A life of freelancing

I've been a freelancer for more than a decade. It's a pleasure to see those experiences, and acquired professional wisdom, reflected in the words of someone so extraordinarily accomplished as Neil Gaiman. It's easy to believe these are challenges unique to you; until you eventually discover, with awe-struck relief, that we all identify with these.

Neil Gaiman, about a life of freelancing

On putting yourself out there

"A freelance life, a life in the arts, is sometimes like putting messages in bottles, on a desert island, and hoping that someone will find one of your bottles and open it and read it, and put something in a bottle that will wash its way back to you: appreciation, or a commission, or money, or love. And you have to accept that you may put out a hundred things for every bottle that winds up coming back…."

On self-doubt, boundaries, and burnout

"The problems of success can be harder, because nobody warns you about them.

The first problem of any kind of even limited success is the unshakable conviction that you are getting away with something, and that any moment now they will discover you. It's Imposter Syndrome...

The problems of success. They're real, and with luck you'll experience them. The point where you stop saying yes to everything, because now the bottles you threw in the ocean are all coming back, and have to learn to say no….

And after that, the biggest problem of success is that the world conspires to stop you doing the thing that you do, because you are successful. There was a day when I looked up and realised that I had become someone who professionally replied to email, and who wrote as a hobby…."

On building a satisfying business

"…[W]hatever you do you have one thing that's unique….

Do the stuff that only you can do…."

On letting go of perfectionist aspirations

"The things I've done that worked the best were the things I was the least certain about...

People keep working in a freelance world...because their work is good, and because they are easy to get along with, and because they deliver the work on time. And you don't even need all three. Two out of three is fine. People will tolerate how unpleasant you are if your work is good and you deliver it on time. They'll forgive the lateness of the work if it's good, and if they like you. And you don't have to be as good as the others if you're on time and it's always a pleasure to hear from you…."

"…[P]retend to be someone who is wise, and then just behave like they would.

...Make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes."

Excerpted from Neil Gaiman, Commencement Keynote Address, University of the Arts, May 17, 2012

Carina C. Zona

A life of freelancing