016 Freelancing is Hard

This episode's going to be a little different than our typical episodes. Usually I'm interviewing top photographers and trying to draw out some of the story of where they've been, how they've got there, the business behind their art and all that sort of stuff, but I also wanted to start just I guess giving some input or advice and little shorter clips that are in the interview format where it's just me talking and this is going to be one of those episodes. I would say that being your own boss is incredible and the dream that everyone should want. And I actually don't think it's for everyone and wanted to just. Yeah, talk about that a little bit and was listening to a podcast by Tim Ferriss and also listened to a lot of Seth Godin. Here's the article from Seth: The world’s worst boss That would be you. Even if you’re not self-employed, your boss is you. You manage your career, your day, your responses. You manage how you sell your services and your education and the way you talk to yourself. Odds are, you’re doing it poorly. If you had a manager that talked to you the way you talked to you, you’d quit. If you had a boss that wasted as much of your time as you do, they’d fire her. If an organization developed its employees as poorly as you are developing yourself, it would soon go under. I’m amazed at how often people choose to fail when they go out on their own or when they end up in one of those rare jobs that encourages one to set an agenda and manage themselves. Faced with the freedom to excel, they falter and hesitate and stall and ultimately punt. We are surprised when someone self-directed arrives on the scene. Someone who figures out a way to work from home and then turns that into a two-year journey, laptop in hand, as they explore the world while doing their job. We are shocked that someone uses evenings and weekends to get a second education or start a useful new side business. And we’re envious when we encounter someone who has managed to bootstrap themselves into happiness, as if that’s rare or even uncalled for. There are few good books on being a good manager. Fewer still on managing yourself. It’s hard to think of a more essential thing to learn.