Mindset is the key to success in freelancing. While we all learn from failures, there is a particular savage mindset that bars many freelancers who are talented in many fields from exploiting their full potential.
When one is gifted with many skills, greed creeps in. Many new and established freelancers are gifted hence they think that by offering services for every skill they possess, they will make more money and hence become stinking rich. I mean who doesn’t want to be rich anyway?. It is a fact we all do.
Motivational gurus will tell you this ‘Challenge yourself and learn new skill every month.” This quote can only apply if you are not contented with your current skills and is looking for something you are passionate about. Otherwise, for what purpose should you learn the new skills anyway?”.
In this blogpost, I will share with you how to unbecome Jack of trades.
How Jack of All Trades Quote Apply in Freelancing
I will use my skillset as an example to break this down for you. I am a Freelance Video Producer. This therefore means I fall in the video production category. On a freelance platform like Upwork, video production is broken down into many other subcategories as shown in the screenshot below. This is a good place start and experiment on various related skills.
You can be a jack of all trades when starting up. I suggest you don’t do it for a long time. Narrow down to something that you find exciting to do This is the most important stage. The problem most of the time is freelancers inability to settle on one skill after many years. This thus takes me to the next point.
The Greed That Comes Attached to Being a Jack of All Trades
I know of a guy in my village who offers basically every service. If someone needs veterinary service for their livestock – he is there, if you laptop crashes – he will fix it, if your toilet tap leak- he is the guy to call, if you need a surveyor to measure your land- he is the go to expert. I mean he does almost everything well. Such people are talented.
Their potential for success is very high. But the reality on the ground is, they are not that much successful at all. They live reckless life’s. They tend to be careless spenders and poor at saving their earnings.
This behavior is as a result of being greedy. When you are greedy to do every job, you will not have time to plan and invest your income. It’s common to think that you are achieving more by doing many things but in the real sense, you are loosing it. That is why I recommend narrowing down your ‘trades‘ to one skill that you love and it guarantees you constant income.
In Short, Don’t Be A ‘Jack of All Trades’
I applaud freelancers who are talented in many skills. Fact is, you cannot exhaust all the skills in this world. You will get tired, old and confused if are obsessed with learning everything without settling down on one thing.
Be the ‘Jack‘ when you are starting up and grow into a master of one. Mastery is where freedom lies.
Its Expensive to Master Everything
Most freelancing jobs require that you use a certain software to do the job. If you have to offer lets say 6 skills that uses 6 different software’s, you will then need to pay for each software annually. On average, software cost about $200 a year. This means you will spend about $1200 a year on software’s alone. Then, more time perfecting your skills to use the software’s.
And don’t tell me about using cracked software’s because its professionally unacceptable.
One downside of this is that you may find yourself using one of the software 2 to 3 times a year for jobs with value of less than $200. This makes it a poor investment.
Conclusion
Being a Jack of All Trades at the beginning of your freelancing career and a Master of one at the end is good. Once you have found a skill that you are passionate about, become a master and stick to it. There will be high and low tides on your way up. The power lies in your persistence.
And that is it from me here. What freelancing skills have you mastered? I would like to know about it in the comments section below.
And if you need help with screencast videos, request a free quote here.
Until next time time, bye bye and take care.
Follow me on twitter @cheptiony.
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