As a freelancer, you are an entrepreneur in the mainstream workplace.
You’re always coming up with innovative ways to make assignments easier for clients, and more than that, you’re constantly improving yourself as a creator and professional. When I first started freelance writing, I thought of myself as another worker just doing the same old tasks and assignments from home, but that definitely wasn’t the case. In fact, I was ( and am) an artist working on my craft. From thinking about how to write assignments faster to giving clients and readers the most value possible, I started to think of my work differently and how it impacts the world as a whole. Then one day, I came across a book about Steve Jobs—the founder of Apple—and his insight gave my work even more meaning.
Here is a man who quit college and chased after his dream of changing the world. And from his humble beginnings of tinkering in a garage, he and a ragtag group of entrepreneurs created one of the most successful computer companies in history. Not only that, but Jobs was eventually fired from his own company, only to go through a period of intense creativity and eventually resecure his place as the leader of the company with his conception of the iPhone.
Although you may not be a computer programmer or inventor, neither was Jobs! But he was a visionary of his time, and anyone looking to improve their entrepreneurial prowess can learn a lot from his words. That said, here are 5 quotes from Steve Jobs that every entrepreneur needs to read:
1. “Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
You have to trust that you already have the answers to the questions your heart asks itself. All that’s left for you to do is to trust the process and have the courage to become what you want to be in life.
2. “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”
And this is why you’ve turned to freelancing in the first place. Money can’t buy happiness, and it certainly can’t buy accomplishments that mean anything. This is your one and precious life, so spend it on something that matters to you.
3. “You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you’re not passionate enough from the start, you’ll never stick it out.”
Entrepreneurship is all about solving a pain point, but with that, you need to have a passion for that problem in order to sustain an entire career from it. Jobs is right—if you don’t have that underlying passion for what you’re doing, then you won’t make it.
4. “When you grow up you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money. That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it… Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”
This quote reminds me of being a kid. At first, you look to other adults and think, “Wow, that’s what being grown-up looks like.” However, the older you get, you realize everyone is just trying their best to hold it all together. Jobs nailed it—you don’t have to be that way, and you certainly don’t have to lie to yourself to keep the machine going at your own expense.
5. “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
It may be a bit macabre, but he’s right. Death eventually comes for all of us, so why should we spend even a second doing things we don’t want to do. Of course, everyone has responsibilities in life, but you don’t have to throw your days away doing something you don’t love.
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Now, you don’t have to go out and make drastic changes right away, but I hope these quotes give you some food for thought about your dreams and how to achieve them.
On the other hand, if you’ve been itching to pursue a new career path or finally start that small business you’ve been thinking about, then Fiverr can certainly help. With a vast network of other freelancers and entrepreneurs around the world, you can easily find talent to help execute your plan. Or better yet, you can market your own services to others who could use your expertise.
Whatever your needs may be, Fiverr offers a path to reach the top. Click here to learn more and start becoming the entrepreneur you’re meant to be.
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