Some freelance writers have nice safety cushions in place when they start out, like spouses with six-figure salaries or inheritances. Others start freelancing later in life, as a second career, when they’ve had a chance to weave a safety net of their own. Neither was the case for me, when I took the jump into full-time freelancing at age 29. I had a little bit of savings and had just moved in with my husband (then boyfriend), who was paying the mortgage on his own. But other than that, it was pure guts.
I am the only person in my family who is self-employed. Most of my family members have comfortable government or military jobs. At the time, I didn’t even know that many self-employed people. But I was still confident that I could make it work, because of a healthy streak of independence and self-confidence that I thank my mom and my aunt for giving me as I was growing up.
My mom stayed at home with my sister and me, and my Air Force dad was often on assignments long from home, for weeks and months and, in one case, more than a year at a time. She took care of everything for us, including the more stereotypical “dad” jobs. Mom made all the big decisions in our house, whether dad was home or not (or at least it seemed that way). Even though she looked like a quiet housewife on the outside, that woman knew how to get any job done! She always figured out a way, no matter what the problem was. Watching her all those years gave me the confidence to know that I’d be able to handle anything that came my way as a small business person, without the back-up of a big office of support staff or management to solve problems for me.
My Aunt Robin also taught me about independence. Many times over the course of her life she has made up her mind about what she wanted to do, and then did it, without worrying about what others would think. She may have labored over these decisions in ways I never saw, but to me, she always looked like a take-charge, just-do-it, live-life-now person. She decided early on she didn’t want kids (she had great nieces after all), moved overseas for several years, changed careers, and always made decisions that were right for her. She describes some of her decisions as “selfish,” but to me, I saw a confident woman who trusted her instincts.
Thanks Mom and Robin for giving me the guts to go it alone in the business world!
