The role of the freelancer and the role of the entrepreneur are different, and in fact, there comes a point when they are almost mutually exclusive.
The entrepreneur who is running a business or businesses understands that other people make the money, and they make the decisions; the freelancer understands that they make the money, and they do the work, but to their own agenda. The tough part is that many people became successful entrepreneurs after first becoming successful freelancers.
The difficulty with this is that if you started as a freelancer (which I absolutely did after I worked in the hospital).
And then have the opportunity to become an entrepreneur who runs several businesses (which I have been able to do). It becomes almost impossible to shape the freelancer, and that's why, after a hectic clinical day, I had some amazingly positive things happening. I go as fast as I can to the station in Newark to catch a train at 5:20 to travel 5 hours to Dorset to provide a half-day consultation masterclass and business coaching in the afternoon for a practice on invitation.
So, there I am at 5:20pm on a Wednesday night, sitting alone on the platform on my own, questioning my life choices.
It's been a really good day in the practice. Alex has done an upper-lower full arch, and he's done some great treatment; lots of other things have happened. It has generated the income that we expected and more.
Things are going well, and it's not on me.
And yet still I have the urge to fly away on a train somewhere miles away, be away from my family. The train was 35 minutes late, so I arrived in Dorset much later than expected, and the hotel doors were even shut. I couldn’t get in, I had to phone to have them open so I could get to my bed as quickly as I could to get the sleep I needed before doing an all-day teaching session.
I was talking to Alison on the phone as I walked to the hotel for 15 minutes from the station, and wondering whether it was the best use of time or energy for everything that I was doing.
It's not a gripe and not a moan. I was paid more for a day like that than most people could possibly hope for, but it's just whether these choices that I make, is my head on as a freelancer or counterproductive to my head on as an entrepreneur?
The job of an entrepreneur is to build a business.
I can understand that some of my freelance work helps build the business, reputation, and reach, but I can't help but think that the older I get, the less I need to be a freelancer and the more I need to be an entrepreneur.
Blog Post Number - 4313
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