I've been freelancing since 1997. It has its perks, for sure, but it's not simply "become a freelancer, work two hours a day, fulfill all your dreams!" That's as much of a stereotype as "become a freelancer, work in your underwear, never take a shower!"
Making a good income as a freelancer requires work. And clients. And paying attention to clients' needs. And spending much more time organizing your financial and business life. And dealing with work/life boundary issues. It's something I like to refer as a "job."
And he's certainly not "retired," as he seems to claim, if he's paying the bills freelancing. It kind of sounds like he's decided to take a major income hit in order to have more lifestyle freedom (aided by living in a place with lower costs of living). Which is totally fine! Especially when you're young. But that's a major trade-off, and not one that should be taken lightly.
Spot on. I will add that freelancing is a business. Thus it survives or thrives on the marketing. If you suck at marketing or hate to do it, you won't do as well. That's why I sell a marketing system for freelancers. Most are simply lost when it comes to it.
I have actually written about the pros and cons of freelancing in a previous post, showing that it's not all rosy: bucketlistjournal.com/post/46601822485/pros-and-cons-of-freelancing
(and P.S. - I personally did not relocate, so my living expenses are still high)
It gets better when you look at his "about" page. All his startups failed, yet he still thinks he has something interesting enough to say that he needs a blog to put all this amazing content he's going to write in the future.
Most people start with freelancing then move on to start ups when they get sick of playing client roulette. He went the other way around. There's probably an interesting story there, something way more compelling than rehashing Tim Ferriss and Ramit Sethi in the most schlocky way possible. But it doesn't look like he'd know how to tell it.
What I'm actually trying to say in this post is that you need to change your way of thinking about working hard, retiring and only then doing what you'd like (i.e. lifestyle design). If you're already familiar with this concept - this post won't provide you any new insights.
I have thought about writing the practical tips right there, but these could actually be spread across several posts.
I think he forgot to mention that you need to try the freelancing route when you have saved some $$$ buffer, for me it was about a year worth of free falling.
It is going to be bumpy and you need to have the peace of mind to focus on the present.
Moving to a foreign country to save money could be a good idea, but only if you would like to live abroad. If you do it only for the money your life will be miserable. Also the cost of leaving your local network behind might be very high
Not really much content here. It's been a while since I've read the 4HWW but I'm pretty sure freelancing wouldn't fit in with LD. For example, it's pretty hard to make any money freelancing when you're not working. I thought the point of LD was to generate recurring income that will continue to generate even if you do nothing.
I see some negative responses to this, and I understand what people are saying, i.e. that people here are already familiar with 4HWW concepts so this is nothing new.
However, there are many people out there who are familiar with these concepts, and want to act on them, but keep putting it off. So seeing this kind of thing hit the HN front page once in a while, because reading it again rekindles the idea in the minds of those who are interested, but haven't yet acted.
Several people apparently did have their interests piqued by the title before coming back here to say the post sucks. Is this a "silent majority" type argument? "No no no...the other people..."
This is such depressing reading — it's all about "me" and doesn't give a damn for anybody else. I guess on a spiritual level this is why I hated the 4 Hour Work Week cult: It was all a sort of cult of being self centered. And on the flip side I think this is why I admire Bill Gates: Because he's taken the money he has and is actually trying to improve the world. There needs to be a bit more of that in the tech industry...
I don't understand this. When you work in technology, the very work you do is a contribution to the world. It's not like finance where 90% of the money is in scamming the less-savvy by trading on the big name of the company you work for to inflate the price of crap.
Even if it's just making websites, you're increasing the size of the pie, not just trying to take other's slices. So why place this heavy moral burden on success?
Bill Gates is certainly an admirable figure, but really in spite of his philanthropy and not because of it IMO. He advanced the state of the art and made markets where none before existed. The "developers first" culture he created made it possible for regular people to make real livings in software, bringing tech out of the nerd boondocks.
He only started giving away money and doing good once he was absurdly wealthy and had financial freedom. How does working a normal full time job do more good for the world than freelancing and pursing your own interests?
[+] [-] chasing|13 years ago|reply
Making a good income as a freelancer requires work. And clients. And paying attention to clients' needs. And spending much more time organizing your financial and business life. And dealing with work/life boundary issues. It's something I like to refer as a "job."
And he's certainly not "retired," as he seems to claim, if he's paying the bills freelancing. It kind of sounds like he's decided to take a major income hit in order to have more lifestyle freedom (aided by living in a place with lower costs of living). Which is totally fine! Especially when you're young. But that's a major trade-off, and not one that should be taken lightly.
[+] [-] orangethirty|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] budowski|13 years ago|reply
(and P.S. - I personally did not relocate, so my living expenses are still high)
[+] [-] keiferski|13 years ago|reply
This submission has zero content.
[+] [-] vinceguidry|13 years ago|reply
Most people start with freelancing then move on to start ups when they get sick of playing client roulette. He went the other way around. There's probably an interesting story there, something way more compelling than rehashing Tim Ferriss and Ramit Sethi in the most schlocky way possible. But it doesn't look like he'd know how to tell it.
[+] [-] budowski|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gdonelli|13 years ago|reply
It is going to be bumpy and you need to have the peace of mind to focus on the present.
Moving to a foreign country to save money could be a good idea, but only if you would like to live abroad. If you do it only for the money your life will be miserable. Also the cost of leaving your local network behind might be very high
[+] [-] budowski|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] k-mcgrady|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rpeden|13 years ago|reply
However, there are many people out there who are familiar with these concepts, and want to act on them, but keep putting it off. So seeing this kind of thing hit the HN front page once in a while, because reading it again rekindles the idea in the minds of those who are interested, but haven't yet acted.
[+] [-] rhizome|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] michaelpinto|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vinceguidry|13 years ago|reply
Even if it's just making websites, you're increasing the size of the pie, not just trying to take other's slices. So why place this heavy moral burden on success?
Bill Gates is certainly an admirable figure, but really in spite of his philanthropy and not because of it IMO. He advanced the state of the art and made markets where none before existed. The "developers first" culture he created made it possible for regular people to make real livings in software, bringing tech out of the nerd boondocks.
[+] [-] cgag|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dreamdu5t|13 years ago|reply