of stress you subjected yourself to along the way when staying healthy all along would have prevented it.

The average American worker spends around 100,000 hours of their life at work. That’s about eleven years cumulative. Eleven years of your life at work. And those numbers assume a minimum forty-hour week.

But we have also been trained to be workaholics. It’s the only way to get ahead. You need to put in the hours to get noticed. Once you make partner, you’re on easy street.

I put in the hours. I spend a good half-dozen nights a year sleeping in my office. Oh yes, I put in the hours. Yet, when I resigned last year, I didn’t get so much as a thank you. In fact, on my way out, my director asked why I was leaving. He didn’t even know what we were being asked (or forced) to do.

Nobody at your work cares about you as your family does. Nobody cares about you as you care about yourself.

Freelancing is the Easiest Vehicle

The demand for online content writers is growing, and the demand is high, and growth is steady. In the U.S., roughly 41 percent of the workforce freelanced in 2020. Roughly a quarter of all Americans freelanced in 2020, growing nearly twenty percent since 2014. Over seventy percent of hiring managers plan to either sustain or increase their reliance on freelancers over the next six months.

The beauty of the freelancing game is that threshold of entry is so simple. Nobody cares about your educational pedigree unless the job specifies it. Otherwise, they are only interested in your body of work. Do you have a track record of delivering the goods? Establish social proof and build a portfolio. Leverage social media and slide into them DMs

Don’t be shy about this. Hiring managers expect this practice. It’s how you get on their radar.

I don’t care about freelancing nearly as much as I care about having the freedom to do as I please, and you shouldn’t either. Freelancing is just the vehicle to get there. It’s the best vehicle because it’s the fastest way to increase your pay and rates while decreasing your workload. If you leave a $30/hr job, you can cut your working time in half by charging $60/hr. It is actually as simple as that.

And, of course, if you're ready to learn more, smash the link ⬇️. There is no time like the present.