I am you. Or more accurately I am what you want to be.
I started in a small business as employee #1 (with the founder as #0). We wrote bespoke software for customers. When that well proved unreliable as income we built products and took them to market (much more reliable risk of actually getting a salary this month.)
Over a long career I've had the freedom to elite what I want, release when I want, with any cadence I want and so on.
Of course I also learned what my customers like, what they don't like, and what they like, but I don't like. Inevitably (because I like to eat) my work patterns match what they like.
I font have 1 boss now. I have 1000. With 1000 voices all at the same time. Some are louder. Some are more useful. (The most useful are seldom loud).
Ultimately I do provide enough value for them to graciously pay me. But make no mistake - it was very hard (non programming) work to get here. The key insight was marketing. I have spent probably half my career actively marketing - and for a long time that included a lot of travel. I have visited my potential customers in small groups I cities across the globe. Multiple times. I've run training courses, attended industry conferences, processed orders, and so in.
Independent means doing -all- the jobs, not just programming. If you want to make a living this way (and i do) just be aware that there's still a million things to do. Programming might be the fun part, but you need enough discipline and desire to do the rest as well.
I started in a small business as employee #1 (with the founder as #0). We wrote bespoke software for customers. When that well proved unreliable as income we built products and took them to market (much more reliable risk of actually getting a salary this month.)
Over a long career I've had the freedom to elite what I want, release when I want, with any cadence I want and so on.
Of course I also learned what my customers like, what they don't like, and what they like, but I don't like. Inevitably (because I like to eat) my work patterns match what they like.
I font have 1 boss now. I have 1000. With 1000 voices all at the same time. Some are louder. Some are more useful. (The most useful are seldom loud).
Ultimately I do provide enough value for them to graciously pay me. But make no mistake - it was very hard (non programming) work to get here. The key insight was marketing. I have spent probably half my career actively marketing - and for a long time that included a lot of travel. I have visited my potential customers in small groups I cities across the globe. Multiple times. I've run training courses, attended industry conferences, processed orders, and so in.
Independent means doing -all- the jobs, not just programming. If you want to make a living this way (and i do) just be aware that there's still a million things to do. Programming might be the fun part, but you need enough discipline and desire to do the rest as well.