In the previous article, I wrote about why I left the 70-employee consulting firm I co-founded to go solo.
That story often gets interpreted as a success story.
This one is the counterweight.
Because while going solo worked well for me, it is not automatically the "better" path — and it is definitely not the easier one.
If you work in technology, design, product, finance, or any field where consulting is common, you probably know someone who's gone out on their own.
Some do very well.
Some struggle quietly.
Some go back to full-time work and never talk about it.
That distribution is real — and worth taking seriously.
The myth of safety
A lot of people start consulting or freelancing as a side gig.
That makes sense. It feels like a way to test the waters. It feels like a way to reduce risk.
But here's the uncomfortable truth:
If you've been inside corporate environments long enough, you already know there is no real safety there either.
You can be laid off at any time.
Your team can be cut.
Your role can be redefined out of existence.
Your entire division can disappear because of a strategic shift you had nothing to do with.
This is even more true now with AI changing the economics of many knowledge-work roles.
Many of my former colleagues in the U.S. — people who stayed on the ladder and became directors, VPs, and CTOs — have been posting "Open for work" on LinkedIn.
Here's what the data actually looks like in 2025:
Here are current, sourced statistics on layoffs in 2025 that have been attributed to artificial intelligence and how they break down in the U.S. and globally — based on recent reporting from Challenger, Gray & Christmas and others tracking job cuts:
📊 2025 U.S. layoffs linked to AI
In the U.S. alone, nearly 55,000 job cuts in 2025 have been directly attributed to artificial intelligence and related automation by companies citing AI in their layoff announcements. (Straight Arrow News)
Year-to-date total layoffs in the U.S. across all sectors in 2025 have exceeded 1.17 million jobs, one of the highest annual totals since the pandemic — with AI specifically cited as a driver in a significant portion of those cuts. (Mint)
📊 Global context
Reports tracking layoffs indicate global job reductions are also widespread in 2025, with AI cited as a factor in workforce restructuring across major multinational firms — though most global numbers still combine AI with broader efficiency and automation efforts rather than attributing cuts solely to AI. (News Karnataka)
According to broader reporting, more than 1.1 million jobs have been cut globally this year, with AI and automation cited as contributing factors among others — representing one of the most significant workforce reductions in recent memory. (Gizmodo)
🔎 Important nuance
Most labor-market sources differentiate between total layoffs and layoffs explicitly tied to AI. While total layoffs are very high, AI is currently cited as the explicit reason for a smaller — but still meaningful — cohort (around 55,000 in the U.S. alone). Many analysts also note that AI often co-occurs with cost-cutting and restructuring, making simple attribution difficult, but the explicit citations give us a grounded estimate. (Straight Arrow News)
So no — consulting is not "safe."
But neither is employment.
They just expose you to different kinds of risk.
Freedom comes with friction
People romanticize independence.
No bosses.
No politics.
No meetings.
No performance reviews.
What they don't talk about is the friction.
There is no HR.
No marketing department.
No sales team.
No finance team.
No legal department.
No IT.
No admin.
There is you.
You don't just do the work you're good at.
You do:
- Lead generation
- Website design and maintenance
- Sales calls
- Proposals
- Follow-ups
- Accounting
- Bookkeeping
- Taxes
- Contracts
- Project management
- Customer support
- And whatever breaks that week
You can outsource many of these things — and eventually you probably should — but that costs money.
And when you're just starting out, money is usually the thing you have the least of.
So early on, independence is not freedom.
It's responsibility.
It's control, yes — but control over everything, including the parts you hate and the parts you don't yet know how to do.
If you really want to be in control of your destiny, you actually have to be in control of it.
That's heavier than it sounds.
Rejection is part of the job
Another thing people underestimate is how much rejection is involved.
You will:
- Spend time on discovery calls
- Think deeply about a client's problem
- Write thoughtful proposals
- Customize your thinking to their context
And then…
Nothing.
No reply.
No decision.
No "no."
Just silence.
My personal favorite is this scenario:
A client says on a call:
"Can you get us the proposal by end of day? We're in a hurry."
So you do.
And then they disappear.
You follow up.
They haven't hired anyone.
They just… haven't done anything.
This happens constantly.
There are systems and boundaries you can build to reduce how much of your time this wastes — and I'll write about those separately — but the reality is: rejection is baked into the model.
If you need external validation, consulting will be emotionally expensive.
The upside (and why I still chose it)
With all that said — why do it at all?
Because you get to choose.
You can choose:
- What you work on
- Who you work with
- How much you work
- When you work
- What tradeoffs you're making
You want to make less and spend more time with your family? That's your call.
You want to push hard and make $20k–$50k/month? Also your call.
But you don't get those choices for free.
You earn them by absorbing uncertainty, friction, responsibility, and rejection.
Consulting doesn't remove risk.
It just moves it from your employer's balance sheet onto yours.
Some people thrive there.
Some people don't.
Both are completely valid.
Why I'm writing this
I'm not writing this to discourage you.
I'm writing this so you go in with your eyes open.
In the previous article, I wrote about leaving a large firm and building a solo practice that worked well.
This article is the other side of that story.
Independence is not an upgrade.
It's a trade.
You're trading structure for freedom.
Predictability for control.
Stability for optionality.
That trade made sense for me.
It does not automatically make sense for everyone.
And that's okay.