Stoic Solopreneurship
As I was writing the last paragraph of the ‘Simple Guide to Self-Employment’, the lines started running way beyond one paragraph, thus I decided to dedicate a whole blog post to the stoicism and mindfulness in solopreneurship. In this blog post, I am going to share a few lessons I learned from six years of self-employment.
Reputation
Reputation is key. Think of yourself as a business. Be kind, ethical and treat each person fairly. Your network is your net worth — cherish it more than money.
Know thyself
Your weaknesses are your blessings and your biggest strengths. They shine a light on what you love and what you don’t. Do more of what you love, and you will learn that this is when you’re the most productive self, thus the amount and the quality of your work will skyrocket.
Think of the niche you may be filling with your strengths-weaknesses. For example, I’m good at generating ideas, solving problems, trying and testing new solutions and keeping in mind the ‘bigger picture,’ but I also suck at sticking to a rigid schedule, having someone manage myself, and I get easily bored working on one project for a long time.
Knowing this and accepting myself for who I am, helped me to stop beating myself up and make the best out of what I’ve got. I decided to focus on the early-stage startups that benefit from getting their product out on the market asap, testing and improving it, as well as generating new ideas and solutions.
Your weaknesses are your blessings and your biggest strengths.
Outsource
Knowing yourself can also help you work more efficiently. If something can be outsourced — it probably should be.
You don’t have to do everything yourself. Whether that is a piece of work that you know someone can do better and quicker, advice from a professional, or a life admin task. Saving money isn’t always a wise decision. Instead, treat your time as currency.
For example, cooking at home can save you money, but if you aren’t a big fan of it, it takes away the time you can be focusing on the work you’re good at. Ordering food delivery can save you time and energy, which can in turn be directed into your work. This way you also support the economy and other people’s work. Money invested wisely is a win-win situation for everyone.
Money invested wisely is a win-win situation for everyone.
Be your own shoulder to lean on
Your parents, your friends, or your partner might not be dancing with joy hearing that you’re quitting your day job to become a freelancer. Don’t blame them — they are just worried, and this is their — albeit, a bit awkward — way of demonstrating their love. They have only known one way of working so far, and entrepreneurship in any shape or form may scare them.
Maybe, someday, you’ll be a good example for them to follow?
Be confident and at peace with your decisions. Yes, it’s a learning curve, but in the end, you will be proud of who you are becoming, and for taking full ownership and greater responsibility for your life.
Do it for yourself, do it for them.
Focus on deliverables
Focus on deliverables rather than the time spent working. Great ideas need time, peace and a clear head. Sometimes it’s best to work two or four hours fully immersed in a zen-like workflow than procrastinate at your desk for eight hours, playing the busy work-pretend game, simultaneously browsing social media, checking emails and replying to your friends’ text messages.
Avoid the switching cost
Switch off all the notifications and quit checking your phone. Full stop.
Our brains have not evolved as quickly as technology has. We easily get hooked on dopamine from someone showing us attention or from feeding our insatiable curiosity with the infinite scroll of user-generated content stream. Social media and entertainment apps aren’t bad, but with everything addictive in life — best when it’s done in moderation, and preferably in the spare time.
More on this in the book: ‘Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now’ by Jaron Lanier
Attention is the currency of the 21-st century — don’t let insignificant things steer you away from what is really important. Working on yourself, your business and your wealth is more challenging than the instant gratification of grabbing your phone and replying to a text message. Be aware of the trap and set boundaries. Let your loved ones know that you’ll get back to them at your own pace and in your own time.
Optimise your work by automating the tasks or by stacking and doing them in one go. For example, instead of checking your email every hour, set the time of the day when you’ll go through and reply to the emails in one go. This way you will avoid the switching cost — the time and mental energy needed to switch from one task to another — which can be anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours.
More on this in the book: ‘The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9–5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich’ by Timothy Ferriss
Know your worth
Set the standard for the quality of work that you do and the compensation you’d like to get for it. Once set, keep the bar steady. Some people will be negotiating, and that’s okay too. Be courteous and gentle, but steady. If you know you’re good, your client will find you.
Not every day is going to be a productive day, but don’t be too hard on yourself. Measure progress done in weeks, months and overall.
Listen to yourself every day. Some days you won’t be the fountain of creativity, so days like that can be great for tidying up the projects, life admin tasks or even your desktop— all are essential for a well-functioning business.
One step at a time.
