Hey,
Back in 2018 I was a fresh consultant, working with early stage startups, and making more money than I’d seen in my entire career. It felt good not to have a boss, and be able to decide who I wanted to help.
Until my husband and I decided to buy a house.
I quickly learned that mortgage brokers didn’t care how much money I was making, they wanted me to be a full time employee of a Respectable Company.
My income was treated like Monopoly money. My husband’s salary was treated like gold.
The amount of documentation I had to show to prove that I was a Real Money Making Adult was absurd. And even then, they still privileged my husband’s Real Job over my Fake Business.
Through this whole process I kept thinking, but I’m more stable. I have five clients, if one of them decides to fire me— I still have great income, and I can replace the lost client pretty quickly.
My husband had one client, his Respectable Company. In the event of a layoff, he would have 0 clients.
Fast forward to 2023. Some of the most Respectable Companies, your Googles and Metas, are conducting layoffs. And they’re doing it, uh, pretty disrespectfully.
When you decide to work full time, you make an important tradeoff. You sell your time at a bulk discount. For this, you are supposed to get benefits, decreased risk, and stability.
Or, perceived stability.
So what do you do when the stability you crave feels a little less stable?
You reinvest that trust in the person you can actually rely on— yourself.
Instead of taking work home with you, invest that time back into yourself. Focus on areas that will make you feel confident in your skillset regardless of what happens at work.
Take a course (will your Respectable Company pay for it? Ask!), work on a side project that lights you up, freshen up your portfolio.
Book coffees with folks in your former colleagues, and reach out to new potential work-friends for a quick meet and greet. Good networking is simply meeting new potential friends, and adding value to them.
Now the bet your making is not on the Respectable Company you work for, the bet is on yourself.
And that, {{ person.firstname }}, is the best possible bet you could make.
Sending you an extra shot of espresso,
Sarah
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