Why 90% of Freelancers Give Up? (and Why I Didn’t)

Spoiler alert: freelaning is not that easy as you think, that’s why 90% of Freelancers Give Up in the first months! Let’s be brutally honest for a second and get over the hype of working for yourself from your own home, or from wherever you got an internet connection.

Most people don’t quit freelancing because they’re bad, they quit because it’s harder than Instagram makes it look, yep, I blame all the get rich quick gurus that rent a lambo in Dubai and flex on the Ig the ame video 47 times.

You see the highlight reels: “I made $10,000 this month from my laptop!”
What you don’t see is the six months of silence, rejection, and underpaid gigs that came before that screenshot. And most of the times, they did that $10k selling you the course about how to make money online lol. If you’ ‘re reading this, and you’re are feeling guilty for this, I hope you won”t escape your karma!

But here’s the truth nobody likes to post: Freelancing is not a hack, it’s discipline, and it’s a habit. And that’s exactly why 90% give up… and why the other 10% make a living doing what they love, it’s hard to mantain the same enthusiasm and inspiration, worc ethic and all, when you”re constantly rejected as a new freelancer.

1. They Treat Freelancing Like a Lottery, Not a Business

Most beginners join Upwork or Fiverr thinking it’s a quick cash machine. I mean it can work, but if you are a beginner you need a little bit of luck to get a project.
If you send 10 proposals, get ignored, don’t go out and say: “Freelancing doesn’t work.” I send more than 10 proposals per day! And besides that I make cold outreach and also write on this mf website, so pump your numbers rookie!

Here’s the thing with freelancing: you’re not buying a ticket, you’re building a business.
If you want stability, you need systems, marketing, repeat clients, and a mindset that screams consistency.

I didn’t “get lucky”, I mean, I had a bit of luck at the beginning, but I treated my freelancing like a startup from day one.

2. They Don’t Build Real Skills (They Copy Others)

Copy-paste freelancers are everywhere. And the worst part is it creates useless competition, and time consuming for the clients who wants to select a winner for their projects.
If you see someone selling logo design for $50 don’t think:

“Cool, I’ll do that too.”

Wrong.
In freelancing, imitation pays in exposure, not money. In other terms you are “just another wordpress blog” lol.

The freelancers who will survive 2026 and beyond are those who keep learning new tools, stacking skills, and niching down until they’re irreplaceable. So what you can do to improve yourself in the next year:

Learn AI-assisted writing.
Learn automation.
Learn how to talk to clients like a partner, not an employee. Yes, talking is a skill too!

That’s how you make them pay you more, you tell a story that they can’t forget, and now they trust you more.

3. They Take Every Job (and Burn Out Fast)

Another beginner mistake is to take everything that you can and end up without time to do them. You don’t need to say “yes” to every $20 gig, you have to think about the time of execution and deadlines, one wrong review, one missed deadline and your freelancing career is over without even starting.
You need to say “no” to the wrong jobs that pay low and demand a lot from you, and in a fast timespan.

When you accept every offer, you end up underpaid, overworked, and miserable.
I used to say yes to everyone too, but I quckly realized that cheap clients cost the most energy.

Now I pick projects that fit my niche, respect my time, pay good and challenge my skills.
The result? I work less and earn more.

4. They Don’t Know Their Value

The number one reason freelancers fail isn’t lack of clients, altho it might be that too, but it’s lack of confidence, because without confidence you can’t get that client and so on.
If you don’t believe in your rate, neither will your client, you need some kind of proof of skill to ask for high rates.

I started by charging $10/hour for work worth $80/hour or more.
One day, I decided to double my rates. Guess what happened? Half of my clients left, panic struck and I was tempted to relapse on the bad habits of lower rates.
But surprise: the other half stayed, and I earned the same money working half the time.

That’s when I understood: confidence is a business strategy.

5. They Ignore the Boring Stuff (Finances, Organization, Systems)

If you can’t track your invoices, deadlines, and expenses, then you’re not freelancing, you’re freelancing by accident. Be Prepared for chaos, mistakes, discounts for your mistakes. So, yes you need to give them a bonus so they forget that you messed up and hope they’ll stfu and give you a 5 stars review!

Most freelancers quit when chaos becomes unmanageable, buy a 12 pack of Monster and a pack of coffee and be prepared to work all night if you didn’t enjoyed the 9-5 program 🙂
To avoid this s4it I manage my money weekly, automate invoices, and use tools like Notion, Trello, and Clockify, or even an OG desktop notepad might help.

The boring stuff, like discipline and late night grind, that’s what makes freedom possible.

6. They Work Hard, But Not Smart

Like I’ve said above, us freelancers love the grind. But the new ones… they’ll brag about pulling all-nighters for $150, like that’s something to be proud of… Dude, $150 should be a 3hours job, but hey, I feel you, if you’re from a country where $150 is like half of mont of rent+grocheries, its worth it! Don’t get me wrong, I did that too when I was young and willing to lose sleep for money, if you can do it, go for it!

But listen: hustle without leverage is just exhaustion. Be a smart freelancer:

• Use tools,
• Automate and
• Repurpose

I don’t work less because I’m lazy, maybe I am a little bit, now that I’m pushing 40s, but still I work less because I build systems that scale for me.

7. They Forget Why They Started

Somewhere between deadlines and invoices, most freelancers lose their why.
They forget why they wanted freedom in the first place, and thoughts start to appear in their minds that, 9-5 wasn’t that bad, I mean, “at least you know when you go to work and when you finish”.

When you lose purpose, you lose momentum, you lose clients, and so on, be disciplined, stay focus.
I remind myself daily:

“I don’t work for clients. I work with clients to fund my freedom.”

You should adopt this mindset shift too, because it keeps me going when things get rough.

8. They Quit Right Before It Gets Good

The cruel irony?Most freelancers give up right before the breakthrough, you know that mining image when you have 1 meter to find the treasure, but you give up? That’s with these freelancers too: they’ve finally built enough trust, portfolio, and momentum to start earning big, but they feel like nothing is working (and their right) then quit.

This is when you need to push trough, fuck your negativity, think that its mathematically impossible to fail and not get 1 fcking client if you try daily! How to explain you better to understand? I mean you can say is like loosing your virginity lol, not the same impact, but psihologically it’s kinda close, you get the point…

I had to use this so you understand the feeling of getting your first client! Go ahead, laugh as you can, it’s kinda true.. Or you can say It’s like quitting the gym a week before abs start showing. Just don’t quiut!
If you’re tired, rest, start fresh the next week… don’t resign!

🧠 Why I Didn’t Quit

Because freelancing was not an option for me, like Eminem said: I had no safety net..it had to work! When you think like that you will succeed!
Freelancing taught me skills that no job ever would: resilience, self-management, communication, independence.

I didn’t stay because it was easy, I had to and also, I stayed because every year I grow, adapt, and earn more control over my life.

Freelancing gave me one thing no salary could ever offer: ownership of my time.
And once you taste that, there’s no going back.

💬 Final Thoughts

If you’re on the edge of giving up, remember this:
Freelancing only fails when you stop!

The 90% who quit didn’t fail, they just didn’t have the right mindset, discipline and reasons and, they stopped too early.
Be the one who doesn’t!

Because in 2026, freelancing won’t belong to the smartest or fastest, it’ll belong to the ones who stayed in the game.