Stop Thinking like a freelancer is one of those (many) books I have had on the (Kindle) pile for way too long. I picked it up following either a podcast or a blog post on Asian Efficiency in 2014 or 2015 while doing my MBA and read a few page now and then for the last 5 years.

So, after 5 years reading it on and off, how was it?

Overview

The book follows a growth path for your business as a freelancer+ from finding your goals to building your brand with your clients and so on.

To be frank, after 5 years, I don’t really remember the first 30% of the book beyond what I re-read before writing this note.

Where it’s good

The skill progression and the approach presented is coherent. The goal of the book is clearly to start by a kick in the butt to get the reader moving and changing their approach to freelancing. Then going step by step toward more a more independant business, relying less and less on hustle to get food on the table.

Because I started reading this book while doing my MBA, most of the skills are classic business skills. And that might be because that’s the goal of the book: Stop thinking like a freelancer and start owning a business.

Where it falls short

Two things bothered me while reading.

The author included quite a few online tools and even only 5 years later, I feel it didn’t age very well. Either the sites are closed or moved or the service has changed. The approach has value, the individual tools, not so much.

Then, the writing itself changed quite a lot in the last third of the book, going from well narrated to mostly bullet points. I get it that most readers will only go through the first half the book (would love to see the stats Kindle has on this subject), but still. Then, this last, less narrated, part is used quite a lot to promote the author other products. Which… is in line with the theme of the chapters (finding new source of recurring revenue) but felt pushy.

Final word

Would I recommend this book? Quite a difficult question to answer.

The book is not for me. I knew the content and I am not its main target.

But, if you are looking for a way to grow your freelance activity and don’t know where to start, it is a good companion book.

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