Work for free — it’s the smart move

I’ve often heard people say “don’t do work unless you get paid” and frankly this is really bad advice. ( I would say it’s f’n horrible advice but this is a family show )

It’s bad advice because when you are starting out in an industry — doing work for free is where you can practice your skills and build up accomplishments. As I’ve previously written, accomplishments are the real coin of value — and the best way to start building accomplishments is by doing work for free. If you are a gamer, think of accomplishments like leveling up — just buying a game and creating a character doesn’t mean you can actually play Destiny.

Years ago before I was being paid to wrench on cars, I worked on my friends cars for free. I built up enough familiarity that when I did finally interview for a mechanic position it was fairly easy. When I started getting paid to code — I had already put in hundreds of hours working for free after normal business hours and on weekends for the company who employed me in sales. Product management was also a sideline in another company where I was developing SaaS software.

Every step ahead in my career path was able to happen because I put in work for free and had a chance to build something with my skills.

Contributing to friend’s projects, non-profits, and the open source community doesn’t get you paid — but it’s definitely a way to show accomplishments and your value as a contributor. Volunteer work is also a great way to network, meet valuable people, and help them with their work. Tim Ferris has some great writing about the value of volunteering.

When I’ve looked to hire people, their accomplishments are always on the top of my questions. When they talk about skills I always want to know what they’ve done with the skills — because just a skill doesn’t mean you are competent.

Here’s another interesting piece of data from the same guy who provided the photo above — entrepreneurs work for free. They are working to build value and to start, they aren’t getting paid. If you look around you will find that the really successful ones may not get paid for a long time (and then they become billionaires). Entrepreneurs take the long view, they are seeing a future and then doing the construction to make it happen. Perhaps you’ve heard of this “Jeff Bezos” guy? Have you seen the photos of him using a door on 2 saw horses for a desk? Considering he’s now the richest person on Earth — would you trade those early days in the warehouse for the later success? Jeff took the long view.

So — get out and practice your skills. Do it for free. Build an impressive library of “I made this”. The accomplishments will show potential employers your value and will will leapfrog you ahead of everyone who’s just too lazy.