Realized I was chasing the wrong kind of work for way too long
Honestly, it clicked last month when I saw my calendar was full of $500 gigs that each took a week, while a buddy landed one $5k project that gave him breathing room for two months. How do you spot the difference between busy work and the stuff that actually pays the bills?
Look at it like a ladder, morganl71. Those $500 gigs build the client list and reviews you need to land the $2k ones. The calendar isn't for broke people, it's for people building a real business from scratch. You have to prove you can deliver before anyone trusts you with bigger money.
Oof, that's the worst feeling. It's all about the time versus money math. If a job takes more hours than the pay is worth, it's just busywork. The good stuff pays enough that you're not immediately scrambling for the next thing.
That "time versus money math" thing is so true. I read something once that stuck with me, it said to always ask if a job is a step or a stop. A step moves you toward bigger things, a stop just keeps you in place. Those week long $500 gigs feel like stops. You finish and you're right back where you started, desperate for the next one. The goal has to be finding the work that acts like a step, where you finish and actually have some space to look up and plan.