To the next 15 years.

I find myself on Linkedin quite a bit these days.

And when I'm not eviscerating my colleague and competitor, Eric Moe, the World's Most Adequate Copywriter or checking out the latest Get Out There and Hustle handmade videos from learned Linkedin influencers like Gary Vaynerchuk, I'm combing the platform for work.

That's how it's done in 2019.

You hunt.
You peck.
You track down leads.
And you badger CMO's into submission, until they throw you an assignment just to make you stop sending emails.

While reviewing my Linkedin profile and keeping it up to date with the latest work for Harry's House of Catheters, I came across something astounding -- I've been the operating CEO of Rich Siegel Worldwide for 15 Years.

It's my Workiversary!!!

I'm not big on ceremony. And so this occasion barely merits a mention. But there is something to be said for lasting it out all these years, some more lucrative than others.

I know Captain Fuckknuckle likes to claim the economy has never been better, but the last two years prove that to be a lie. Just ask anybody working in advertising. Or query your local soybean farmer. Or Google the 6 new plants being opened by US Steel (hint, despite the constant crowing by our lying Wotsit-Faced Gammon President, they don't exist.)

And yet despite the ups and downs, the uncertainties and the undulating needs of clients big and small, I love being a freelancer.

I love being master of my own fate.

I love waking up when I want to, or when the neighbor's dog wants me to.

I love working in shorts, t-shirt and flip flops that my wife wants to throw in the garbage.

I love solving challenges on my own.  Or with a partner who also loves being a freelancer.

I love trusting agency creative directors who forego the daily check in and say, "just send me the work when you're ready."

I love planners who say the strategy has changed and we have to start over.

I love when project managers ask if I'd mind working the weekend.

I love getting time and a half for working the weekend, as opposed to agency staffers who get bubkas for working the weekend.

I love being a freelancer.

I have no complaints. And no regrets.

Actually, my only regret is that I didn't extract myself from the agencysphere long before 2004.