I Lost Freelance Work, But I Feel Like I'm In The Middle Of Opportunity

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As some of you might know, Forbes Marketplace cut a whole bunch of staff this month, including the entire CNN Underscored Money project. I was writing for the latter, so I'm out.

When I first received the news, I thought: Terrible timing! We're moving to Spain in less than two months. But then I reminded myself that this is the life of a freelancer. And, other than some freelance/remote gigs that require you to live in the United States, your location at the time you lose -- or gain -- work really doesn't matter.

That said, it still sucks to lose work.

But what can make it worse is losing work, having the wrong attitude and, subsequently, taking a misguided approach to moving forward.

Seeing the many posts on LinkedIn announcing the news and saying -- I'm available -- made me think back to my time working in radio.

In Pittsburgh. In 1998.

What happened there and then says a lot about job loss and how things ultimately tend to turn out in ways you never anticipated.

Hearst owned the station I worked at. We were called to an all-staff meeting one morning for the announcement that Hearst sold the station to SFX Broadcasting, one of the many firms that Clear Channel, which is now iHeartMedia , eventually swallowed up.

Upon hearing the news -- before I could think -- I looked around the room and saw people starting to cry.

At the time, I was a 23-year old punk.

I recall thinking why are these people crying? Just go look for another gig.

Of course, as a 23-year old punk, you tend not to be very good at taking the role of the other. Of understanding that not everybody has made or should make the same choices as you made. Of realizing that we all organize life differently and in the ways that work best for who we are and want to be.

Most of the people who were visibly shaken were not radio people. They worked at a radio station. Big difference.

As a radio person, I went into networking mode within a few seconds of seeing other people crying, just in case SFX planned to make cuts. Because that's what radio people do -- or, at least, did -- when faced with the prospect of job loss.

As it turns out, the "networking" (I have come to dislike that word) landed me a job in Dallas. Within a year, the guy who was my program director in Pittsburgh became my program director in Dallas. Within a year of that, he fired me. A then 25-year old punk who thought the working world was all about networking.

While I didn't know much back then -- and, in reality, have only very recently learned a lot as a I approach 50 -- I did know that this is what I signed up for when I decided to make radio my career. You're going to face a ton of uncertainty. You're going to have to move. Probably more than once. And you're definitely going to get fired.

It never occurred to me that the people who merely worked at a radio station had deeper ties to not only the workplace itself, but the stability it represented and helped create for them in their personal and professional lives. They weren't ready to uproot their lives and leave Pittsburgh.

Completely different perspective.

There's a similar dynamic at play when you're a freelance writer. In some ways, it's the opposite, in that you don't have to move when you get "fired." You can pretty much work from anywhere. However, losing gigs the way we do is something you should come to expect and always be planning for. It is effectively part of what you signed up for.

This isn't to say that W2 employees and others who don't consider themselves self-employed freelancers don't face uncertainty. I'd be crazy and as unable to read the room today as was back then if I thought this was the case. But it is to say that it's a different flavor of uncertainty, specifically in respect to how to react to losing a job.

As I prepare to move to another country, I'm careful to not catastrophize events such as losing work. It happens. And there's no reason to be meaningfully more worried about it in Spain versus in California. Or, in this case, 44 days away from moving to Spain.

It's easy to let anxiety around the unfamiliar -- around uncharted territory -- amplify the things you're up against personally and professionally.

Part of why my wife and I are making this move as we navigate middle age is because we view life as always being in the middle of opportunity. The opportunity to challenge yourself (and, often, challenge yourself out of good and comfortable situations). The opportunity to not only seek new adventures, but exercise your physical and mental muscles at a point when many people just accept that it's time to start giving them a rest.

It's never time.

I view work much the same way.

Being a freelancer means you're always in the middle of opportunity. You can seize it or treat it like something to be scared of. I know what I signed up for and why I signed up for it, so the choice couldn't be more clear.