14th November 2021 | 2 minutes
On October 1, 2016 I registered my first business here in Austria. I was 19 and had big plans with a partner. In 2017 it became a solo venture. On November 30, 2021 I'm putting my freelance business to rest and handing over all of my client projects.
I'm done. I'm tired.
Freelancing isn't as fun as it used to be. Part of the reason for this is the fact, that it's gotten stale to work for an ever-changing array of clients. Another part of the reason is that I keep forgetting to take care of myself. When chasing the numbers, you never want to stop.
Why take a day off, when that means $800 less in revenue? Why take a sick day, just because you have a slight fever? Yes, this is my fault. But I just don't want to be driven by this endless chase of selling hours of my life for profit anymore.
It's all become a chore. I've started to actively despise programming over the course of the past year. That's not what I want. What made go into programming in the first place was this sense of wonder, that with a few (or sometimes many) lines of funny colored text, I can make a computer do anything. I can make a fleet of computers do anything!
So I'm pulling the plug.
One of my clients was kind enough to offer to hire me into full-time and completely remote role. It's a job I'm good at, with nice people, working on a project with interesting challenges. That's what I'll do now.
Maybe somewhere along the lines, I'll come up with a fun idea for a side project. Maybe it'll even turn into something cool. I'll probably find that spark for programming again somewhere along the line. But not now. For now, focusing myself on that one job and using the rest of my time to do other things sounds pretty good.
And also, I'll take all of December off. I've been staring at code for way too long. There's more fun things to do! I've been meaning to pick up 3D modelling. I've been meaning to make some music. I've been meaning to take up archery.
So I'll make time for that now. For me. And then we'll see where the road takes me! I'm sure it'll all turn out fine in the end. ✨