Chapter 1

1. Standing in Quicksand

“How did you go bankrupt? Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”

—Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

Ken the video editor had a problem. He was years into his career and very talented. Top of his game. He knew his software, knew exactly how much time he needed to put out a quality product, and knew how to shine at work. His problem was quantity—and being a bit of a perfectionist. Even at his best, he could only crank out five or six videos a month.

His problem is one we’ve all faced at one time or another: scale. At his current level of effort, he could only generate a finite amount of work. Years of trial and error made him efficient, but it still wasn’t enough. Ken had created an innovative training video, similar to short social videos I’m sure you’ve seen shared on one site or another. They were a far more engaging way to train than old methods, so demand shot up. Ken’s talent and success forced him to innovate and reinvent.

It’s a lot like weight loss. At the start of your journey, the pounds seem to fall away. Then you hit a plateau. The number on the scale remains the same, even though you’re still dieting and working out. Ken had plateaued at work, and that made him feel less secure in his job.

It doesn’t matter if you’re selling, editing, engineering, or managing; you need to keep up with new trends and tools. It’d be great to constantly train in new skills, to up your game so you remain competitive, but who has the time? Between endless meetings, grinding work, and juggling for some space at home, your days are full.

We’re all standing in quicksand. The world is literally changing beneath our feet. If we struggle, fighting to maintain control of the old ways, we’re going to sink. Right now, with this book in your hand, you have a choice to make. Are you going to wait for the world to make you irrelevant, or are you going to evolve and survive?

Disruption

“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.”

—Lao Tzu

The Gig Economy changed the world overnight, disrupting the established model and upending the old way of doing business. Webster’s Dictionary defines it as a free market system in which companies regularly engage with freelancers or temporary employees for short-term contracts. Where previous generations found a job and stayed with it for decades, many people in today’s workforce change jobs regularly, and supplement their incomes with contract-based “side hustles.”

Think about the disruption caused by the first iPhone. The week before, your phone had the ability to make and receive calls, do basic calculations, and record a limited number of messages. If you wanted a GPS, that was a separate device. Few phones had the storage for music, let alone other media. Then, almost overnight, you had one device in your pocket that covered all those needs and more.

We take it for granted now, but having the internet in your pocket changes everything. You have access to limitless information and literally millions of applications at your fingertips. That’s disruption. Uber changing the way we approach public transportation is disruption. Alexa introducing the world to artificial assistants is disruption. All of these change our expectations and the way we interact with technology.

The Gig Economy is disruptive to the old ways—in a good way. Disruption is a natural process in business. We’re living through some pretty radical times, but it can all be for our benefit. One of the biggest changes—and challenges—is the shift to on-demand responsiveness. If I want to watch a movie, I can access tens of thousands at an instant. If I need a ride somewhere, a driver will come to me within five minutes.

It’s not just food and products. The Gig Economy opened the door to on-demand experts and services. Sites like Clarity.fm connect people to experts in dozens of fields at the touch of a button. Fiverr provides virtual assistance for a fraction of the price of an in-house employee. Upwork built a network of millions of talented freelancers covering hundreds of skills. While these new companies may drive innovation, older brands are quick to adapt—as we’ll talk about in future chapters.

Surviving—and even thriving—means accepting change, and as we’ve established, change is hard. It’s frustrating. I get it. When I felt the ground moving, my first instinct was to resist what my father taught me. To fight back. To dig deeper into my old habits and experiences and sink farther into the quicksand.

If you dig down and work harder, put in eighty hours or more a week, you’ll earn yourself a little job security. You’ll also set a precedent that is impossible to keep up. Even if you could continue that level of output, would you want to? Where’s the space for your family or friends or hobbies? Rather than working yourself to death, you need to innovate and change the way you work. By adapting, rather than just ramping up, you can create the space you need.

Everyone has that one project sitting on their back burner, the one they’d love to get to if only there were enough time. If you create your own space, that project can happen.

The Gig Economy

In 2019, the term “Gig Economy” made it into Webster’s Dictionary. Its effects can be felt all around us. An article from Small Business Labs discussed the following:

• Thirty-six percent of US workers participate in the Gig Economy through either their primary or secondary jobs.6
• Twenty-nine percent of all workers in the United States have an alternative work arrangement as their primary job.7
• Sixty-three percent of full-time executives would become an independent contractor, given the opportunity.8
• Nearly 40 percent of the American workforce now makes at least 40 percent of their income via gig work.
• Over 75 percent of gig workers say they would not leave freelance work behind for a full-time job.9
• Fifty-five percent of contingent workers also have a regular or full-time job.10
• Thirty-seven percent of full-time freelancers, independent contractors, and consultants are ages twenty-one to thirty-eight.11
• Over the next five years, 52 percent of the US adult workforce will either be working or will have worked as an independent contributor.12
• At least 90 percent of Americans are open to the idea of freelancing, consulting, or independent contracting work.13
• The two most common reasons traditional workers gave for choosing freelance work were “to earn extra money” (68 percent) and to “have flexibility in [their] schedule” (42 percent).14

It’s a boon for freelancers, who can accomplish almost all of the many new tasks available remotely. It’s a boon for organizations as well, since they don’t need to worry about office space or equipment for these tasks.

Think of the Hollywood model. Back in the early 1920s, huge studios had writers, actors, directors, and crew—all on staff. The overhead was enormous, but the industry boom made it reasonable. As the years went on, the model changed rapidly. Now, a movie crew is assembled by parts. Producers cobble together a team of talented experts, drawing from a well of unionized employees and putting them on a limited contract. Once everyone signs on, they make a movie. With the film finished and the contract met, everyone goes their separate ways. A major goal has been accomplished and then everyone moves on to their next creative project.

Large companies are waking up to this new model in other industries, too. Well-established, decades-old taxi services saw exponential increases in costs for themselves and their customers. Then an upstart called Uber arrived and used freelancers to mitigate so many of the challenges overwhelming the old model. This meant a more viable profit margin, less expense toward customers, and an instant market stake.

The dynamic changes to the economy have a massive effect on companies unable—or unwilling—to adapt. A study by Innosight found that nine out of ten companies from the 1955 S&P 500 are gone due to changes in the market.15 They anticipate that roughly half of the companies left on the list will be gone in just the next ten years! This demonstrates how the rise of technology, as well as the accelerated pace of change and disruption, has a powerful and far-reaching effect on the...