A freelancer’s dilemma

What do you own?

What are you really good at?

What do you enjoy?

Engaging with the marketplace requires creating value for people who have a choice.

And deciding what to offer your customers is your choice.

If you own something (a patent, a building, a process, a set of relationships) you can create more value than if you simply start over with new work each time.

If you are really good at something, having amassed skills and a reputation, it’s more likely that you will earn the benefit of the doubt and more easily create value.

And if you focus on being on the hook for work you actually enjoy, your days are better and it’s easier to do great work.

The freelancer’s dilemma is to figure out what to say instead of, “you can pick anyone and I’m anyone.”

And the entrepreneur’s job is to build enough assets that each transaction gets easier and more profitable.

It begins by being clear about what you own, what you’re good at it and what gives you satisfaction.

Your big idea

No one is going to steal it. Not if it’s actually a big idea.

One thing that big ideas have in common is that they’re almost impossible to give away.

You could have bought Amazon stock for lunch money, been an early backer of Acumen, financed part of Spike Lee’s first movie, had front row seats to Hamilton, bought BTC for $2… you get the idea. Even insiders usually take cash instead of stock options. And early customers almost never race out to build a competitor.

When big ideas show up, almost no one sees what’s possible. All they notice is that change is risky and new stuff might not work.

Don’t worry so much about someone stealing your ideas. In fact, it’s probably worth working harder to get people imagining that they might.