Thinking to quit your day job and kiss corporate life goodbye? Want more excitement, money, influence, freedom? Think quitting corporate life and entering freelance theatre of operations will get you it all? May be… May be not.
Why just not having it all while keep kissing your corporate life?
I was freelance trainer during .Com euphoria around 2000’s and I was doing really good numbers, having lots of fun, enjoying freedom and influencing lots of folks. I kissed my freelance life goodbye in sake of corporate life. Why?
Excitement
Training was about showing the world how to do things generally. I was in search of real world challenges. My desire was to find work place choked with software technologies. The ultimate goal was being responsible for solutions that make these technologies friendly each to other and to people too. And so I did. I got hired as a developer with technology department at one of the nation’s largest financial institutes. What I realized that there were many fantastic professionals who were ready to share their experience. I also found out that these professionals were great in their areas but when it came to communications, no one understood each other well. Opportunity smiled at me with its big smile. I found my niche - technology and human integration. Database and network professionals, Mainframe personnel and Web developers, and few more all knew I know who could know. I was known to know who knows, few times I even provided solution myself, few of them in production even today. Is not it exciting helping people solve their day to day problems?
Lesson I learned: every corporation is full of opportunities and potential. Look around, spot your niche, and offer value proposition - you will be rewarded by self realization. Exciting enough for you?
Money
What is money for you? Income or revenue? To me it is the bottom line - income minus investment plus excitement. When your offer is time based as with the case of training and consulting, time ultimately influence your bottom line. Corporation removes many of the operational costs - marketing, sales, billing, and much much more. Freelancer must invest resources in it, either his own time or outsourcing it. That does not add to the bottom line. You can bring your brilliant idea to live inside the corporation - make sure it is aligned to corporation’s vision and strategy and that your management buys in.
Lesson I learned: establish your start up inside the corporation and enjoy its operations services while focusing on what you love and getting paid strictly for that.
Influence
How much influence can be achieved if you are start up or freelancer? I mean in short term, like 6 months. I doubt if any. How about changing the development process organization wide? 1000 developers start developing the way you defined. How about changing the whole offerings lines and marketing process by only adding new angles to it?
Lesson I learned: when you spot your niche, make sure it has great impact. Once done, work hard to achieve real results. Nobody can argue with facts.
Freedom
I think it is all about your manager. I hardly believe that your manager loves micro-management. If she does - quit your job now!The only thing your manager wants from you is having you hit your goals. Proactively showing constant progress is the way to make it.
Lesson I learned: help your manager to free you. Agree on clear goals, strategy, and guidelines. Once agreed - achieve incremental results and proactively report progress on timely basis.
I am not a millionaire, but I think I am well off. I am full of passion with what I’m doing, I breath with full chest, I have my circles of influence. I am Alik, the-average-corporate-worker, former freelancer.
5 comments ↓
I found your site on google blog search and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. Just added your RSS feed to my feed reader. Look forward to reading more from you.
- Sue.
Great real world experience!
I like how you intersperse your lessons learned.
> When your offer is time based as with the case of training and consulting, time ultimately influence your bottom line.
Too true. Decoupling from time and amplifying your results is key for today’s information age. Your value shouldn’t be tied directly to your number of hours.
That’s why I think the products model over a services model is key — and why I think that the best way to productize yourself is to write a book.
this is a great post, Alik. I liked the ‘lessons learned’ thing, as well.
I agree with you about not-quitting-day-job. The realworld experiences I get from my job help me grow as a person. That’s just where I’m at in life .
I blogged about ‘when micro-management is good’ - and I agree with what you said. Noone really wants to micromanage. I observe with my manager that it’s only when I am slacking off when he starts to micromanage me.
@JD - You cannot imagine how much confidence you give me with your support. My wife pushing me too to write the book. “Show me the money, honey!” :). I woke up this morning and started to think about chapters titles and their structures. I am infected now, there is now way back. New journey has just began!
@blogrdoc – it is good to hear you liked to post and lessons learned part. It is even better that we share views on the topic. BTW micromanagement is so hot with my current situation but it seems like a whole different story that deserves its own post
Alik -
I have to agree with JD here. By productizing, as he mentioned, you are creating a residual income that works for you without additional efforts and time constraints. Great post my friend.
Shilpan
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