16 Lessons From 16 Years of Self-Employment
1. Deliver exactly what you said you would.
2. Hone your skills over time and work toward
becoming the top provider in your field.
3. Keep a record of your wins and the results you get for your clients or customers to remind yourself (and others) why it is a very good move to work with you.
4. Don’t overinflate your accomplishments, but do state them succinctly and accurately for others to see.
5. Make the ask.
6. Take more time away from work—breakthrough ideas arrive during a forest walk, a hot shower, or while laughing with friends, not when you are glued to your screen.
7. Keep your promises, big and small. Whether you say, “I’ll text you a link to that website I mentioned,” or “I’d be
happy to make that introduction for you,” follow through.
8. It is okay to have high standards and want things to be just right. Surround yourself with colleagues and team members who feel the same way.
9. Details do matter—font, colors, lighting, timing, tone—because all the details converge to create a particular feeling that clients remember,
for better or worse.
10. Excellence is attainable. Perfection is not.
11. Define what success means to you personally and commit to this vision.
12. Be fierce and deliberate about reducing incoming noise. It’s extremely difficult to solve problems and produce your best work
when you are bombarded by notifications, distractions, and interruptions.
13. If your plan is clearly not working, don’t keep doing it harder—pause, come up with fresh ideas, and try again with a different approach.
14. Put yourself in the client’s shoes: what is their dream? How could you help make their dream come true? What would feel like a
miracle for them, provide relief, or make their life so much easier?
15. Be unexpectedly generous.
16. When in doubt, the simplest option is usually the best one.
None of these lessons are revolutionary, and that is perhaps the point: success in business usually
comes down to a few simple, universal, timeless truths—things you’ve heard before, things you’ve even said yourself, but that we all need to be reminded of, time and time again.
