That doesn't really follow. As an independent worker, you answer to your clients. As an employee, you answer to your single client. It's basically the same deal.

It's not quite true: places of employment that are ok with you firing a client, while they exist, are rare. When I was an independent contractor, I was loath to fire a client because they can be hard to find, but knowing I could and doing so was a good feeling. I don't know if the positive of that offset the mental stress of generating clients, but it was one of the positives. So was the freedom to work when you want. I now work remotely full-time for a company with an incredibly flexible attitude toward getting your work done, but I still feel guilty for running errands on "company time". The flip side to that is when I worked for myself, all time was potentially company time.

So it's all fit & personality.

I think just knowing you can fire a client makes a huge difference, it alters the relationship and it's probably better for both parties.

It's similar to having FU money as an employee but on steroids.

It's not really the same. You have way more control as an independent operator. Yes, you have to answer to your customers, but only to the extent and to the degree you desire. It's not at all the "same" as working as an employee.

My point is less applicable to freelancers with one/few customers and more directed towards operators that manage product/service oriented businesses with dozens/hundreds/thousands of customers.

The biggest draw with Self-Employment in my opinion is setting your own hours and working at your own pace.

> clients

> single client

You described the difference.

Doesn't the same exist for a workplace though?

Not really. In a workplace you're forced to follow all sorts of rules. As an independent operator, you set your own rules.

In regards to rewards vs consequences, my point is that in a workplace you're abstracted away from the direct results of your actions (as OP mentions in his post).

You can be rewarded for other people's contributions (while having made no contributions of your own) and vice versa. When I worked in corporate, this lead me to experience a somewhat "wtf is the point" type of existential crisis.

When you're running your own shop, you have a much more "direct" relationship to your actions and the resulting outcomes. Not just in terms of costs and rewards, but also in terms of just seeing the direct "value" your actions provide. I mean think of all the countless cubicle jobs or professional services jobs where the sum of your productivity is basically meaningless, just random filler designed to keep the machine moving... (think of all the business consultants spending 80 hours week at the client site putting together decks that no one will read or remember in a few months)

The larger the company, the more process overhead there is.

It's the process overhead that most people complain about. Instead of adding value to the company, much of your time is spent on managing process for the sake of process.

For example, defining your work to maximize the chance of promotion may only correlate with company value.