knowledge

Keep your spirits high even if you don’t succeed the first time

Failures are stepping stones to success. So, as a freelancer, if you do not succeed at first, try again. Freelancing is no exception when it comes to failures and successes. One has to have the fire in him to surpass these failures and come out successfully. Failures as such do not wait to pounce on you. You need to know that failure is around the corner, when things don’t come up the way they have to. And need to take corrective action immediately.

What is the reason for your failure? This is the first question one may ask himself. Look at yourself and determine why you have failed. If you are not sure, ask your client. Ask friends who know your work. They will have a better idea.

Once you get to know the reasons, work on them. Work on the weak areas which need attention. Sometimes your over confidence needs to be brought down. Anyways do your self appraisal and you will know where you have faltered.

Another question you need to ask is whether you or another party caused your failure. Reasons for the failure could be many. You may have been in the picture and involved in a small way. Is the failure because of non availability of resources or any other factor that was not in your control? Then you do not have to take the blame. Things beyond your control really do not matter.

But if the failure was due to your incompetence, assess the factors that caused the incompetence. Assess what more you could do. Assess the kind of help you should have asked for. Assess the amount of help you should have taken from others and other resources.

If it was due to lack of knowledge, assess if you really would like to work on that area again. If yes, upgrade knowledge by going for a course. Crash courses are available. But choose the one which will provide you with good knowledge on the subject. Check if the teachers are qualified to help you further upgrade. If yes then it is the right place to go to.

Ask the right questions to understand why this failure happened. More over it is important not to play the blame game. Accept feedback in good manner. Accept what needs improvement and there you will be among the best again after a few months and years.

Once you have, upgraded skills approach you employer. He may give you another chance. Most of them would like to work with familiar personnel than go for newer freelancers each time. So make sure you upgrade your knowledge and continue accepting feedback to improvise and improve.

Was it your kind of work? This is another question worth to think about. Was it your area of expertise? If not, move away. If you still want to continue with it, upgrade skills. You may choose to move away in to a lateral field as well. As a freelancer, there are ample opportunities available to showcase skills that relates with each other. You have to have the determination to learn yourself. Self help is important at times because it will stand you in good stead with your employer. Basically, you do not have to cry out for help at every given opportunity.

If failure was due to lack of resources, get help to research, and make resources available. At least for your next assignment these resources will be helpful. These resources can be page marked and filed so that they are always at your hands length whenever required. Availability of resources cannot be a reason for failure these days as enough and more resources are available at the press of a few buttons. But to choose amongst the best and most suited needs intelligence and discrimination.

Friends can provide you with great inputs. Do you home work on the work assigned. You may take hours to formulate your strategy on getting work done. But all that matters is not the time spent, but the quality of output given.

Failure is opportunity to begin again. It points the way to success. Begin your work more efficiently and logically and you are sure to succeed.

K Saravana Kumar

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Knowledge sharing

There are many ways to learn…One such way of learning for a freelancer is by sharing knowledge. Few of us restrict ourselves to share the knowledge that we gained. May be at a few cases its valid but not always.

An individual must possess the nature of being curious and in the motive of getting inclined to improve oneself and use the full potential of the tools. It is important that a freelancer is aware of his environment to be able to act effectively.

Pros of Passing knowledge

The invention and the discoveries of many things in the world are known to us only because an individual has shared it. The base to know anything is by sharing it. You will not get emptied when you share it, you will have wide opportunities then.

When you tell someone about what you have learnt, none will agree to it in the first go. Millions of questions might arise, through which you will have the possibility of exploring more. The loop followed is infinite once shared.

Same way a Freelancer gets the chance to work in many sectors and technologies as his goals are short term. He gains more knowledge and if not shared it will go waste. He/she can’t hold remembering it for years and next time they will have to dig it again and might not find the desired results then.

It’s a good practice to pin down any new thing done and share. We now got many tools these days such as blogs, forums, portals, social networking sites and others to accomplish this. After learning a new advancement, make a video or take a screenshot write few notes about it and post. The comments that you get in as a response to it will make you a better person.

For instance, if the code developed for software weren’t shared on the Internet every organization had to work from the scratch and when they are done with it, the delivery time would be nearing. This wouldn’t have let us do any new inventions and have resulted in sitting idle working on the same technology.

One must understand the reason behind sharing. It reduces the amount of time one will take to work on the task. The stress will be reduced leading to better results.

We will be one among the individuals who has stepped forward to develop the technology, or anything for that matter.

For Freelancers who work on hiring people

Let’s now put things in a different perspective. Freelancers not only do work on codes, blogs but there are many volunteered to hire people. Why not we concentrate on collecting the materials, white papers published for that specific job and provide to individuals who has a passion in improving in that specific field. Give them a timeline to go through stuff that you have shared and employ them. This will result in having quality freelancers for your organization.

Why fear to lose

Freelancing is not always for earnings and investment. It’s more valuable than one might think. Have in mind that when you have a question there will be loads of people who come forward to help you.

These days there are a lot of sources from where information could be gained. In an evolution such as this one might not have the need to depend on an individual… The search engines are well advanced and they will be able to help you find out what’s required in fraction of secondly. However this will not last long, one must keep gaining knowledge and make sharing as a practice. It can take different forms.

Always two heads are better than one. If you are not willing to share knowledge to an entire group share it among people of your interest. Form a group of individuals who has the same like as yours. It’s always good to process the information through different number of people to get better inputs. This is because that individual would have undergone various situations where the application was used likewise with the other person. This type of collective thoughts put together and a new product is developed. All the members of the group should be involved in the learning process but also the transmission of knowledge, without which its integration is useless.

Recognition received

As you are the master of the work you do, many people come and approach you. More than you getting to know many advanced techniques from them your recognition is spread across.

The individual you trained might became a popular person one day but know that if you are not given the initial education and knowledge you will not be the person you are today.

Create your own blog space and share knowledge. You will have a greater audience and people will be waiting to get your inputs. The satisfaction you gain out of it is enormous. There’s enough room for everyone to grow.

Make learning interesting

Knowledge sharing not only helps you grow but sharpens your brain by sharing your thoughts to others. Make the way you learn interesting. While you learn, prepare some slides and put the knowledge gained in points. You should also look at innovative approaches to showcase your learning. None wants to read a lengthy document nowadays as the people wants the work done as soon as possible.

People’s expectation is high and so is the demand. Unless we share great content, our thoughts won’t be valid and will suffer because we are in the era of content marketing.

This allows accelerated decision-making in business situations. It also brings different competitive advantages, either internally, or towards a client. You will be considered as the leader of the market strategy with the way you project your inputs. This will give a better industry exposure. The more complex the requirement is more we gain out of it .

These types of approach greatly contribute to building a strong freelancing culture, allowing great people to stick to a great human adventure!