We human beings like security – it encompasses the first two levels of Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs.” It’s fundamental.

To get that feeling of security, we work hourly wage jobs; we try to get hired at famous companies for regular, unchanging salaries with hopes for a 3% raise every year (which doesn’t outpace inflation).

Freelancing – being “a knight without a king” as Seth Godin likes to say – seemingly goes against that feeling of security. There is no guarantee; you don’t get paid simply for showing up somewhere for a specified amount of time.

But it’s better.

The illusion

There is no security in hourly rates; there is no security in working for a famous company. As the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us, the moment something bad or unexpected happens, your security is at risk.

The security is an illusion. No longer can we work at the same company for 20 years, slowly moving up a corporate ladder, waiting for that day when we call it quits and HR hands us a gold watch and the envelope containing our pension information.

There is no security anymore. There is only you.

“Security lies in our ability to produce.”

–General Douglas MacArthur

Make your own security

What do you already know or do well?

Can you write? Create websites? Draw and paint? Build things with your hands? Sell?

Maybe you’re a whiz at smoothing customers’ ruffled feathers. Perhaps you have a knack for motivating and encouraging other people.

There is something you already do, or something you already know about, that other people are willing to pay for. You simply have to muster the courage to offer it to them.

Each of us must explicitly state to ourselves what we know how to do and do well. That knowledge and the willingness to execute on it are the only things that give us any sort of real security in the workplace.

If you can find someone and offer them something they are willing to pay for, and do that over and over again, you are a freelancer. You have no boss, no one telling you what to do next, but also no one telling you, “I’m sorry but we have to let you go.”

You have no guarantee of income – in either direction! You can make as little or as much as you want, as long as people are willing to pay for it. But I’ll bet you got stopped on the phrase “no guarantee” or “as little…as you want” while glossing over the rest of it.

As a freelancer, you determine your job, the work you do, your hours, the people you serve. Perhaps it’s not the loss of security you fear: it’s the fear of complete and total responsibility for your success or failure.

We aren’t used to that, but it’s the only way we’ll survive.

Secure your own future today. Don’t wait for someone else to do it for you.