When you’re self-employed, work can be a series of challenging projects you’ve never done. It’s exciting, and you’ll learn more than at any job, but it can also be exhausting. With some luck, you’ll eventually find a rhythm, and work becomes a bit more predictable. Settle into too much of a routine, however, and for one, it might stop working, and for another, you’ll think, “Wait…that’s not why I became self-employed!”
Where entrepreneurship often offers too much volatility, employment frequently offers too little. Even as a lowly intern ten years ago, I already had 99% of my tasks down pat within five months. I remember longing for something new to learn and being glad that my internship didn’t last forever. There was, however, a benefit I clearly recall enjoying but that I can only fully appreciate now, a full decade later: Since the job was rarely too challenging, there was lots of room for genuine self-expression.
Wait a minute. Isn’t being self-employed all self-expression? How could a job get any better? While technically, that’s true — when you’re flying solo, you have infinite options on how to do anything — at the end of the day, your self-expression better make money. That commonly throws a real wrench into the system. At times, the financial pressure will consume all of your creative energy, and whatever you originally envisioned will arrive in a corrupted form. The bills are paid, but your conscience is not.
During my internship, I was nervous for some of the big events, but mostly, going to work meant hanging with coworkers, cracking some jokes, and spooling off the usual program. I felt confident yet at ease at the same time. Since I knew what I was doing for the most part, there was no need to take myself so seriously, and that made the hours at the office mostly frictionless.
And while I didn’t fully appreciate them yet nor use them to their utmost extent, the hours outside of work also came with completely uninhibited space to be creative. On some of my off days, I went to a coffee shop to build my first website. And then another. And another. The time was limited but untwisted by a need for the projects to make money, and that was its own kind of gift.
There is no perfect work-life situation, and sometimes, “too hard” can be a blessing in disguise. But so can be “too easy” — it all depends on how you use your excess time and energy.