Money isn’t the right shark that will get you moving for long enough time. It may be good to get you into freelancing but can’t get you going for a decade
The single biggest challenge of being a blogger or freelancer or solopreneur, in general, is the motivation. What will make you leave your bed early in the morning the next day and keep you moving is the biggest question? Here is one story I found here
The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. But the waters close to Japan have not held much fish for decades. So the fishermen had to go further out to sea to catch their supply of fish, the fishing boats got bigger and bigger.
The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring in the fish. If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish was not fresh and they lost their fresh taste.
To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen and they did not like frozen fish. Also, the frozen fish brought a lower price. So fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little thrashing around, the fish stopped moving. They were tired and dull, but alive. Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference; because the fish did not move for days, they lost their fresh-fish taste.
The Japanese preferred the lively taste of fresh fish, not sluggish fish.
So how did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem? How do they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan? To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies added a small shark to the tanks that the fish were kept in. The shark, of course, eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state due to the fact that the fish are challenged.
Moral of the story is, you need to have the shark in the tank to keep going. As a solopreneur, you need that shark behind you to keep progressing.
Money can be one of the sharks when one starts as a freelancer but it isn’t the right shark that will get you moving for long enough time. It may be good to get you into freelancing but can’t get you going for a decade or so because, at some point in time, the shark in the tank will be lost and then
- As a blogger, one needs a bigger shark to wake up in the morning to put the head down and write.
- As a freelancer, one needs a bigger shark to make sure you are keeping the quality when working with a client.
What are the challenges you have set for yourself and how it is the shark in the tank?
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