I’m a big fan of the freelance life. I should be, because I have been freelancing for most of the last 32 years.

I have raised four sons. I am raising a daughter. I have lived in two different countries and, here in Canada, have lived in four different provinces. I have worked on the kinds of projects I choose and enjoy. I can’t be downsized. I can’t be fired. And I love what I do.

What’s not to like about being a freelancer?

Let’s look at 3 ways in which freelancing truly rocks.

As a freelancer, I can focus on what I do best.

This doesn’t often make the top10 list of reasons to become a freelancer, but for me it’s huge.

Over the last couple of decades I have been an employee three times. Each time I lasted about 12 months before becoming a freelancer again. There was nothing wrong with those three companies, but in each case I ended up being asked to do work that was not central to my core skills.

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Let’s take part in a simple thought experiment…

Imagine we have a mutual friend, called Jane, who wants to start a home-based business…baking cakes.

First she goes to evening school and learns some professional-grade baking skills. Once she feels she has the level of skill she needs, she builds a beautiful website and opens her doors for business.

How do you think Jane will do?

Although we both want her business to thrive, in all honesty she probably won’t have much success. Perhaps she could sell enough cakes to call what she does a hobby, but she almost certainly won’t make a decent living.

How come?

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austinkleon:

After 25 or so years of directing, Steven Soderbergh is retiring from film. A few great bits:

“Just make stuff and don’t agonize over it.”

I was watching one of those iconoclast shows on the Sundance Channel. Jamie Oliver said Paul Smith had told him something he hadn’t understood until very recently: “I’d rather be No. 2 forever than No. 1 for a while.” Just make stuff and don’t agonize over it. Stop worrying about being No. 1. I see a lot of people getting paralyzed by the response to their work, the imagined result. It’s like playing a Jedi mind trick on yourself, and Smith is right. That’s the way I’ve always approached films, the way I approach everything. Just make ’em.

How to learn anything: identify your heroes, figure out what they did, then get going.

On learning to paint:

What’s exciting is to feel at the very beginning of something. It’s also terrifying starting from scratch, but panic has always energized me. It’s the same process as anything: identifying who your heroes are, figuring out what they did, and then just going and doing it. I can stare at my Lucian Freud book for hours and hours, but at a certain point you have to go to the wall and imitate. … I’m always curious to hear how something was made—though I have no interest in why an artist did something, or what his work means. Like with Jackson Pollock: I’m always interested in what kind of paint and canvas he used, I just don’t want to know what he meant. You’re supposed to expand your mind to fit the art, you’re not supposed to chop the art down to fit your mind.

Steal from everywhere.

The very idea that someone from Congress can’t take something from the other side because they’ll be punished by their own party? That’s stupid. If I were running for office, I would be poaching ideas from everywhere. That’s how art works. You steal from everything.

Great read.

As a freelancer, I often forget that there are valuable books out there in addition to all of the online reading I do. Recently, though, I’ve taken back up the art of reading a book, rather than just blog posts. And I’ve found a world of knowledge I had been sorely missing.

The following list of 15 freelance business books are ones that I would recommend for any freelancer to own. A few are industry specific, but most are ones that freelancers in any field can benefit from, whether you’re a graphic designer, freelance writer, or specialize in another niche.

The complete article…

In our culture we are under a lot of pressure to be the best. When we sit exams, go to job interviews, have job reviews, come up for promotion…and so on.

We also live in a culture that is obsessed with competition, and seeing who comes out on top.

Who is going to win the Superbowl? Who is the best golfer in the world? Who is the best supermodel? Who has the best garden on your street? Whose kid did best in the school play?

In other words, we are under pressure to be winners. If we are not winners, well, we are losers. And in North American culture, nothing is worse than being a loser.

As a freelancer, you need to distance yourself from this cultural narrative.

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lessig:

A week ago today, Aaron gave up. And since I received the call late Friday night telling me that, like so many others who were close to him, I have not rested. Not slept, really. Not connected with my kids, at all. Not held my wife except to comfort her tears, or for her to comfort mine.

Instead…