"working for myself" means I don't have a contract with a company to exchange a fixed amount of daily hours for money. I do have freelancing clients which I budget per hour but they don't care how and when I work, they just see the results. I'm also building a SaaS so it's up to me how I want to work.
> But if someone pays you, why would you work more time than you get paid for rather than spending that time on a hobby or with family and friends?
If for example I'm working on a 200 hour freelance project I don't spend more time that I got paid. I just do the work at my own pace.
I do spend time doing other activities than working. What do you think I do on those days I only work 4 hours :)
When I was mostly freelancing (now I'm mostly working on my SaaS) I took a couple of days off after finishing each project, sometimes even a 2-3 weeks after big projects.
When I was working as an employee they didn't pay me to work X hours per day. They paid me for results and didn't care how or when I worked either. I admit there were situations where I did give more than what I got paid for, doing things outside my responsibilities, and that was a mistake. I did that because it was an education company I joined with great ideals, not because of the money.
I learned from those years as an employee that I simply don't have an employee mentality. For example I treated my bosses as I treated my clients. As a freelancer or running your own company you're measured by the quality and efficiency of your work so you learn to care about that. Employees around me were trying to work as little as possible and only cared about their paycheck. They didn't care about solving problems or being efficient. For example, there was this programmer (who didn't work for me) that preferred to spend a couple of hours every day doing a manual report instead of automating it and be given more work. Of course he was friends with the IT manager, another person with employee mentality.
> But if someone pays you, why would you work more time than you get paid for rather than spending that time on a hobby or with family and friends?
If for example I'm working on a 200 hour freelance project I don't spend more time that I got paid. I just do the work at my own pace.
I do spend time doing other activities than working. What do you think I do on those days I only work 4 hours :)
When I was mostly freelancing (now I'm mostly working on my SaaS) I took a couple of days off after finishing each project, sometimes even a 2-3 weeks after big projects.
When I was working as an employee they didn't pay me to work X hours per day. They paid me for results and didn't care how or when I worked either. I admit there were situations where I did give more than what I got paid for, doing things outside my responsibilities, and that was a mistake. I did that because it was an education company I joined with great ideals, not because of the money.
I learned from those years as an employee that I simply don't have an employee mentality. For example I treated my bosses as I treated my clients. As a freelancer or running your own company you're measured by the quality and efficiency of your work so you learn to care about that. Employees around me were trying to work as little as possible and only cared about their paycheck. They didn't care about solving problems or being efficient. For example, there was this programmer (who didn't work for me) that preferred to spend a couple of hours every day doing a manual report instead of automating it and be given more work. Of course he was friends with the IT manager, another person with employee mentality.