Recently, I returned to the corporate workplace, and many people ask me why, after being a freelancer and remote worker for eight months, I would go back to a traditional job. Are you giving up on being a content creator and personal branding?
To be honest, this decision naturally raises curiosity, but the questions are also somewhat paradoxical, because in my world, life has never been a multiple choice question.
Because whatever I do is part of my life and has never affected each other. "Writing, interviewing, and speaking are all my life—they just happen to earn money," is how I describe the things I love, even though everyone defines them as mere work.
Freelancing has its benefits, but entrepreneurship was never my aspiration, at least not now. Returning to the workplace, I've compared myself to who I was over the past few years, and I've discovered that I no longer care about many trivial things. I focus more on my goals rather than on unspoken rules that are already set.
Over these years, I've also gained a completely different perspective on what others perceive as being "targeted." When I first entered the workforce, I attributed all my pickiness to being disliked. But after putting myself in others' shoes, much of that pickiness simply comes down to someone wanting to avoid risk, or another person not wanting to take responsibility, or various other reasons—or perhaps others simply "can't bear to see you succeed."
This isn't confidence; it's because I learned an important lesson about "differentiation." Differentiate the situation you're facing—whose problem is it? Differentiate what the other person is worried or upset about—what's the root cause? If none of it is your problem and none of it relates to your goals, I'm telling you, you don't need to take that responsibility on yourself.
This world only cares about results. People see your effort, but they only pay for good results. If I need to compromise other things to achieve good results, I'm willing to bear that cost.
This mindset applies regardless of whether you're at work or in life. Once you're committed to something you love, you fundamentally don't see it as work. So the real question is: have you found what you truly love?
What I'm really trying to say is that as time goes on, many things require compromise, but compromising isn't the same as giving up. It gives you leverage to move into different areas. After compromising multiple times, what you gain is the ability to empathize and the capacity to allocate resources. Don't think that using the same approach will change things. The world only changes when you're willing to change. Otherwise, constantly feeling that the whole world has wronged you will be very painful.
Having the freedom to choose is what makes you truly free.
Since I was once able to work freelance, it also means in the future I can still choose to make that decision again, right?
