There's 2 sides to every coin, so I'll share with you the excuses people find not to be self-employed, which you have to take into account when you consider your self-employment. Make sure to consider these, so you know what you're going for if you decide to be self-employed.

You'll be Out of your comfort zone. You have to build a customer base yourself, and that will be very uncomfortable in the years it may take to establish it. It took me several years to get a grip on managing all my finances myself, there was a time I was so low on cash, I didn't know how I would keep myself fed – but I did it, I'm a living example – you can do it!

You will have to deal with a feeling of loneliness – there are so much fewer self-employed people. You can't just ask your manager what to do. People who become self-employed often mention a feeling of isolation. Considering what value you can bring to others brings forth questions of purpose, of why you're here, you'll start considering issues and exploring opportunities which few people around you do.

Responsibility. Initially you have to be your hr, marketing, sales, lawyer, office supplies, cleaner – you name it. You have to do your own social security, retirement plan, insurance, taxes e.t.c. If you're not ok with responsibility, you'll either have to learn it or self-employment is not for you.

No stability. You are not covered with a stable low salary regardless of the season, sick days, holiday, crisis e.t.c. No guaranteed weekend or vacation. If you're a private teacher, you will see a drop in demand in Summer. Well, that pushes you to work smarter and bet more on passive income, and budget smarter. I found that if you do this right your income in 'good months' will be way higher than the 'stably low' sh*t employers offer you, and in 'bad months' it'll still be comparable with the 'stably low' sh*t employers offer you – totally worth going for self-employment. You can get a grip on it and do well even in crisis times. Personally, in the ongoing pandemic, I found such high demand for my work that I would have to teach 7 hours and 45 minutes of teaching time in one day, followed by translation. There were 4 days when I delivered on average 16 pages of translation per day - all in the midst of a crisis when many were out of work.

You will have to finance all your equipment. Don't you take more pride when you have an excellent monitor that suits you, that intel core i7 processor that you yourself financed, rather than that crappy small monitor on that boring office desk that doesn't fit you?

People don't become self-employed and agree for long hours and low pay because of lack in confidence. They are afraid that by themselves they will not be able to earn that silly wage employers offer. Especially if they have kids, they think – I can't afford that instability. Well, if you've got kids, can you afford to be low paid? Can you afford to live short?
Others might think – what's so special about me? There are other guys already in the market, why would buyers come to me? Guys, when I started as an English teacher, there was a ton – literally millions of other English teachers out there, and I'm still making it, and doing well. Google wasn't the first search engine. So, to all those who think 'other guys are already doing it', ask yourselves: if you have a college degree – what was the point of entering the university? Weren't others entering that university that year too? What about being born for crying out loud, weren't millions of other people being born the very same day? The world doesn't care about your fears and excuses or how many times you fail – it concentrates on those who do the real thing. Why not give a shot at being those few who do manage to do something worth being noticed by the world? As De Marco put it, you just have to do better.

So, if after reading this article it seems to you that 'this guy is advocating self-employment in a reasons not to be self-employed article' – you're right.