The One Thing You Need to Succeed at Freelancing? Financial Security.

It’s not sexy, but it is necessary

In 2007 I setup my first business. I was totally unprepared, and it tanked.

To this day I still recall an intense feeling of anxiety on a bus trip home. I realised in that moment I had almost no money in my bank account. That was the only time I’ve ever felt physically sick from financial worry.

Freelancers and small business owners are risk takers. Much to their credit, they are the ones who forge their own path.

But sometimes, that path can be disastrously bumpy. Often, for reasons outside of their control.

What freelancers simply need is a sense of financial security. This is true of all people, but especially of the self-employed.

Not just for the sake of basic wellbeing, but because economic safety is necessary for creativity to flourish.

Prolonged money worries will preoccupy your mind, devouring your hopes of a successful freelance career.

I have a confession to make.

I have… a political agenda ⚠️

It is clear to me that for humans to reach self-actualisation — that is to achieve our full potential — we need security. That sense of safety comes in the form of water, shelter, food, relationships and resources.

In our modern human world, that all depends on having enough money.

Without cash, nothing else can flourish. There is no way I could have devised some clever marketing strategy that day on the bus with money worries eating up my energy.

That is why I am a passionate advocate of the Universal Basic Income (UBI) — a cash dividend paid to everyone by the government on a regular basis, to do with whatever they wish.

For freelancers, this won’t just provide a much-needed sense of security, it will unleash their creative potential. Instead of scratching around for dead-end clients, it will empower them to choose who they work with, safe in the knowledge that their basic financial needs are covered.

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