As with every major life decision that you share with other people, there will be the occasionally welcome opinions about how you should go about it, and whether it’s a good decision to begin with. I think it’s always a good idea to bring up your plans to other people because you never know what you’ll learn about yourself, or about them. And either way it’s usually interesting. But one of the effects of this is the inevitable naysayer. Those who believe, for whatever reason, that whatever you’re about to embark upon will fail for innumerable reasons. And no matter how confident you are, their opinions make you question your decision.

In my case — going from a decade of solid full-time work for large corporations to the life of a freelance designer, there are many things to consider. And it’s not a decision one arrives at overnight, if at all. In fact, there are so many people who would never consider working for themselves that there is a long-held belief that there is more security in working for someone else, than working for yourself. I am here to tell you that it is at least as, if not more risky to work for someone else than it is to work for yourself. Beyond any notion of having more control of your schedule and project destiny, if your income comes from diverse sources, you are *more* secure working for yourself, than if you work for someone else. If you have a single job working for a large company, and that company restructures, or gets bought out, or the recession causes them to cut back, you can lose your job. And there you are. With no source of income. If you have multiple smaller jobs, for multiple people, and one doesn’t work out, you have all of the others.

I’m not saying it’s easy — there’s no falling back on others or blaming someone/something when things go wrong. It’s just you and the quality of your work, and your ability to communicate effectively that keep you afloat. But to me, that’s the *reason* to work for myself. I *like* being invested in what I’m working on. I *like* knowing where it’s going and how it will affect things. I *like* that the buck stops with me. And, I like that I can live wherever I want because my work is location independent….

And out of kindness, many people still tell me how risky it is — how if I move somewhere with fewer jobs because it’s more affordable I better have a back-up plan, and how freelancing without face time is a pipe dream. And yes, it’s risky, but not any more risky than staying where I am and not feeling satisfied with my work. And, yes, living somewhere that doesn’t have tremendous job opportunity will make it more difficult to find a job there if that is important, but if I had to find a job working for someone else, why couldn’t I move again? And, yes, “facetime” can be important, but as we move forward, there are better and better ways of creating that connection with people from afar, and it becomes less and less important for us to be in the same room together, and most of the people I’ve done work for I’ve never met. I’ve noticed a definite gap regarding that thinking — how those whose whole professional career has been during the time with the internet was critical, or those who have embraced the internet economy whole heartedly completely understand. And while it’s not that important to me to help those who don’t understand, it is important to me to not let their thinking make me doubt myself or my goals. Just because not everyone sees the path to get there, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.