The Privilege It Takes to Freelance
“The thing is that “hustle” looks completely different depending on your circumstances. For most affluent White men, hustle might be pulling an all-nighter in front of a computer trying to get a project done; but for some of the people I know, hustle is sacrificing sleep to work on their side project after they’ve spent ten hours at their day job, come home and fed their kids and put them to bed, or checked on their elderly relatives, or before they start their night shift at their second job.”
The quotes above come from Arlan Hamilton in her book, It’s About Damn Time: How to Turn Being Underestimated into Your Greatest Advantage.
While Arlan Hamilton was talking about breaking into the boys’ club of Silicon Valley, her experiences felt relatable to my own life.
It’s not uncommon to hustle to get into the motion design space — a lot of us didn’t start in this industry. We have to learn and take on side gigs in our spare time. But what isn’t acknowledged is that without certain privileges, it can take longer to achieve success. Many tell stories of freelance bliss — which isn’t always attainable in the same ways by those without privilege.
While many of the privileges I list below stem from economic, racial, or gender identities — my goal here isn’t to dive deep into why some inherently have more privilege than others. Instead, I wish to explore the hurdles that can make for longer journeys.
My goal isn't to scare you away from freelance, but to prepare you for the patience you’ll need to find success.
Support
If you have a spouse, family, or friends that can support you if no money is coming in, consider yourself fortunate. You have time to wait for the best clients, and there's a lot less pressure on being successful right away. But let's be real, this isn't the case for everyone.
Joey Korenman writes in the Freelance Manifesto of a "worst-case scenario" mindset. As he puts it, there's a meager chance of ending up homeless because you don't get clients. You have couches to surf on, and you could get another job — so nothing to worry about, right?
I respect Joey for the School of Motion empire he's built, but this mindset in the Freelance Manifesto is an ignorant, privileged idea.
It may be easy for a single, cisgender, heterosexual, white man in a city center to bum off a friend or move back in with his parents. But what about when you're the primary income for a family? When moving in with friends or parents would uproot the life you've built?
If you have the resources, I'm not telling you to ignore them. But those without these privileges — know that you will need to be more cautious and plan carefully before taking the leap into full-time freelance.
Money
Without savings or a support system to fall back onto, it’s not smart to start freelancing. It’s safe to say you’ve heard this advice before. Ideally, you want as many months of expenses saved as possible. At the very minimum, three months. More ideal would be six to twelve months. If you have a dry spell, you don't want to be thinking about how you’ll be paying for necessities.
But of course, a padded bank account is hard to achieve if you’re living paycheck to paycheck or have significant debts.
It’s unusual to call a steady full-time job a privilege, but it is. Without a steady income, it can seem impossible to save enough to feel comfortable going freelance.
When I got out of school, I was working an hourly wage job as a video editor. I typically worked at least 40 hours a week but didn’t get any paid time off. With a varying paycheck that was just enough to cover my expenses, there wasn’t much to save unless I could miraculously pay off the loans I had already acquired a couple of years out of school.
From experience, I’ll tell you that in these circumstances, it’ll take you longer than you may like to be comfortably freelance — or you’ll rack up some unwanted debt trying too early!
Location
Go where the jobs are — it’s a classic piece of advice. Major cities will have more studios, agencies, and production companies — and therefore have more freelance opportunities.
While it’s a reasonable thought, it’s ok if it’s not feasible or not the right choice for you.
It’s not fair to assume everyone has the support system, money, or desire to move somewhere new. Personally, city life isn’t for me. I’m lucky to be close to my family and enjoy living in the quiet corner of Connecticut.
This means, of course, that I’ve had to work harder to find opportunities near me. Driving an hour or more for in-house opportunities, networking to procure direct clients, or I found connections to work remotely — an option that has become increasingly popular.
In sum, to work from anywhere, you’ll have to network your butt off.
Hustle and Patience
Support, money, and location are just some of the privileges that give people shortcuts to success.
There’s no easy solution here. If you have a lack of certain privileges, “hustle” requires long nights and more sacrifices.
This doesn’t mean a freelance dream is impossible, though. You’ve just got to be realistic about what it takes to achieve your goals. Otherwise, you’ll struggle feeling like you’re just not as naturally talented as other folks.
No matter what, it’s important to remember that it takes a village to get anyone anywhere. I’ll leave you with another quote from Arlan Hamilton —
“The idea of the self-made person is romantic and perhaps helps some people to strive and push themselves to do more, but overall I find it to be a damaging myth. It encourages the idea of the lone genius, the outlier, and can create an impossible standard to try to live up to.”
