Free to Succeed
An Interview with Author Barbara Reinhold
by John Rossheim
Why do so many free agent ventures go up in flames before takeoff? Lack of capital is often the major drag on very small businesses. But whether your bankroll is $100 or $1 million, the biggest challenge probably comes from your own assumptions about yourself and what you can accomplish.
That's the premise of Barbara Reinhold's new book, Free to Succeed: Designing the Life You Want in the New Free Agent Economy. Free to Succeed leads free agents through a process of personal inventory, self-examination and creative thinking, all designed to bring the reader closer to a successful career as an independent professional.
Reinhold brings several realms of experience to her task. Her day job is director of career development and executive development at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Reinhold, a psychologist, also has a thriving private career counseling practice, with many clients who are free agents. Additionally, she's Monster.com's Career Coach.
We caught up with Reinhold recently to talk about careers, free agency and the not-so-friendly 2001job market.
Monster.com: How has the class of 2001 at Smith fared in the labor market?
Barbara Reinhold: As at other colleges, some of our students have had their job offers rescinded. I think they've by and large been treated fairly. They may do something independent on the side to give themselves a chance to explore some of the things they'll do later as free agents. But the whole notion of free agency is a much harder sell for the new grads.
Mc: Has the current job market weakened your career-counseling clients' negotiating position?
BR: Oh, sure. By contrast, I remember fall 1999, when the banks and consulting firms were falling all over themselves to come to campus. I think there's been a fallback to a middle position now. Old Economy companies will never be quite as stodgy again, because they have a recent memory of the kids bolting off to sexier employers. On the other hand, I see dotcoms being much more conservative about what they dare to offer.
Mc: In your book, one of your career-counseling clients says that when launching a free agent enterprise, "it actually seems safer to take a bigger risk." How so?
BR: Risking more means you put more into the enterprise. I counsel people to take a little bit of time to launch their businesses so they can give themselves the possibility of taking bigger financial risks and plug more money into the enterprise. The better the business is resourced -- if it's well-planned -- the bigger the likelihood of success.
Mc: Your book seems as much at home on the psychological self-help shelf as on the career shelf. Is career neurosis an American phenomenon?
BR: It's human nature. I think it's universal, but it runs into cultural norms. Rugged individualism supposedly is very American. The free agent thing is probably able to erupt more naturally in this country.
Mc: When was the last time you were someone else's employee?
BR: I've always been somebody else's employee. But I've always found ways to juggle so I could do what my employer needed me to do and still create my own enterprises on the side.
Mc: You tell a lot of success stories in your book. Aren't there also many aspiring free agents who ultimately fail?
BR: Yes. Someone who is challenged around structure or a philosopher with a nifty entrepreneurial idea who is challenged around risk-taking may give free agency a try. If they get in their own way, if they succumb to their own excesses, they'll quit and decide there's something wrong with free agency as opposed to there's something lacking in their approaches to free agency.
