How do you feel about a taking a leap of faith? It makes me nervous because it has come back to bite me more often than not, professionally and personally. And yet, often it is the only way to really break a cycle.
Here’s The Deal
One of my UX peers has been freelancing over the last year, but recently found a full-time gig. She recommended me as a possible replacement with a current client. I’ve been on some Zoom calls and I’m working on an initial assignment, but not officially “their guy” yet. I can certainly appreciate that they may be taking a leap of faith in me, too.
The client goal is to have an MVP (minimum viable product) ready to go for October. That’s just two months from now and there’s a lot of work to be done. They anticipate two months of full time work and then scaling down to about 20% of that for a UX designer. It’s a scrappy finance startup and there are pros and cons with that.
As you might expect, the pay for this kind of specialized work is better than slinging boxes in a warehouse. However, going down to 8-12 hours a week is scary.
The exciting part about it is having time to push my own side hustles and art. Also, the client said they may have some non-UX work to throw my way in the form of graphic design, video editing, and copywriting. It’s refreshing that a client doesn’t just expect a UX designer to be able to do these things. If it were a requirement, it would feel a little unicorn-y.
So, it all seems very possible. There are no guarantees in life. Am I someone who asks, “What if this all goes wrong?” versus “What if this all goes right?” Sometimes.
I’m no stranger to entrepreneurial pursuits and freelancing. However, I’ve never done it for extended periods of time. It would feel a little different if there were an actual contract involved that said, “We can pay you this much over the next 12 months,” but two months is still a good head start. Having that extra time to tackle my own entrepreneurial goals is especially intriguing. I’m already thinking about how I might resume studies for the Series 65 license.
Current Situation
I’ve returned to a former employer and I’ve been back for just over 60 days. It’s kind of an open secret that I’m still looking around for other possibilities. In a short amount of time, there have been some unwelcome changes in the work environment. I’ll spare you the details. Morale is dropping. I’ve heard reports of people walking off the job. On the bright side, I feel like I’m well respected by the lead operators and I’ve already been asked to be a trainer (partly due to the fact that I worked there nearly 7 years previously).
Personally, I have some tendonitis in my elbow that is absolutely awful. It’s not so bad that a doctor will say to stop using it, but I also can’t seem to take enough time off work to let it heal. It’s a never ending routine of Tiger Balm, massage gun, TENS unit, BioFreeze, stretching, and gua sha scraping. I wonder how bad it has to get before an MRI happens.
All The Rest
Bicycling is still fun! I didn’t do much last week due to rain (and this week looks to be the same), but a friend and I took our bikes out to a forest preserve yesterday and that was nice. Even without the best tires, mine performed decently on grass trails.
My birthday is this week. I’ll be the greatest prime number under 45. I’m on vacation this week and I might try to squeeze in a new silkscreen print and celebrate my birthday with some sort of promotion in my online store.
The original plan for this week was to finish recording some music in addition to cleaning the house and culminating with a yard sale at the end. However, it is supposed to rain all day Friday, so I may nix the sale completely. Maybe I’ll do a smaller porch sale just on Saturday.
With that, I’m going to go find some sweet corn, do a little music stuff, do a little UX work, and resume my vacation! By the end of August I should be able to report on my upcoming leap of faith.
(10 points if you know where the top image come from.)
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