Universal Truth of Self-Employment #1: Never Attach a Dollar Sign to Your Principles

Maybe this will develop into a series. Even if it doesn't, though, if you follow this one carefully, I think you can derive everything else from it.

Universal Truth of Self-Employment #1: Never Attach a Dollar Sign to Your Principles.

Regularly reassess the decisions that you have made. If they have the potential to put you in a bad situation down the line, change them. Don't tell yourself that "you can't." The consequences later will be worse than anything you might face now if you change your mind.

The thing about this Truth is that nobody (well, almost nobody) gets into business with the idea that they will put the almighty dollar before their principles or their personal life (or their weekends, etc. You get the idea.). However, the concessions we make to our work lives are small, gradual, and eventually feel like a bag full of rocks on our back. Eventually, the collective weight of our decisions leads us to make "compromises" that we would never have made in a vacuum, even if we can justify them as being "just this one time only" or something that "nobody else'll ever know."

Especially when you're just starting out, it may be that literally all you have is your word and your principles. Anybody who has ever started a business on a shoestring knows what I mean. The idea is that you should be able to build from there.