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Comment by exelius | Hacker News Reader

I didn't mean to come off as aggressive :) But the reality is that there is way more money in knowing people than in doing work. The sooner in your career you can make the transition from being someone who creates value by doing work to someone who creates value by knowing people, the happier you will be and the more control you will have over your destiny.

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I like to think of myself as someone who takes pride in their craftsmanship (whatever the craft may be); I'd imagine many developers feel similarly. As such, this advice stings. But it really has the ring of one of life's "hard truths", and so thanks for being direct (in both of your comments).

It shouldn't sting! Doing a good job is the first step in building a relationship, so you should absolutely work hard and take pride in your work. I'm only able to leverage my relationships to make easy money because my clients trust the quality of my work (and I ensure the quality of the people who are hired through me). Doing good work builds trust, but unfortunately many people stop at that.

I'd recommend reading The Trusted Advisor [1]. It was originally written with management consultants in mind, but it is a good guideline in general for how to walk the line between personal and work relationships. Basically, you should look at your clients as you would a friend: be their friend, know their problems, and help them with those problems. Become invested in them and their success, and they will invest in you. Business is ultimately about people, but I feel many technical workers focus on the technology and get screwed over as a result.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/The-Trusted-Advisor-David-Maister/dp/0...

Thanks for the recommendation! I'll be sure to check it out.

But the reality is that there is way more money in knowing people than in doing work.

There is truth in this, in that knowing people is a prerequisite for getting to the higher tiers of income. If you don't know people to get good gigs, you will inevitably have to go via one or more intermediaries who do, and they will all take a cut. How much of a cut depends on your business skills, not your technical skills.

A related but distinct issue is that clients who hire via agency-style intermediaries tend to have a ceiling on how much they are willing to pay, much as employers do. Even if the quality of your work would fit above that ceiling, it will be almost impossible to break through as someone else's hired help or as one freelancer among many on an agency's books.

On the other hand, once you have a few good contacts in your personal network and a worthwhile professional reputation as an independent, the "new business" side of things can almost start to take care of itself. Then if you're also good at getting the job done, you can either make significantly more as an individual consultant or start to build your own business and probably one way or another become some sort of intermediary yourself, and either way you'll have a lot more options than someone who talks a good talk but doesn't have the technical skills to walk the walk.

I think knowing people is a component, but I wouldn't generalize. It works for you, but I disagree that it's a rule.

My aunt knows a sh*tload of people but doesn't get any jobs.

I'm a freelancer and deal directly with the client whom—admittedly—hire me because they like me BUT, I can also get the job done.

>> It also means turning down opportunities that may pay well, but don't offer any opportunity for building relationships.

Spot on. This is the hard truth.

My experience has been similar this week. I was in a situation to decide between Opportunity (with Higher rate) vs Opportunity (Building relationship). Glad I chose the second option.

Exelius, I don't see the contact info in your profile. Is there a way to contact? My email is in my profile.

>But the reality is that there is way more money in knowing people than in doing work.

Unless, you know, you enjoy doing the actual work more than being essentially a manager/middleman.

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