(title inspiration here, if you’re curious)
This week I watched The Dark Knight, one of my favorite superhero movies. DC hasn’t really put out a good movie since they stopped their Christopher Nolan collabs, and Heath Ledger’s Joker was one of the best supervillain performances I’ve seen in my short time here on Earth. Joker had some pretty memorable one-liners, one of which was “If you’re good at something, never do it for free.” I disagree.
There are three main reasons you should do free work:
- Volunteering for a cause you believe in
- If your free time >>> disposable income
- Trust/reputation building
The first cause is pretty self-explanatory, but I’ve had some pretty good experiences doing free work in options 2 & 3.
Pay With Your Time
This past weekend, I volunteered at Outside Lands. It was fantastic. A general admission ticket costs $350 (+ “processing fees”). Volunteering is free. Sure, you have to spend some time working for the festival picking up trash or handing out maps. But volunteers are usually able to enjoy parts of the event they’re interested in. Whether it’s concerts, formula 1 racing, or conferences like South x Southwest, you can probably find a way to exchange your time for attendance after a few google searches.
Volunteering is also a great way to meet people. From doing good work for charity to having a great time at a concert, the work you’re willing to do for free says a lot about who you are. You’ll probably find a lot of like-minded people with similar interests based on where you choose to volunteer.
Trust-Building for Creatives
Another great reason to volunteer is to build trust and a public reputation. Charlie Hoehn covers this really well in his short, readable book The Recession-Proof Graduate. The gist is that doing free work is a great way to show potential employers that you’ve got what it takes to succeed in an industry. For example, many freelancers are advised to take on 1-2 free writing assignments to prove that they can write well, meet deadlines, and are easy to work with. I did the same with the Lawrence Hall of Science, covering their “Communities for Immunities” event.
This is a great option if you’re trying to pivot industries, or if you’re trying to build your portfolio doing creative work. It helps if you make “small bets,” something I learned about on Twitter somewhere but is now capitalized on by this guy Daniel Vassallo. As a part-time freelance writer, I’m thinking in small bets, figuring out the best intersection of my interests, my abilities, and readers’ curiosities.
⚠️ A warning ⚠️
Your time is and always will be the most valuable thing that you have. Before doing anything even remotely long-term, think about whether you really want to be doing it, and what this commitment says about who you are. This applies to jobs, relationships, volunteering, and all the other things we fill our time with. Always play the long game.
This Week’s Top 3
- Dominic Fike‘s cover of “Bad Reputation” at Outside Lands. Also, Dominic Fike’s cover of “Everybody Talks” at Outside Lands. Also, just Dominic Fike as a human being 🍎
- This DJ at Oakland’s Ruby Room 👩🏾🎤 – give his SoundCloud a listen
- The Black Excellence Band 🎻 – catch them on their indie streaming service