Going from 0 to 100K as a freelancer sounds very challenging. Something only the best can do in less than a year. But let me tell you something.

Most successful freelancers have a ton in common, and having your first 100k year is possible once you understand what it is!

It all comes down to your mindset. I had to learn this from experience, so let me spare you the pain and help you out.
The only mindset shift you need is this: You are a company of one person, and everything you do affects your value in the market.

What do I mean and how can you apply this?

This means you should start acting like you are a company and stop thinking of yourself as an employee. A company has different departments, like R&D, PR, and you should take care of all of them.

It also means you should create your unique category of expertise. The market will reward you for it. You don’t have to follow the traditional rat race constraints. Remember, the best companies do very few things, but they do them extremely well.

This might sound abstract but stay with me. Let’s see how you can apply this in real life.

The keys to skyrocket your career

• You can provide services to others, but you can’t be owned. You are unemployable.

• No more thinking about job titles. They are designed to keep you in the rat race. You are unique, and you’re not defined by any title. “Senior”, “junior”, and other nonsense titles shouldn’t mean anything to you.

• You are an expert in what you do. Redefine what you do until this is true (To learn more about this, check out naval)
  Becoming world-class at something is possible if you combine your skills and interests. For example, I am a good programmer and chess lover (average player at best!). But I am amongst the top 1% chess connoisseurs who can create a chess app!

• You are a creator. We live in an era of infinite leverage, where creators are rewarded disproportionally. In my case, as a developer and creator, I created chesskool, an app that teaches chess, and the market is rewarding me for it!
  You value empathy and communication. As a company of one, your reputation is paramount. You should respect others and treat them with high integrity and professionalism.

When you apply this shift, you'll realize your worth is no longer defined by your hard skills, but rather by the unique combination of your skills, experience, creativity, and reputation.

Remember this

🗃 The education system puts you in a box. It’s designed to create factory workers and will lead you to the rat race. Stay away from that box. Embrace your uniqueness. Explore, play and create and you will be rewarded.

🐄 The 9 to 5 was created for cows. Cows work slow, steady, and “safe”, until one day you get butchered by the system. But you have a choice. You can choose to act like a cow or a lion 🦁! Lions relax, observe, and when they see a prey (a task), they attack!

🔥 There is only one you. What’s the unique combination of your skills, expertise, and curiosity? Don’t underestimate your worth.

✍ Trick: You are not an employee. See yourself as a company of one.

👌 Note: Trash that CV. Your worth is the unique combination of your expertise, personal experiences, reputation, and creativity.

What you can do now.

If you want to read more about the topic, pick up “Skip the line” by James Altucher, one of my favorites.

For more advice, hit me up on twitter. You can also join the list for more weekly freelancing tips. Big news coming up!

Peace,
Gabri