Lexus doesn’t build a subcompact economy hatchback, then slowly raise its price.
We want to get somewhere bigger and feel good about it. We want to get there ASAP. We want to have fun in our lives. We want work to be a game.
Many freelancers try to slowly raise their rates dollar by dollar thinking they’ll get to making a ton more. This is difficult or impossible. If I jump from making $30k per gig, to making $100k per gig, I’m changing what I’m offering, who I’m offering it to, what my lifestyle is, how I’m communicating my value, and a lot of other stuff.
With the lexus example, they’d be changing their factories completely, their customer base, the sources of their supplies, their staff, their advertising, their brand, their CEO, their everything.. and it would be really hard for customers to think of them as luxurious.
The way to do it is to set a goal, fail at it for a long time. Then, succeed.
This gamifies it because it’s measurable. It makes the day-to-day work more clear because we’re not trying to arbitrarily “improve,” we have our sights set. Commitment is incredibly rewarding and fulfilling.
We get to practice the actual thing. Instead of practicing getting $30k gigs, then $33k gigs, we’re practicing getting $100k gigs. In three years, we’ll be better at getting $100k gigs. We’lll have our audience we’ve built that are in that range. We’ll know our product and how to deliver it.
Take action: Figure out if you can fail.
- Define an actual SMART goal 3 years away.
- Write it down big on a sheet of paper.
- Look at it and think, is this possible?
Leave a Reply