I’ve got three projects, nearing completion.  Days away they represent two things: the last of my ‘freelance’ projects where I’d take any work possible, and also a hefty sum of money.   These projects have been in some version of nearly done forever. They have been an irritant and a distraction because all are–for various reasons–late.   Speed matters, and the customers are–in all cases–at least partially responsible for the delays.  I’m also partially responsible, and that sucks.  I have good clients though that generally understand the way things are, and that they had a role in this stuff.  I don’t feel like I’m exposed to a default risk.

But still–and I will joyfully honor my word–I would not have taken the projects had I known then what I know now.  Stuff that can’t be delivered and done fast, open ended stuff….makes me into more of an employee than I have a stomach for.  On the one hand, I have a commitment to honoring the people that are affording me to get out from under a pile of debt, that are supporting me financially.  I have to honor the money they sent and earned.  That means that I have to take a yoke and bear it.  And that sucks.

When I deliver a product I created, I’m selling someone else.  I’ve put them in my world, and I’m offering it to them.  When I apply for a job, it is me trying to accommodate another.  Oh, to be sure there is some give and take there, but fundamentally, there’s a difference between blog sales guy and freelancer.  I’m still a freelancer, but I’m selling what I want, not what I can find.  It’s easier, selling what I want, too because I can build a personal brand around it.

The revision hell that I’m in now is due to not having a finite ending to a project.  It’s hard to take control after the fact…

The thing I’m working on today is a little project (incidentally lagging behind but not part of the above three projects) for International Tax LawyerPhil Hodgen that I thought would be done in March.  He was in Dubai for much of that time.  It should be done & revised tomorrow from my end, possibly today.

Then I’ve got to come up with a coherent, form based design interview that takes 5 minutes or less and allows people to express themselves.