Nobody likes working for free. I’ve worked for free strictly to gain experience in technology early in my career because I knew this was the direction I wanted to go. I put in the work to get the experience. Dreamers make sacrifices by working for free several hours after a day job responsibilities are fulfilled. I think all LQ subscribers should follow suit.
I believe true entrepreneurs understand why you sometimes have to work for free, especially early in your career as you need substance, experience, ideas to continue developing. However you need to quickly reach a point in your work where you’re no long working for free, obviously. Depending on how bad you want something is the main determining factor in how long you will actually work for free to gain the experience and or relationships.
During any day at the agency, opportunities may come up wherein a coworker is out of the office for travel or emergencies, and one of their client’s calls in loosing their mind.
Most people think “shit fire I have to deal with this and I’m not even getting paid for this labor.” Hello weak customer service.
Don’t think like that – instead – own the entire scenario. Deliver sublime customer service to a client that isn’t even on your book that you receive no money for. Why? Your coworker, or your boss (everyone has a boss), or somebody important will find out sooner or later what a good job you did. In that moment, you have won the game and built career equity.
Let your work speak for itself. Your career equity and income potential shall increase accordingly from good work. With such a perspective, people will view you in a more trustworthy light, and that opens your professional self to bigger accounts, travel, more value add situations. Deliver the goods throughout these new opportunities and watch your bank account grow.