Is entrepreneurship somehow a more worthy calling than freelancing?
Many people think so.
I disagree.
True, in some circles, the ‘entrepreneur’ earns more status points. The enterpreneur is the capitalist hero. He is Andrew Carnegie, Michael Dell, and the guys who invented Google. The kids who sold YouTube for a few billion.
The freelancer, in that view, is a mere migrant laborer.
Here is marketing writer Seth Godin:
“Most companies are not appropriate sites for VC [venture capital] money. That’s because they’re freelance ventures, not entrepreneurial ones. A freelance venture is one where you work to get paid. An entrepreneurial one is where you can make money while you sleep. . .”
And here is Paul Knapp on “How not to get rich”.
“The worst business to be in is one where you sell your time. Selling your time is a terrible way to get rich. Sure, you might get a good income, and slowly build up some savings and financial assets. But really, any business that relies on its owner selling their [sic] time is just a job.”
Godin and Knapp are right. If you long for vast riches and status, go build a Facebook and take it public for a few billion. You can earn money as you sleep. (Although I doubt that entrepreneurs get much sleep.)
As one-time entrepreneur Paul Graham puts it, you will have solved the money problem in one fell swoop. You will have achieved the holy grail of entrepreneurdom.
But I’m not sure freelancers think that way. At least not this freelancer, nor the freelancers that I mingle with. We’re not so moved to build and run a company. It would involve putting up with way more crap than we could stand.
We do, however, like the idea of solving the lifetime money issue in one master stroke. But we think of doing it the way J.K. Rowling, the creator of Harry Potter, did it. We like the way Stephen King did it.
Did Ansel Adams dream of setting up a chain of photo studios in strip malls? I think he just wanted to take pictures.
Mark Twain made a ton of money writing books. Then quickly lost most of it on a start-up venture peddling a typesetting machine. He had to write and talk his way back to solvency.
However, it is smart to think about side projects, where you create properties, libraries of work, tools, designs, concepts, or content that can earn you money over and over again. You don’t need a company to put out music or write a book or design a portfolio of web page templates.
Think of it as taking an entrepreneurial approach to your craft. Like freelancing for yourself.
April 1, 2017 @ 6:25 pm
Isn’t it really all relative or just a matter of semantics, ultimately? Don’t get me wrong, I get the sense of the difference between being a freelancer or an entrepreneurship. But the truth is that when you work for yourself–finding clients, projects, business to conduct–you’re still in the position of finding the things that will end up getting you paid. The difference, and limits, are only determined by how much selling of yourself you can stomach and just how much “stuff” and possessions you want to fill your life with, and how much you’ll need to earn to achieve that lifestyle. But, as I brought up in a comment on one of your other blog pieces, in today’s self-publishing environment–and, indeed, in the ever larger attempts at an “underground economy” our culture tries to achieve–more people with less and less experience and business knowledge are trying to buy services for ever diminishing prices. That’s the real challenge: growing a business among so many with that mindset.
April 3, 2017 @ 2:51 am
The two posts about the difference between freelancing and entrepreneurship reminds me of the adage that true wealth is to “want of nothing”, not the accumulations of things, especially money.
I spent 38 years leading other people to do the work (as a manager/leader, not an entrepreneur). I can do that. But it’s not as much fun as freelancing. As my one-time boss, Gerry Miller, wrote, “if you’re not having fun, you’re not doing it right.”
It is good to see the difference between the two concepts so well expressed.
Thanks, Walt.