Freelance Book Reviews: Stop Thinking Like a Freelancer
I read six different books for my freelance project and they fall into two categories: those that focus on the business mindset side of running your own business (these are more inspirational mindset books that don’t necessarily apply directly to freelancing), and those that are written with the freelancer in mind and offer more actionable, specific how-to advice for freelancers. This one falls into both categories.
Stop Thinking Like a Freelancer
by Liam Veitch
"Stop Thinking Like a Freelancer: The Evolution of a $1m Web Designer" felt like a mashup of all the books I read. The author is very personable and uses his own experience and mistakes to craft a narrative about what freelancing should be. I also noticed some lessons I’d read in Book Yourself Solid and 4-Hour Workweek repeated in this book. The difference is, this book is written specifically for freelancers, making it the most concrete guide to freelancing specifically with both the inspirational “here’s why you want to do this” side of things AND “here’s HOW to do it” perspective combined. and clearly the guy who wrote it learned from other books and his own life. Interestingly, the book also covered a lot of the lessons I learned from speaking with the freelancers I interviewed for this project. The author specifically talks about
The purpose: Learn from the experience of a self-made freelancer. He approaches it with a “There’s not an easy path, but here is the mindset and tools you need to succeed like I did,” message.
The good: Again, this book is a combination of the inspirational and actionable lessons from the other books I read. It’s nice to have a bit of both in one book.
The bad: The book sometimes feels a bit homegrown, but the author is very earnest . It also isn’t super specific to tech comm skills like some of the other books (the author is a web designer), but it’s still vastly applicable.