Hi Harold, what a wonderfully inspiring, courageous and rather brave blog post this is! Congratulations on the huge achievement of being an independent for that long! Well done! Here's to many many more years of a successful career!

It takes a lot of openness to come forward and put together this article with the good and the not so good tidbits about freelancing and still enjoy what you do. I'm getting pretty close to my 3rd year anniversary of going independent and I can only reflect of how many similar experiences I can relate to that you have shared across! I will have to think hard how I plan to celebrate it and all, but suffice to say I do very appreciate how much you have helped a bunch of us get there enjoying and loving what we do, despite the struggles. It's been a wild ride and here's hoping for many many more years to come!

Role models who can create a significant impact in this world are very scarce nowadays, so thanks ever so much for being one of them! Keep it up, please...