Freelance Vs. Entrepreneur

Garth Beyer

I just left a freelancing job after six months (technically a  year, I’ll get to that in a moment). It was an exceptional experience, I wrote almost 100 articles on any string of the money management spider web you can imagine.

I got to write and was paid when I delivered. Freelancing at its finest.

After six months, I reached my learning capacity , enjoyment, and acceptably high skill level toward writing to this specific audience. [By “learning capacity,” I mean I got out 90% of what I believed I could from the position] Instead of quitting, I decided to become an entrepreneur.

I remembered the saying that freelancers get paid when they ship, and entrepreneurs get paid when they sleep. (HT Seth Godin)

So I hired some writers to do the work that I once was. I positioned myself as the boss and editor. I made the hiring process as legitimate as possible. Candidates emailed resumes, we met for an interview, I gave them test articles. I pushed them to do their best, get creative, and take the reigns. Being boss – to put a less professional tone to it – was awesome.

I didn’t make much money from being an entrepreneur for six months, but it’s not often I’ve gotten so much experience from something so temporary.

To think, I could have just left my freelancing position and moved on. It’s a decision that many freelancers forget they have.

 

Stay Positive & Maybe It’s Not “Vs.”, It’s An Optional Transition

Garth E. Beyer

Too Much Intake Pt. 2

Garth Beyer

Those who say they have nothing to do are liars.

Every day there is a constant stream of to-do’s, of tasks, of obligations. Keeping busy is the easiest thing in the world. Our inbox’s are filling as I type this. We’ve got more notifications and distractions than ever before. Oh, did your phone just vibrate too?

Plain and simple, we’re damn busy. Of course, “busy” is commonly misinterpreted.

This intake of lights, noises, beeps, buzzers, reminders, flags, dings, ticks, and notification symbols is a great way to trick us into thinking that responding to them is a form of output. That being busy is the same as producing something that matters.

Let’s remember that not all things that come in are worth taking in. Let’s not confuse busy with meaningful. Let’s make sure not to devote too much time to intake when what matters is output.

Hey, intake will be there whether you are too, or not.

Output, on the other hand, only shows up when you do.

 

Stay Positive & Go Do Something (that matters more than responding to that txt)

Garth E. Beyer

 

 

Too Much Intake Pt. 1

Garth Beyer

There was a time that I was information-crunching. I was spending every moment of the day taking in information, knowledge, lessons, and Ted talks. I was underlining, highlighting, and dog-earing pages. I was recording, bookmarking, and clipping. This went on for about a week and a half. Constant intake.

Then I felt I reached my limit and it was time for output. However, by then half of what I read, I forgot. All the soundbites I collected, well, it was hard to build on a perfect statement. Some of the passages I highlighted, I had no clue why I highlighted them. And of course, the scribbles in the spines, I couldn’t even read them.

There was once a time that you took in all you could, perhaps before you started writing a paper for one of your classes. Once you read up on everything, only then did you have the OK to go.

No more.

Intake and output is a daily balance, no longer is it weekly, monthly, or yearly. Becoming successful in any part of your industry is about balancing the amount of intake and output each day.

 

Stay Positive & It’s A Daily Thing (Learn → Apply)

Garth E. Beyer

You Have A Follower

Garth Beyer

If fear follows you home. You didn’t work hard enough.

Of course, by hard enough, I don’t mean that you left too early. You just didn’t give fear a good enough fight. You didn’t win. You didn’t beat the lizard brain.

And I know you can. I know you know that you can too.

 

Stay Positive & Fight Back

Garth E. Beyer

Too Much Pull

Garth Beyer

To spring forward, you have to be pulled back.

But life is a lot like a rubber band. You pull too much and it snaps.You pull too little and you don’t get anywhere. However, it’s worth noting that by not pulling, you have nothing to show, nothing learned, nothing created.

The point where the analogy ceases is that while you may have one life to live, you do have an extensive supply of rubber bands. It’s better to have a hundred snap than none at all.

Life for most is a lot about finding balance, equivocally, everything in moderation. But you know, life isn’t that simple, so if you’re going to lean towards being someone who stands still or being someone who feels the sting of a snapped rubber band. I think you know the better choice.

The sting is only temporary. The vexation of standing still, that’s eternal.

 

Stay Positive & Remember To Save The Snapped Rubber Bands – it helps

Garth E. Beyer

 

War On Criticism

Garth Beyer

We all have our battles, our wars.

In some, people die. In others, ideas do. Hope, inspiration, and most unfortunately, art dies too.

But war has changed – universally and metaphorically.

No one can retreat anymore. An email that will destroy your career can be sent from one end of the world to the other. There’s no disconnecting yourself from the web or what gets shared on it.

Same goes for an actual missile that can literally destroy you. The only option on the battlefield is to fight, you can be pushed backward, you can even run backward, but it’s not retreating.

  • Reality check on the quote “you can run but not hide.”

Does the inability to retreat stop us from fighting wars in the East? Does it stop civil wars? Does the fact people can’t retreat stop them from killing each other? Obviously not.

So why are so many people not creating more art? Not writing more articles? Not showing people their knick knacks, their obsessions, their creations?

Are you saying that risking your comfort is worse than risking your life?

 

Stay Positive & More Of A Reality Check On Ourselves And Our Art, Isn’t It

Garth E. Beyer

 

There Is Always Evidence

Garth Beyer

A lot of us wait to see evidence that our actions are making the impact that we want, that our decisions were right ones, that we’re on the best path.

Self-acknowledgment is motivating, but it’s also self-defeating. We take an action and then wait, we stand still, we let fate take it from there until we see results.

While were waiting, the world keeps spinning – spinning other things than just the results were hoping for.

There are other opportunities out there. Don’t miss one because you’re waiting for the outcome of one you took earlier.

And you can always take solace in the fact that there is always evidence that what you want just might happen. I mean, after all, isn’t taking the lead of an opportunity evidence enough that you’ll get what you want.

People die standing still.

 

Stay Positive & Success Isn’t Judged By Results, It’s Measured By Movement

Garth E. Beyer