I announced in my monthly ezine that I’ll soon be interviewing Daniel Pink, author of A WHOLE NEW MIND on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. (We are both alums and the Northwestern Alumni Association is sponsoring the interview.) I am reading his other book, Free Agent Nation, in preparation of the interview.

Two nights ago, I read the first couple of chapters before going to bed.  After two hours of no sleep and my mind playing out different ways the interview could go, I got up at midnight and went down to my home office. Seeing that I was online, my friend, James, started an online chat over Skype. James lives in Singapore, running a firm that brokers outsourcing contracts, so it was the middle of the day for him. Rather than type out my frustrations on not being able to sleep, I called him using Skype.  (For those of you unfamiliar with Skype, it routes free calls over the Internet to another user who also has the Skype software. I plug an ear bud with microphone in my laptop, click an icon in the Skype software to call James, and a few seconds later, I’m talking to him for free. Half-way around the world, through numerous time zones. Okay, back to the real point of this posting….)

What ensued was an hour-long conversation about our businesses, after having left long corporate careers. Brainstorming on how to market my business with someone on the other side of the globe, at 1am in the morning. We both started out as engineers nearly two decades ago and ended up as Free Agents.  How did this happen? 

Back to Pink’s book for some clues. Pink talks about the four pieces of the Free Agent work ethic:  freedom, authenticity, accountability, and self-defined success. Here’s a more detailed description that is just as elegant:

"For independent workers, freedom matters more than stability, and self-expression has replaced self-denial. Instead of hiding behind an organization, free agents make themselves directly accountable. And rather than accept a prefabricated notion of success, they are defining success on their own terms."

Back in 2001, when this book was published, I don’t think I would have fully understood what he meant. I was working for a large employer (Avaya), resonating with the idea of free agency after tiring of big company politics, but unsure of what it would look like. Now, after being on my own for over 3 years, I’m living out Pink’s words. And so is James. And so are many of my best friends since I stepped into this world. As we get older and create material affluence in our lives, those four pieces–freedom, authenticity, accountability, and self-defined success–become more important. Becoming a Free Agent was a natural progression.

All of this made me think more deeply about what my work is about. What came up was a bit of a surprise. I think it is to bring some of the ingredients of Free Agency to people who are still inside large companies.  By coaching leaders in those organizations to be more of themselves at work, to be transparent, to look at balance as part of their success, to be creative and think outside the box. Not everyone is ready to step out on their own. Nor should they be.  Large companies need free agents as well. 

After finishing my conversation with James and doing some additional writing, I finally fell asleep at 3am.  I woke up again at 6am to take my son to jazz band rehearsal before school, got the other son off to the carpool by 7:30am, went back to bed for an hour, and started coaching clients at 9am. I took a 45-minute break for lunch with my husband at a local Indian buffet, and continued coaching appointments throughout the afternoon until 4pm. A bit more work in the office and then dinner with the family. Broke up a fight between the boys by sending them to their rooms for a few minutes. Off to bed at 8:30pm.  That’s a day in the life of a Free Agent.