I was already dreaming of starting my own business before I ever got my first job. My very first job was at a movie theatre in the late twentieth century. In my breaks I would brainstorm ideas for starting a web design business. I would fantasize about proposing to redesign the movie theatre's website. When the boss wasn't looking, I would sketch out my web site and my pricing on scraps of paper.

Later, I got my first programming job, working on a content management system. I learned a lot about business at that job. The company would always be bringing in new clients. Even then, I would fantasize about being able to have my own clients one day. I would read books about self-employment and consulting. I'd read anti-work websites and dream of getting out of the rat race.

A few years later, I met my future wife and moved to Berlin, Germany to live with her. I had the best excuse for quitting my job back home, and saw it as a chance to start my own business. Almost exactly twenty years ago, I registered a business name, "The Future of the Web", bought thefutureoftheweb.com, and started blogging about web development.

Unfortunately, I had only three months to find a job in Berlin before my tourist visa would expire. I went to an Internet cafe every day and applied to 3+ job postings, hoping my Java experience would make up for my inability to speak German. Extremely luckily, I was hired by Strato Rechenzentrum, a major Internet hosting company. When I received my work visa, I was surprised to see that it had two conditions: I was approved to work at Strato, but I was also permitted to do freelance work ("freiberuflich arbeiten").

While at Strato, I continued to fantasize about breaking free of employment and working on my own terms. I would read every article I could about self-employment or freelancing. I would listen to audiobooks and podcasts, and just surrounded myself with content that inspired and motivated me.

One day, I got up the courage to tell my manager about my work visa condition, and to ask whether Strato would allow me to do freelance work on evenings and weekends. My manager saw no issue with it, and he verified this with HR. I was given the green light to go ahead.

I had already been blogging about web development for a little while, so I updated my blog to make it clear I was available for hire. I published "Hire an Ajax Freelancer" to boldly announce that I was available to take on some JavaScript and Ajax work.

A month later, someone found me and asked me to do a small UI thing. I charged $100/hour, worked for three hours, and billed the person $300. He paid me on PayPal a few hours later. It was the best feeling in the world!

I continued doing work for this person, and the next month someone else contacted me for a small job. I was soon making $500-1000/month in my free time, on top of my full-time salary work at Strato. It was tiring, but I was so highly motivated and inspired, I knew that I had to push through to make it to achieve my dream.

When my then-girlfriend finished school, she wanted to take six months off and live in my hometown in Canada. I quit my job at Strato and announced I was Freelancing Fulltime This was the ultimate test: could I survive off of freelancing alone? If it failed, I felt like I would be able to go and find another job, but I was hoping it wouldn't come to that.

I put the word out privately among friends, and my friend's uncle hired me for a much larger project. I continued blogging regularly to try to promote myself by sharing my expertise. I was fortunate to have people contact me for new projects every few weeks. Two months in, I published Freelancing: First two months. I was approved to speak about Unobtrusive Ajax at The Ajax Experience conference in Boston, and got to meet my idols like John Resig and Douglas Crockford. Eight months in, I published Freelancing: First eight months.

It was a wild experience, and the momentum was growing. It was in the following months that I found three clients in particular that I would continue working with for years. Two of them are still my active clients that I'm working for this very moment.

Do you also dream about leaving your job and starting on a similar path? There are a lot of things you can do right now, while you're still working in a full-time job:

1. Be clear about your goals, and visualise the life you want to live.
2. Surround yourself with content that inspires you and reminds you of moving towards your goals. These could be books, social media accounts, YouTube channels, podcasts, etc.
3. Start putting out content that demonstrates your knowledge and expertise. Share everything you learn. Share resources and tips. You could start a blog, a professional social media presence, a mailing list, a podcast, or whatever you feel inspired and motivated to do.
4. Start a business. Depending on where you live, you'll need to register a business name, have a lawyer give advice and help draft a standard client contract, learn about taxes from an accountant, and probably purchase extra business insurance.
5. Find out if your employer allows you to freelance on evenings and weekends.
6. If so, put out the word on social media, and put the word out amongst friends and families so they know what you're looking for.

Worst case scenario, you get to learn whether or not self-employment is really something for you, and hopefully get to earn some extra money on the side. Best case scenario, you'll be laying down the foundation of your new business and a path to freedom! I'm very excited for you and wish you all the best of luck! If you choose to go on this journey, please let me know and keep me updated!

Dear Recruiter,

Thank you for contacting me, but unfortunately I am not interested in a full-time job. There is no way in hell you'll find me in an office nine-to-five Monday-to-Friday. I've been there, done that, and it was a living nightmare.

No, you don't need to circle back in three months to see if my situation has changed. I'm not available for employment, and I never will be.

Yes, I understand that the position offers benefits. My position offers many more benefits. I can work whenever I want, wherever I want, and for whomever I want. I can have a two-hour nap in the middle of the afternoon if I want to. I can go out with my wife for three hours on a random morning. I can pick up my children from school and go to a playground.

You think it's cool that you have a daily standup meeting at 10am? I haven't had a meeting in months. I have nothing work-related in my calendar at all. I talk to my clients over email. Sometimes I ask them for a phone call, and I'm always happy to hear their voices. They leave me alone to do my best work and they never give me deadlines. They have no expectations for me on any given day. They trust that I'll make good, steady progress every week. They know that in an emergency, I'll drop everything to help them.

Your company is offering a competitive salary? I make more than that working part-time. I raise my rates every few years and simply let my clients know. Sometimes they choose to stop working with me, which is sad. But it's okay because I have other clients who happily pay more. It's not as tragic as your upcoming layoffs would have been.

Your company has management opportunities? Sounds terrible. I work one-on-one with business owners who I've worked with for decades. We trust each other and have become good friends. I understand what they want and need, and the trade-offs they're willing to make. There's no game of telephone trying to guess what upper management wants. No waiting for approval from board meetings. No politics at all.

Your company will pay for me to move to another city? You must be joking. I work from my home, and I always will. Well, sometimes I choose to work on an airplane, or in a waiting room, or in a coffee shop. One place you'll never find me is at a desk in an office building.

So no, I'll never be interested in joining your growing team. I'm in a very happy long-term relationship with my clients. There's no way I'm going to leave them high-and-dry to become a cog in your machine.

I wish you good luck on your search. And I wish all the best to whomever you manage to enslave.

Sincerely,
Jesse Skinner
Freelance Web Developer