Dance with chance
One of the goals I had with my book is to make sure you properly understand the risks you are taking.
This means you should neither overestimate nor underestimate the risk of striking out on your own as a 1099.
I'm currently in the middle of the book, Dance with Chance: Making Luck Work for You and it has a similar goal of helping you understand and manage the role of chance in your life.
Dance with Chance: Making Luck Work for You
"What we are saying is that everyone should make better efforts to understand and estimate their chances of success or failure in all that they do. Such insights would reduce bad surprises and disappointments, as well as help prepare for all-too-common failure. An unsuccessful business venture, for instance, can bring invaluable experience, or might be an excellent introduction to a new career and a network of people for the future. But without a few contingency plans, these opportunities may well evaporate by the time the liquidators knock on the door."
Going 1099 will open you up to more chance opportunities, both good and bad.
In the good column, there is the chance you can
- Earn more and work less
- Work on more interesting projects
- Grow the business beyond just yourself
- Feel more self empowered and entrepreneurial
In the bad column, there is the chance you can
- Lose money by not finding another project in time
- Feel lonely because you don't have a team or consistent co-workers
- Discover you don't actually like working for yourself
Some of these things you can only discover by actually Going 1099, but there are quite a few things you can plan for ahead of time.
For example, you can save any extra money you make from your first 1099 project to smooth you over in the times you don't have a billable project.
Or, if you realize you don't like work for yourself, you can maintain good relationships with other companies and get a job if you feel like you'd like to return to W2 work.
Plan for the things that can go wrong, and success will take care of itself.
That is the way to "Dance with Chance" and still come out ahead.
Want the full playbook? Check out Going 1099.