Want to be an independent freelance developer? It’s always hard to get started

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Getting started is hard, it can get discouraging, and you might want to give up before you even start. I had to do a lot of things to get started as a freelancer.

I've been working on my own website for quite some time now, and it took me so long because it was so hard to get started. For example, when I was developing a website I wanted to use a new tool, but before I could do that I had to learn how to use it. Then I started to actually design something that you think is easy because you are working for yourself. You quickly realize how little you know about yourself, and you end up having to do some searching to find your guides.

“Doing hard work causes us to bang our heads against walls that make us uncomfortable, causes doubt, and brings sweat to our brows. Sometimes hard work requires us to do something we haven’t done before. Other times, we use skills we already have, but the nature of the work requires us to make decisions as we develop, and decisions are hard (what if I make the wrong decision!). Having to make a lot of decisions can make them even harder.” — Chris Bowler

All this work takes time and energy, which you might as well spend on something you’re already familiar with and comfortable with. So why do we do this? Why push ourselves into new and unknown oceans when the current stream is already good enough?

Taking back control

I think part of it is about taking back control.

One of the things that motivated me to go freelance was taking back control. I had been working in retail for almost eight years and had worked at some pretty good places, but I was starting to feel burned out, and one of the reasons was that I couldn't make my own plans. I understood that I signed a contract, but leaving your family behind to work nights and weekends ultimately ruins your relationships and work-life balance.

“Assess yourself and where you are in your heart. No matter how busy you think you are, you need to prioritize. If you are too busy to understand that you are just doing things you don’t like, then you will continue to do things you don’t like until it is too late.” - Paul Jarvis

Getting started means taking a small step forward every day. The steps don’t have to be big, but each step must be meaningful.

Just ship it

I'm a perfectionist. I find it very difficult to "Just ship it" [Note 2]. I stay on something for too long to make sure everything is OK, but often miss the point when I make a decision. I may not actually make any improvements for the better! Breaking tasks into smaller tasks, even if it doesn't seem to make much sense, can make large tasks easier to do.

“An MVP doesn’t mean making a bad prototype. It means focusing on the most important and most effective solution to a problem, and doing it in the quickest and easiest way possible. And then? Well, that’s when the fun begins.” - Mikael Cho

Learning to let go and just let them sit there as minimum viable products has really helped me stay motivated, learn from the feedback, iterate, and really become more efficient.

Overcoming the fear of failure

“…fear is a romantic fallacy. We prefer to create dullness within ourselves. They seem like an unbridgeable chasm, and we don’t even try. We pretend to be safe; we stay still. We create our own degradation. We limit our potential in life.” —Sean Smith

Destroy this fear of failure? I see. What if there is no failure… and even if there is failure, what will happen?

So what? If you don't succeed right away, so what? At least you've done something different, hopefully, toward your real goal. Well, if a ship starts to sink, you can often swim back to shore and regroup before venturing back out into the unknown. I'd rather fail at something worthwhile than succeed at something I don't enjoy.

Sometimes, you just have to make a start. It can be the smallest step, or the biggest leap, just two ways, if you ever intend to do something worthwhile, you have to make a start.

"Thinking without taking action leads to anxiety, pain and worry. We have to abandon these, we have to take action, we have to move forward. We have to realize that fear itself is illusory, and action can ultimately make our lives and everything around us better." - Sean Smith