“You can work whenever you want. So can you take the day off and wait here until the cable guy shows up?”
Over a dozen years ago I made the decision to jump ship from my steady paycheck to the wonderful and wacky world of self-employment. A mere 25 years young at the time, I decided that I could make more money and build a more flexible life on my own than would be possible with my former employer.
I’m glad I was a fool because if I’d known the truth I never would have made the move. You see, there’s a myth that being self-employed is to enjoy flexibility that would otherwise be impossible to attain.
Sure, you can work whenever you want, and at any location. Take some time off to see a movie, nap on the sofa, see your kid’s school play. But beware that when you do, the work continues to pile up. Client needs must be attended to, and court deadlines are frozen in amber.
People who are not self-employed don’t necessarily understand this. They see you at the school play o cheering the soccer game at 2:00pm on a Tuesday and figure, “Wow, this guy’s got it all. Never seems to be at work, makes a decent living to boot. Must be nice!” What they don’t see, however, is you sitting hunched over the keyboard at 3:00am manically working while the rest of the house sleeps.
You can try to explain but it never seems to sink in. “I understand,” they nod. “You get to work on your own schedule. But you can still stick around to wait for the cable guy, right? He’ll be here between 10:00am and 4:00pm.” Sure, but that means I’m not getting any sleep tonight. And my clients are gonna be mighty ticked off when their phone calls don’t get returned because I’m too busy making sure Mr. Cable doesn’t rip out chunks of plaster as he drills a hole in the wall to bring service into the living room.
Is there a solution? Probably not. Because in spite of all the flexibility we have, we also have work to do. And let’s face it – a business owner is never truly away from work. It follows you around 24/7/365 because you are your business, it’s not simply a paycheck. The flexibility does come in handy, allowing you to take the time to do the things that are important in your personal life.
But don’t be surprised when people look at your cross-eyed when you announce that you’re doing some work in the middle of the night. Remember, these folks check out at 5:00pm (or something like that) whereas to the solo practitioner, 5:00pm is just another hour in the day.
