Home Work – Wisdom behind the monster

Is home work really such a bad thing, a monster to be feared, an act to be condemned? I don’t think so, for the fact that it is the “home work”, that really teaches one “to be there – in that instant”, for our ever wandering aimless mind. Teachers / Lecturers / professors ( call what you may !) who religiously gave home work were never in the good-books of students and parents alike. He/ She was always scorned for “passing the buck” , and washing his / her hands off the responsibility of “teaching”. Little does the parents ( past , present and most likely the future too) realise that “Home work is also a part of the learning process”. Now, Isn’t that supposed to be a teacher’s final objective.?. How can he / she be blamed for “doing the job”?

Few things happened in the past week, that triggered these thoughts in my mind.Basically, I am not surprised by emails, especially those who request information and guidelines to be an independent freelancer. I am only too willing to help them.For this i have set up an Orkut Community, for open sharing of concerns. Yet many prefer to be anonymous.Please be assured,all the freelancers can ‘grab’ an average of 5 projects a month, and still there will be projects waiting in queue to be awarded. Freelancing is a huge sector, where every skill has a market, and there is a client for every market.

Normally, when I receive a request form a reader (read aspiring freelancer), I try to provide relevant links and referrals so that he / she knows where to start. I also make a point to tell them that it is important they do an extensive google search on the industry they are familiar with / have expertise on. Being a Virtual Assistant, I am able to share the “aspects” in being a freelance VA , but i may not be the right person to answer industry specific technical queries with respect to Virtual Assistance.

After the initial pleasantries , mail requests takes a turn saying ,

“I have done [Edu.Qualif], I am working in [ This industry] for the [n] years and I also know [Some application / etc]. Can you help me with what kind of jobs I can do online as a freelancer. Then I can also become a freelancer like you.”

Now, correct me if I am wrong, isn’t this sender asking me to send job profiles along his / way ? ( oh! By the way… you can recruit a VA to do just exactly this for you.)

This is where the ‘concept’ of Homework kicks in. Having the desire to do something off the beaten track is good. But unless this desire is fuelled by the inherent urge to seek answers.( ie without waiting for the answers to drop on your lap), there is no room for development. Freelancing ( virtual / real) is a tough job. It not like the regular office work, where you slog from 9 – 5, and then forget all about it.

The first and foremost attribute of a freelancer is to be a self-motivator. If you are not motivated enough to search for answers, then how would you convince your client about your problem solving abilities?

As a virtual assistant, I am more than glad to give you some pointers on what to look for, and how to interpret your results. But this does not mean that I will do it for you (unless ofcourse, you are willing to pay me for this ). As I said earlier “Home Work” is a part of the learning experience. So, don’t harbour the tendency to shy from homework. Google throws more than what we ask for. Now how hard it is to sit through the rubble and sift for something that could be an answer to your question.

I am willing to help, but I will not do your homework for you.