The Creative Plight: Should you work for “free”?

Short answer: no. Longer answer…

It all started with an article — We are not exploitable.

This is an extremely important subject for creatives all over because we know that people tend to: a) undervalue art and b) take advantage of young, inexperienced people by asking them to provide work for free.

To which you should really say what our friend Myron says:

People are always asking for a quick sketch or even a major work because they think that doing art is fun or relaxing. My answer is “Sorry. I am in this game for the money.” — Myron Gilbert

The reactions to the aforementioned article were so strong that we decided to ask our community of digital creatives what they thought. Below is an outline of the issue at hand and what thy had to say about it.

Define “free”.

Obviously your answer will depend on your definition of free.

For example, if you’re doing work that you love and you’re making great connections and learning a lot… you might not need to make money from it also — provided your rent is paid for the foreseeable future. OR you could be a side hustler who extracts joy from what you do.

So if it’s not money, you have to gain some kind of value from your work. (Like how volunteering brings you inner satisfaction.) Otherwise the answer is still a big fat NO, you should not work for “free”.

Reminds me of the line from Mad Men: “You sure put the free in freelance”. — Peter Bruinsma

It starts internally.

Truth is, nobody can make you work for free if you don’t let them.

So we don’t start by blaming companies or individual employers for this, but we turn inwards — to our self-worth system.

Many people don’t charge for their work or provide amazing work for $5 on Fiverr or generally don’t charge enough. They say there’s so much competition nowadays and everyone’s doing what you’re doing.

But nobody can do what you do exactly like you do it.

Which is why your unique value proposition and your unfair advantage should be YOU. As long as you learn to value your own skills and put a fair price on them, you’ll begin to make the money you want to be making.

The money you deserve to be making.

The “money is evil” viewpoint.

Now, if you consider money as something that actually devalues your work — something only miserable, 9-to-5, shallow people make, then you’re probably going to argue.

Like our friend, Richard Meikshan:

I think EVERYONE should work for free. Nobody should work FOR money. Money should never be the motivator as it is too short-term to even be considered as one. One should work for joy as it is the only way you get actual results.

So it’s about motivation, is it? I personally don’t know anyone who’s solely motivated by money. But it is a guidepost to how well we are doing. So more money — we’re doing great, less money — something is wrong.

If money’s not your sole motivator but the guidepost against which you measure your “success” or “progress”, you’re a professional.

But if you’re thinking that money’s overrated, that the truly valuable things in life are free, and so on, you’ll always struggle to make money.

I have those friends. In fact, most of my creative friends started out by doing “jobs” and doing work they loved in their free time. That’s absolutely fine and commendable if you like doing jobs and side hustles at the same time. In fact, I envy you because I never could!

But I want to give a little disclaimer here: Working for free and doing what you love don’t have to be the same thing. And if you look at money as something you don’t want to associate with your passion…

I’m sorry but you may never end up making money from your passion.

How sad would it be if you published your book and nobody bought it? Or if you made this beautiful app that nobody used?

All I’m saying is, the way we associate things is the way things work in our lives. And money is not evil — far from it. Life is meant to be abundant and that can’t happen without money. If you’re spiritually happy but poor, how is this wealth and abundance? I believe there needs to be a balance.

Wouldn’t it be so much better if you were on good terms with money and you saw it as something you deserve for the effort you put in? Wouldn’t it be great if both you and everybody else acknowledged your time and talents with some sort of payment that allowed you to have even more time to do what makes you awesome? Let us know what you think!

Meanwhile, we’ve decided to make a series out of this and offer helpful suggestions for those of you who do want to charge your worth and be on good terms with money. Stay tuned here.

P.S. As always, feel free to join our community of creatives where we inspire one another and proudly share what we do.