A dad's advice to himself and his kids.

I think that I can make a great living, and help people, all in harmony with my values. I’ve really had an interest in freelancing for a while (having done it for this year), and in general the ethos of the freelancer. I liked mortgage brokers and Real estate agents because on the good side, they aren’t kept citizens. They can’t be told what to do, and they are giving the finger on some level to corporate conventions. That is attractive to me, in every way that you can think of.

Oh, it’s a hair’s breadth away from something worse, I get it. There’s not a lot of distance between someone that’s fiercely independent and wanting to not be kept, and someone that is a ‘get rich quick’ style of person ruthlessly hurting anyone and everyone to get what they want. There’s not much difference/distance at all there, and I have treaded that line for my entire career. Keeping ambition in check and remaining focused on serving people in lieu of ‘getting yours.’

Fiduciaries, Not Functionaries.

So MREA talks a little bit about functionary and fiduciary duty. A nutshell–functionaries perform tasks that anyone can do. Fiduciaries perform tasks that only someone invested and committed should be doing. Oversimplifying, but you get the gist. Right now, there is a frustration on the part of companies. They have a ‘race to the bottom,’ with their programmers, designers and even writers, and then they complain that they are hiring price and not talent. An interesting and business-critical product/project gets screwed up because the person handling it wasn’t invested and vetted based on anything other than the fact that they had a coupla references and a good price.

Places like oDesk, and to a lesser degree eLance & CraigsList force this sort of thing to happen because they take difficult jobs–even programming a simple form capture site should be done with care–and make them a rase to the bottom. In some respects that’s what a bourse will always do. The issue is that the hyperfocus on price and rate means that you can wind up with some schmuck that had to underbid on this because they’d burned all sorts of bridges….or some other schmuck who is very green and learning on your dime.

But it’s refreshing, invigorating and exciting to work with people that seriously take the ball and run with it. It energizes all involved, and maybe a little extra money goes to the programmer, but it’s thrilling to have a partner that helps you see what the next steps are, who’s fluent and energetic. It’s seriously thrilling to meet with a mind and have a multiplication effect because you’ve learned and reasoned with someone. And you don’t get that by insisting harshly that the person works for the cheapest price. You don’t get that by wagging your finger at someone and lording over the fact that there are other bidders.

I do get it. Price still matters, and there are some basic tasks that should be performed by a ‘punch out guy,’ but you still need the benefit of an intelligent, fiduciary quarterback to get you started. You need the kind of work that only they can produce, most exceptions notwithstanding.

A few notes in a moment on the creation of my toy.