From Executive to Freelancer In No Time

Sounds strange, right? Why would anyone in their right mind choose to become a freelancer and leave their executive role behind?

Well, there are several hundreds of reasons but I will focus on the deciding ones for this piece.

After almost 8 years in a leading role, all the stress and responsibility associated with it — I am finally quitting my executive position in an organization I’ve helped build from the ground up.

This decision has been coming for a long time now but I literally didn’t have the guts to go through with it.

I was afraid of how my future would look like if I were to quit my fairly good-paying, accountability-ridden, fast-paced position that seemed to be the perfect dream job to many of my peers. Oh, the fools, little did they know!

The Freelancer Shift

In September 2019, I found out my wife was pregnant — and things suddenly came into perspective. I can’t even begin to explain it with words. Something just clicked and I decided to go full-freelance.

This was a gradual process and I didn’t jump into my new role immediately. It took some 5–6 months and now I feel as good as ever.

I exercise and meditate regularly, eat better, have the leisure time that was sorely lacking, and work when and how much I want to. Perhaps what is of the essence for my self-improvement — I can finally allocate chunks in my day to acquire skills and attend courses I have been eager to enroll in for years now.

Most importantly, I get to enjoy quality family time on my own terms.

I remember when I would go to the office at 6 a.m. and come back home 15 hours later. This wasn’t a one-time or even a one-month thing — it usually stretched to several months in a row, where I faced burnout very often but still would force myself to continue investing the additional effort.

Honestly, it was an unending nightmare that harmed me both mentally and physically.

At the point I decided I wanted to quit, I started researching online job opportunities. Since I fluently speak German, English, and Serbian, I figured I should probably look for translation freelancer jobs.

I found a few decent opportunities in a matter of days and have been working as a fully-fledged interpreter since.

The Freelancer Life

I earn a lot more now than I did as an executive, while simultaneously working on my own terms. It has been a life-changing experience — ask my wife — she sees me every day now. Our marriage has improved, we are more loving to each other and life is generally smoother and more enjoyable.

All this is not to say that I don’t take pride in everything I’ve achieved in my previous job, with all the big projects and important work we’ve done. I genuinely feel delighted when I look back on many of our joint success stories.

However, this is something I’m happy to leave behind for good.

What I’ve learned in my transition period from being an executive to growing into my freelance pants is that it’s not worth it — no job is — if it’s harming you all the time, causing vast amounts of stress, and derailing you from what you want to achieve in life.

That’s not what a job is for. On the contrary, it should actually increase your well-being and not annihilate it.

At one point, I even started losing my hair (by the way, I’m 28)!

Final Thoughts

If you have the skills and knowledge and can choose between a corporate/executive job and a freelance environment — the decision to me is fairly clear: pick the latter if you want to truly live life on your own terms!

And this is not to say that everybody can or even wants to make this choice. But I’ve made mine and so should you. Sometimes it’s just a matter of choosing between living a mindful life or turning into a mindless robot.

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