Bunch of Ideots #1

I’ve been thinking for a while now that I should have a podcast.

Why? I have a lot to say.

Is it interesting? Maybe not.

Should you listen to it? Well, do you have anything better to do? It is only 10min, stick around. Maybe we have some shared ideas or goals, maybe not. Leave it the comments.

Listen to the podcast here.

And if for some reason you’d rather read it, I got you:

A few days ago, when I launched my website, a good friend of mine asked me why I wanted to work for myself.

It’s a lot of trouble, work twice as much, going after clients for payment, do my finances, my schedule is always crazy. I mean, it’s a lot, so I understand the question.

And my obvious answer was: to have freedom - to work as much or as little as I want, to make my own money, to go after clients I really want to work with and most of all to have the freedom to learn. Failing every day and getting up because I want to be better than I was yesterday, for me, is the ultimate freedom.

But I still went home wondering why and then it hit me. Well, because I don’t fit in. I never did.

Since I was a kid I always felt like an outsider, which ultimately got me in trouble a lot. I mean, A LOT.

At 5 I wanted to run in the rain, find secret spots and discover weird animals, while my peers were happily playing with dolls. My parents were not fond of this adventurous side, as I broke my right arm 3 times in 6 months.

When I was a teenager I got my first panic attack when I opened Wikipedia and found out there was too much information for me to learn in a lifetime - I read more books between the ages of 13 and 16 than any other time in my life. - needless to say, everyone else was out having too much alcohol. Don’t take me the wrong way, I did too, but had other priorities.

In university I used to quote Russel Crowe in a Brilliant Mind to my friends: "Classes will dull your mind, destroy the potential for authentic creativity.” I skipped a lot of classes and only worked hard for the ones that were really important to me. And although I did a Bachelor and a Master’s in subjects I am really interested in, I used to spend my time daydreaming about what I’d do when everything was over.

And when that day came, I blindly went for the same route everyone goes: find a job, work from 9h to 6h, pay too much rent, live for a couple of drinks on the weekend and that’s it. That’s life.

Except it is not.

The first months I had to go to an office I was miserable. I dreaded schedules, getting in the subway at the same hour, not being late because my boss hated it, having exactly the same minutes for lunch every day, with the same people, having the same conversations at the same place.

I started to realize I was not built for corporate life. Every day would suck the life out of me, and yet, I tried to fit in. 

And then, out of the blue, I had finished a social media course and one of my teachers suggested me for a freelance job. I had no idea how to do it: the hourly rates, the client management, I think I forgot everything about design in that second. But for some reason, I said yes. And that changed everything.

So, here are my 7 reasons why I want to work for myself:

1. I don’t want to only label myself as a designer for the next 45 years.

2. I want to be a designer, and a social media manager, and a creative director, and an accountant, and the cleaning staff of my own office (which is a desk and a chair, by the way).

3. I want to connect with individuals that value my time and my knowledge over power and money.

4. I want to make different projects for different companies - variety over routine.

5. I want to not feel bad about working late because I went to the gym in the morning.

6. I want peace of mind of knowing I made de best possible job without fearing the annual evaluation.

7. I want to say no to projects I am not interested in.

I don’t want to fit in ever again. Because when I am me and I do work I love, the world adjusts and I fit in just fine.

If this inspired you in any way, if you are unhappy doing whatever it is that you’re doing, know this: the world you want and desire is possible. The world will adjust to you, not the other way around. Relentlessly pursue what you love and you will be just fine.