Adam Kalsey pegs the life of a consultant quite well with this post:
Consulting is an interesting lifestyle. In a
normaljob, you get a paycheck each week. You show up for your job pretty much the same amount of time each week, month after month, year after year. Without putting in a whole lot of thought or effort, you can figure out approximately how much money you’ll bring in next November. You can do that because odds are it will be the same as you brought home in August.The life of an independent consultant is different. You’ll go through weeks without work, calling contacts, digging through mailing lists, hunting down leads. Those weeks-long dry spells are offset by absolutely crazy, put your entire life on hold, work yourself to the bone periods where you have more work than you can handle. You can go from no current projects to five in the course of a week. You’ll bid on jobs without success seemingly for months and then suddenly every proposal you send out comes back signed.
Other independent consultants I’ve spoken to have agreed that the more work you have, the more you’ll get. Just as it seems that the moment you put on a wedding ring, every woman you meet wants to flirt, the same goes for consulting. As soon as you’re booked, everyone you’ve ever met has an urgent project.
All of this makes it hard to focus on things.
Amen. I couldn't have explained it better myself.
<p>Adam Kalsey pegs the life of a consultant quite well with <a href="http://kalsey.com/2004/09/on_consulting_and_focus/">this post</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Consulting is an interesting lifestyle. In a <q>normal</q> job, you get a paycheck each week. You show up for your job pretty much the same amount of time each week, month after month, year after year. Without putting in a whole lot of thought or effort, you can figure out approximately how much money you’ll bring in next November. You can do that because odds are it will be the same as you brought home in August.</p>
<p>The life of an independent consultant is different. You’ll go through weeks without work, calling contacts, digging through mailing lists, hunting down leads. Those weeks-long dry spells are offset by absolutely crazy, put your entire life on hold, work yourself to the bone periods where you have more work than you can handle. You can go from no current projects to five in the course of a week. You’ll bid on jobs without success seemingly for months and then suddenly every proposal you send out comes back signed.</p>
<p>Other independent consultants I’ve spoken to have agreed that the more work you have, the more you’ll get. Just as it seems that the moment you put on a wedding ring, every woman you meet wants to flirt, the same goes for consulting. As soon as you’re booked, everyone you’ve ever met has an urgent project.</p>
<p>All of this makes it hard to focus on things.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Amen. I couldn't have explained it better myself.</p>
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