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Another year as a freelancer in the books.

As we sign off on another year, I can’t help but feel how blessed we live in a time where this is even possible.

Just think, at no point in the entire human existence has this kind of work even been possible.

Just think 10 years ago. The iPhone just came out and the ability to take a video on your phone was basically a new thing.

The pictures and the video were shit.

Video conferencing sucked.

Freelancing sucked. It was nearly impossible to find work.

We’d see these advertisements talking about working from home and they were usually complete scams. Stuffing envelopes and making sales calls was basically the only bullshit work you could find.

Certainly, there was nothing that was available that would grow your skillset.
And if you didn’t know how to do something? Well, tough shit — you would have to pay a bunch of money to take a bullshit course by some bullshit person, who learned how to do some antiquated bullshit from 10 years prior.

So your choices were:

Spend a bunch of money on an antiquated skill you may or may not use with the possibility of maybe finding work that requires that same skill.

Or

Find an easy low paying job that requires you to be a robot and do the same thing every day.

Both of these options kind of makes me want to put a bullet through my face.

I don’t know about you, but I like being challenged. I like learning at my own speed. And most of all, I like feeling needed.

Ever since Upwork, I’ve felt more needed than when I had my restaurants with over 100 employees. My employees didn’t really need ME, they needed a job. When I closed up our doors, they were sad for 5 minutes until they got their next hourly job.

When I started consulting on Upwork, I felt 10 times more secure in my skills and myself, because I knew my clients needed me.

And for a guy like me, that helps me get out of bed.

Knowing that my brain is needed fills my head with joy.

Learning a new skill and working through a problem makes me happy.

And in today’s world, there’s so much information available. If you’re not constantly embracing it, I challenge you to figure out what’s preventing you from doing so.

I’ve been answering a lot of questions on Quora lately about finding gigs and learning different things you need to really expand your freelance career. So many people just want to stay pigeonholed in one vertical. Why? What are you afraid of?

If you’re working out, do you just do biceps? You’ll look ridiculous. You need to do full body workouts that train all of your muscles. If you’re just working in one area, it’s only a matter of time before you get hurt.

Most importantly, stay flexible. I don’t even know how to answer who my typical client is. It varies so much, it’s ridiculous.

I have Doctors, Real Estate Pros, Personal Coaches, Physical Therapists, Expert Marketers, E-commerce experts, and a ton of others, that work in areas I literally had no idea even existed.

The moment I think I’ve nailed every vertical, I take a meeting and discover an entirely new industry I had no idea existed.

Oh, word, you own rock climbing gyms? Cool – I bet you want to make more money and get more customers. Cool – I know how to do that.

Once you learn how to exercise your mind and how to get your brain used to learning new things, the easier it becomes. Just like if you’re a world class athlete… There are very few exercises that you could introduce to a person that would break them.

I realize that this post is a bit of ramble, but I want you to go into the new year with some goals.

  • I want you to take on a job out of your comfort zone and learn a new skill, even if you have to put in some of your own time to learn it.
  • I want you to make enough money on Upwork so you can quit your job and just work online.
  • I want you to travel to a place you’ve never been before.

3 Simple goals for you to knock out of the park.

Is that too much to ask? It shouldn’t be. Every single thing on this list is something you should be doing anyway.

Do this time period some justice and show the world how to take advantage of these amazing opportunities that we have right now.

You could either play video games and complain about the world or you can take the time to force yourself to learn invaluable trades that will propel you to become a more desirable person.

Once you are that person, no one can take it away from you.

There are no valid excuses that you can come up with that should prevent you from becoming a better freelancer and consultant for the future.

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