At lunch today I mentioned to my friend that it always felt like I was on summer vacation when I was out and about in the middle of the day. She asked if that was good, and yeah, of course it is! It also got me to thinking about the differences between working a day job and being self-employed.
There's one fairly enormous difference that I never really considered. When you work for someone else, you always have someone else setting the agenda, regardless of your role. Even as the head of a department or in a management position, there is someone else who says what you're after. When you work for yourself, there is no one to do that.
I know that sounds fairly obvious, but I suppose I've never really thought about it. What it tells me is that for all of my self-criticism over non-execution of my ideas, I've never really specified which ideas I should be executing in the first place. Funny how a totally obvious thing can be a moment of clarity!
So the action item, to use corporate parlance, is to list what the ideas are, which are interesting, the work involved, the earning potential, and whatever other factors there are. I can tell you what none of it is, and that's client work. Granted, the idiots I worked for sucked at what they did when dealing with clients, but I don't want to put up with external people like that, always chasing the next project. I like being content-oriented, and making money in my sleep.
The book is still very much on the agenda, I'm just not sure how it fits into the grander scheme, and what the timing is. Gotta nail that down too.
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