What should you do?

Hello, Unemployables; welcome!

Today, I’m going to break it down a little bit. I imagine that some of you follow me because you are more curious about what it takes to survive as a freelancer in the long term. While I don’t think of myself as much of an expert, I have been doing this for over three years now and have no intention of returning to the workforce.

But first, a caveat: just because I don’t intend to return to the W2 workforce doesn’t mean that I won’t end up there anyway. It is foolhardy to sit here and really think that you will never end up there again. If it were just me or me and a significant other, it would be a lot easier to plant my flag on the word never. But that isn’t how life actually is.

I have six children who are looking up at me to make sure they have clothes to wear, shoes to strap on, and food in the fridge. So far, this has gone really, really well. But I am under no false allusions that things can change in an instant, especially for independent contractors. We have no legal protection whatsoever. If our clients choose to end our working relationships for any reason, then so be it.

So, it is my wish to remain far away from the cubicle farms as humanly possible, but I also have no clue what cards life holds for me.

With that said, I have an admission to make: I really, really do not suggest writing for a solopreneur to choose. Maybe you chose it because a teacher told you that you were good at it. Maybe you chose it because it seemed easier than learning programming languages. Or maybe, like myself, it chose you at random, and you just went with it because there was demand.

But let’s say you are starting at zero. No refined useful skills, no unique and valuable life experience like me (20+ years in professional aviation, doing a bunch of different jobs), then people might not exactly be knocking down your door for your writing chops.

And writing is nuanced. There is not a lot of black and white; either it lands or it doesn’t. Yes, there’s a lot you can do along the way to improve your odds. You can read the masters of copy and pay heed. You can write 1k-2k words a day and publish it out into the universe (this really does seem to help). With that said, if I were starting at ground zero, knowing what I know now, I would not gravitate toward writing.

This is not the email about what I would do; that issue will be coming very soon (like, maybe tomorrow idk). This is me saying that I wouldn’t put on my eggs in the writing basket. I am so, so very grateful for where writing has taken me, but if I were a betting man, I’d learning something else of high value first and then hone in on becoming a good writer by writing about the valuable skill I had learned.

That’s all for today.

Stay frosty, and stay unemployable.

Ready to level up, but you’re not sure exactly how? Let’s talk.