How Physics defined freelance "work" correctly | it's results or zero

Physics defined work correctly—even the kind of work we do as premium freelancers.

In terms of Physics, there's no work done without displacement.

Without results, the value of work = zero.

In this newsletter edition, I dare claim the same thing about freelancing, so hear me out.

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Note that I'm speaking from a former physics student and physics educator perspective here.

Hence the physics terms in bold and italics.

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Time to explain the physics first

Work = Force x Displacement

More accurately, it's force dotted with displacement...

which is why you see

W = Fdcosθ

in formulas.

(Don't get scared. Let me walk you through this.)

So, Work is a scalar quantity...

meaning it doesn't have direction. Only magnitude.

But the two factors that define it, namely,

Force and Displacement

are both vector quantities...

meaning they both have magnitude and direction.

Let's illustrate things.

When you say force, examples would be...

• 100 N to the east
• 25 N left
• 73 N up

N stands for Newtons, the standard unit for force.

The numbers 100, 25, and 73 give you the magnitude—the "how much," the "how big," the "how strong."

The directions east, left, and up, well, they indicate the direction. They answer the question, "to where?"

When you say displacement, examples would be...

• 50 km north
• 32 km right
• 224 km down

Again, there are numbers, and those give you the magnitude. In terms of displacement, these numbers tell you "how far."

km = kilometers, the standard unit for distance and displacement.

And, as you might have guessed, the directions are indicated by the terms north, right, and down.

Kudos, brilliant student!

Now back to freelancing...

In freelancing the JTL* way, you give value first

(*JTL = John "The Legend" Pagulayan. He's my freelancing mentor)

Now in freelancing the JTL way,

you deliver results in advance.

You deliver a quick win.

You give value first.

That means your real work isn't just about:

1. you pushing it so hard... breaking a bucket of sweat all day, or
2. making it as easy peasy as you can... just tapping a wall three times for 3 seconds and bwalah, you've done "the work"!

Actually...

There's another element involved. Another element outside of the effort you make.

You see...

If you base the value of your work only on the amount of effort or force applied...

Then case number 2 above should be paid less than case number 1.

I mean... you hammering the wall three times for 3 seconds should cost way less than breaking buckets of sweat all day.

Uhmm, but really?

What if hammering the wall exactly three times for 3 seconds means saving an entire building from collapsing?

and... what if breaking buckets of sweat just means you got a new fancy profile picture finally up?

Which has more impact?

(you'd see in future newsletter editions that we could actually make a case for either one above, depending on the client's purpose...)

But for simplicity's sake...

Suppose the saving of the building from collapsing is more impactful to the client than having a new fancy profile picture.

Looks like the effortless hammering for 3 seconds deserves more than the effortful breaking of sweat, which took all day.

Again, if you only looked at the more effort=more money perspective...

or the more familiar, more hours=more money mindset...

it doesn't make any sense.

You see...

if IMPACT is what clients are actually looking for...

then pricing based ONLY on the amount of obvious effort done...

or hours rendered, for that matter...

is the one thing that actually sounds unreasonable...

And it sounds unreasonable precisely because it is.

Effort is not the only basis

Let me illustrate even further: here's a doctor who charged a premium fee simply for saying my sister's ears were clean

So yesterday I accompanied my sister for a quick ENT (Ear-Nose-Throat) specialist consult.

Something went inside her right ear and it was so painful that she...

cried and shouted over the top of her lungs yesterday afternoon.

The something—probabaly an insect—was likely making its way inside her ear or trying its best to escape.

Now the doctor, the ENT specialist, happened to be a kind person.

His tone was sooo nice, calming, and relaxing you'd think you're already healed even before he actually did the checkup.

Anyway, he was checking up on my sister Blessy's ears...

(let's name her already because it's easier to type "Blessy" than "my sister")...

again the doctor was looking inside her ears with his eyes and tools...

and after a few seconds, confirmed her ears were clean.

Didn't even take him a minute to do that.

The right ear had an inflammation though.

He quickly applied some anti-whatever stuff that I couldn't understand.

But it was what Blessy's insect-infected-and-probably-bitten-and-inflamed ear needed.

The ENT specialist quickly charged Php 800 for the consult alone...

PLUS

another Php 1000 for that one-time ear "cleaning."

Easy peasy Php 1800 in less than 15 minutes.

Great job done, right?

So, according to the Physics definition...

was the doctor able to do actual work?

Well, if we don't overthink the direction upon which the force was applied (hello real Physics geeks)

I would say the doctor did his job.

He could charge that amount confidently because there were results.

There was displacement in terms of the previous and present conditions.

Point A was when there was extreme pain.

Point B is now no pain and clean ears.

The doctor even gave additional advice—he was already future problem pacing.

He was anticipating the problem might happen again...

So he gave recommendations to Blessy for prevention.

And that kind of work was already worth a premium.

It's results or zero

No matter how much effort or force you exert, if it doesn't give your clients results—if it doesn't displace them from point A to point B—then the value of your work is zero.

Sounds extremish, huh?

But that's exactly the Physics definition of work.

Again, the formula is W = Fdcosθ

Work = Force x displacement x cosine(θ)

You got to meet 3 conditions.

1. There has to be force. There has to be effort made.
2. There needs to be displacement. Client should move from the "hellish" state, point A to the "heavenly" state, point B.
3. The force you exert needs to be in the direction of or at least in partial alignment with the displacement or else, the work is not counted—it can't be attributed to you.

Now time to unpack that third condition...

The cosine of theta θ and who deserves premium fees

Theta, θ = the angle between the force and the displacement.

cosθ = the multiplier that "qualifies" the relationship between your effort and the results your client has experienced

Let's explore four cases...

Case #1. Parallel freelancer effort and client results

If your efforts and client results are completely parallel or in alignment with each other, then all work is attributed to the force you've exerted.

Your force goes toward the east.

The displacement goes east as well.

Same direction.

Parallel.

Fully aligned.

All work is accounted as coming from you.

You obviously deserve a premium fee.

Said another way...

Effort goes one way.

Results go the same way.

Obviouly, you deserve all premium praise.

Meanwhile...

Case #2: Perpendicular freelancer effort and client results

If F and d are perpendicular to each other...

Then cosθ would be zero.

Your force goes to the right.

The displacement goes upward.

Completey unrelated.

No work is attributable to you.

The displacement—the client results—did not come from you at all.

Something else or someone else must have caused it.

You kinda don't get a claim for the premium fee, at least according to Physics.

(I said kinda to soften the blow. *wink*)

Case #3: Anti-parallel freelancer effort and client results

For simplicity's sake, let's just reveal right now that cosθ can only have values between -1 and 1.

This means that work can sometimes be "negative" too.

And it's negative in the sense that your effort has triggered a displacement...

The client actually got from point A to point B...

But, instead of going directly according to the direction of the results the client wanted...

You exerted your efforts in the exact opposite direction.

Let's attempt a practical freelancing illustration.

The closest illustration I could think of is when the client wants to up his reputation online.

Instead of doing that directly, promoting the client to socials...

What you did was clean up all the mess about them in the internet...

Backtracking every single piece of article that talked negatively about the client.

Now I'm sure you could think of a better illustration than this.

Point is you still got your client results.

Just that the effort you've made isn't what the client initially thought how they'd do things.

They might have thought of simply promoting themselves unceasingly—them going the right direction...

While you thought of depromoting them from any negative publicity stunts about them—you going left instead.

And then you still got what they wanted at the end of the day.

Reputation.

And a good one at that.

You were anti-parallel.

But you still delivered the results.

Now there's another illustration in my head but it's a little more heartbreaking.

Suppose you made an effort in the direction the client was heading.

But the displacement went another way.

Instead of the client getting from point A to point B, they got back to point 0—

well to whatever point they were in prior to point A.

Now that's more accurately the kind of "negative work" Physics wants you to understand.

There's loss.

The client suffered loss.

And it's ugh, hard.

It's a failure.

(we'll talk about failures and losses in future editions of this newsletter)

So yeah, negative work.

You went right.

The results went wrong.

I mean, left.

Anti-parallel.

Aligned, but opposite in direction.

Good thing it doesn't happen as often as Case #4 down below.

Now to the more practical, really more relatable scenario for freelancers...

Case #4: Partially aligned freelancer effort and client results

Most of the time, however, our efforts only partially align with the results.

In the real world, there will always be other factors—

factors that affect a client's success transformation from point A to point B.

So, you could say you and your client are only partially aligned.

Then that means your cosθ is not 1 (parallel), it's not zero (perpendicular), and it's not even -1 (anti-parallel).

Yet, it still falls within the range.

To illustrate, you could only be doing Black Friday Fast Cash emails...

And you have found that the results were amazing, the client got tons of sales—hurray!

But that doesn't mean all work is attributable to your efforts.

Think about it...

• Your client already has a converting offer. People have bought their classes before.
• Your client already has a converting landing page. It's already optimized. It already works.
• Your client already has thousands in their email list. And people are already opening their emails.

Already.

All ready.

Yeah!!

So essentially, your client is 90% already there.

And all you did was come in, spot the opportunity for a quick client win, and bam!

Results!

Displacement!

From point A—no sale, to point B—great sales!

Thing is...

Your force—your effort—is only one factor of the many factors that have already been working.

You summed up all those forces together, and what you got is success for your client.

Know what's most beautiful about this?

Even if your efforts are only one of the many already existing contributors?

You still deserve premium fees.

That's the good news.

Because you've brought all things together and made use of them...

You sort of unified everything and brought that huge long-awaited client success.

You're that one factor that made the sum of all forces—the net force—become completely aligned with the client's goals...

That eventually, the resulting overall work done is now at its optimum.

W = Fdcosθ is at its highest possible value...

All because you finally understood...

That it's not just about the effort...

But the effort times the target displacement in optimum alignment.

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