Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

I have read it dozens of times – quit your job, do what you love, you will succeed. Oh really?

I read something today that agrees with my experience:

It takes money to start a freelance life.

There – I wrote it.

This disagrees with most of what I have read about starting your own freelance life – especially quitting your job and becoming a full-time writer. The oft-repeated advice is:

Do what you love; you will succeed.

My experience: I have several close relatives who quit their jobs, embarked on what they loved and went bankrupt. Not a figurative bankruptcy, but a literal bankruptcy with legal proceedings and all that. Property seized, courtroom appearances, the whole thing.

Love of an occupation does not guarantee financial success or even financial survival.

Can I write it another way?

Let’s consider writing. You can go to a public library and use one of their computers an hour a day. You use gmail (free email) to access Google Docs (free word processor and free document storage). Great writers have rented typewriters at public libraries an hour a day and succeeded. An hour of solid writing once a day is enough to produce three or four good novels every year.

So, with nothing more than your brain, you can write.

Maybe, just maybe, someone will buy what you write. Joanne Rowling went from welfare to wealth by writing a book. Let’s name a dozen others. I am waiting, but nothing comes to mind.

And what do you do while writing? What do you eat? Where do you live? Rats, that old food, shelter, and clothing stuff. It takes money.

If I haven’t convinced you to give it up, here is a plan.

1. Save one year’s salary.
2. Quit your job.
3. Move from where you live to a place where the cost of living is much lower.
4. Now you have about 18 months living expenses in the bank.
5. Write 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
6. If you are not making a living wage after 12 months, spend an extra four hours a day searching for a full-time job (while still writing 12 hours a day)

This will be difficult, but you may be doing what you love and you may succeed. If you follow steps 1, 3, and 6, you won’t go bankrupt.