Daily: January 10, 2012

1: “This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time.”
The most important thing you can learn from the movie Fight Club is this – your life is ending and you’ve only got a limited amount of time to do important shit, so quit wasting it playing angry birds. Steve Jobs also said something similar to this, so if you can’t get the picture by watching Fight Club, go watch the youtube video of Steve Jobs saying pretty much the exact same thing.

Here’s the problem with most of us (myself included), we think that the world’s going to be here forever, we put off things until tomorrow and we pretend that we’re not going to wake up one morning and look in the mirror only to see a shell of our former selves. So quit waiting to do the important shit – get out there and do it now.

2: “No fear. No distractions. The ability to let that which does not matter truly slide.”
Never let your business get weighed down by the unimportant things that come up. Yes, in the grand scheme of things your accounting is really important, but that won’t matter at all if you’re not bringing in sales. And you will not bring in sales unless you’re marketing your business and getting customers/clients.

Take some time and clean off your desk, remove unused icons from your desktop, delete old files you no longer have a need for and clean your house. By removing these unneeded distractions, you’ll free up space and give your mind more room to roam and create. Then, stop being afraid of being great and get out there and make your business grow to new heights you never even thought possible!

3: “You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your fucking khakis.”
You’re a freelancer but that doesn’t mean it’s how you should define your entire life. Not only is that unhealthy, but it’s also limiting. I used to think that I had to fit within a certain group of people, dress a specific way and act just like they did but then I realized that being unique is much better for myself and for my business.

So now, instead of keeping the normal 9-5 hours, I work for around 16-18 hours a day, split up between morning and late at night when most people are sleeping, allowing me to talk with people from the US as well as around the world. Instead of wearing dress clothes, black rim glasses and weird hats, I wear loose fitting jeans, a t-shirt and a baseball cap.

What can you do that’s different than everyone else? How can you live your life so that you’re not defined by a simple title like “freelancer”?

4: “I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let’s evolve, let the chips fall where they may.”
Learning is infinite, we do it every day. If we don’t evolve, we die. The same holds true for your freelance business. If you’re not learning new guerrilla marketing techniques and keeping up with the news and advancements in your industry, you’re going to be left behind.

Your business needs to be nurtured every day. It’s just like weight lifting for freelancers, you need to exercise and grow your muscles in order to get stronger, faster, better.

5: “Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken.”
On the flip side of the above tip, you can do everything in your power to pretend to be a great business mind, killer designer or excellent copywriter but if you’re not able to perform, you’re just lying to yourself and others. You can dress the part (although as #3 mentions, I’d advise against it), you can learn the lingo and you can build up a front for yourself, but at the end of the day if you’re not performing like a true champion, you’ll never be able to wear the belt.