88% of freelance writers like to bitch. 76% are snobs. 52% make less money than I do. 34% write more pages per day. 13.2% are people I want as friends.
In case it wasn’t obvious, I made up those numbers.
I’ve never liked statistics. I always come out the loser.
When I read stories about people who get struck by lightning more than once, I’m never surprised. If 1% of the population is going to get a disease or a medication side effect, I’m going to be one of them. Fate likes to screw with me.
Beyond that, I don’t like statistics because they’re highly subjective. The numbers never include everyone; until they do, I’m simply not interested.
But say all the numbers were there. Say someone spelled out for you how much you should earn, how many words per day you should write, what the standards should be for good content, what the exact procedure should be for getting business, how you should measure your business success. Would you listen? Would you nod along saying “Yes, Mr. Dictator Sir” and set out to fit that mold?
I wouldn’t.
I began freelancing because I was tired of working in a little box. Didn’t you?
Yet as freelancers we like to tell our fellows what to do. We tell each other to dress for success, not to write for literary magazines, to get up early in the morning to produce better quality work. I’m not above this; I’ve passed out my share of advice. What I wonder is why we do it.
Many of us want to be helpful. We want to help new freelance writers and bloggers succeed. We’re excited that we’ve made it as far as we have, and we want to share our experience.
Others like to brag, or maybe they just like to lie. They like to feel important. Or they want to sell a book, a product, an affiliate scheme.
Differentiating one type of advice from the other can be difficult enough. But even if you’ve got a good bullshit-detector, who says any advice is always going to be good?
You could spend all day trying to measure up to someone else’s standards. Or, you should set your own standards and save yourself a lot of time.
Sure, take advice if it helps you. Listen to success stories if they inspire you. But don’t feel like a failure or beat yourself up just because your way is different than someone else’s.
How heavily do you rely on other people’s opinions, experiences, advice?
