The employed labor market is about potential, based on prior success. A low risk form of potential, if you like. But in the self-reliant, self-starting, self-employed world, no one’s interested in what you could do if you actually did it. They’re interested in what you’re already doing or have already done. It’s an easy lesson to understand but a hard one to learn / unlearn.
Kudos to Seth Godin and his blog musings for helping me to understand this.