September goals

My one goal in September:

Go all in and do well for my consulting gig.

The ironic thing is… I’ve once wanted to transit out of consulting badly. I wanted to stop doing it. I wanted instead to go fulltime on my indie products.

But—here’s a BIG but—from a neutral, business point of view it didn’t make sense.

I’m good at it. The clients I serve are my tribe (especially non-profit folks). It’s meaningful. It scales for social good. It pays well. I do enjoy working on it.

If you look at the famous ikigai framework, it checks off all the circles.

Why did I ever think I would want to stop doing this over some internet product that just has 10x less scale, revenue, meaning and social good?

It’s weird. I wonder if it’s influence from social media, from the exciting digital nomad lives I see. Perhaps that made more sense when I was single. But my life stage situation had changed. More stability and routine might actually be beneficial for the family.

That’s why I recently set an intention for my consulting service have a permanent place in my portfolio of projects. Not just something that pays the bills while I try to grow my indie products. Not something that I transit out of once I make enough MRR. But as a lifestyle, career choice.

I admit, sometimes I still get inwardly drawn to the fulltime indie path.

But I can have both.

I can consult, and also work on products and travel in the off season.

Either/or is a false dichotomy.