Over the last 8 years I’ve spent a lot of time studying, thinking about, and writing about freelancing. I’ve been a freelancer on and off—mostly on—since 2011. I had had a dream for a long time of building a high-income, low-labor lifestyle as a successful consultant, kind of like what Alan Weiss has done.

Since I’ve written a decent amount about freelancing on this site in the past, I feel it’s appropriate to give the following update: I’ve given up on my freelancing dream. It’s a good thing, though, because the only reason I decided to leave the path I was on is because I found what I believe to be a better path. (Also, I discovered that freelance programming is basically a sham and 99% of “freelance” programmers are just contractors and glorified employees and that the kind of success I was fuzzily envisioning is not really possible, but that’s a different story.)

What’s the new path I’m on? I don’t want to get too much into the details publicly but I’ll say that I’ve found myself in a monogamous relationship with a client who I like more than any other client I’ve worked with. He and I have been working together for just over a year. All the aspects of the working arrangement are good, about as good as one could hope for. It’s basically a job, but a really good job. I expect that my client and I will work together for many years to come and I don’t expect to be working with any other clients on the side during this time. So, no more freelancing. I’m not saying never again, because who knows what will happen 5 or 10 years from now, but no more freelancing for the foreseeable future.

What I’m NOT ready to give up on yet, or probably ever, is my endeavor to build a successful product business. I don’t think that part of me can ever be killed. You can follow my progress in that area in my Entrepreneurship Journal.