Welcome to Failing Publicly by me, Rachael Davies. I am a journalist in my first year of freelancing officially. I’ve made a lot of mistakes and I expect to make many more. Whenever I tell people about mistakes I’ve made, they often say, “aw, well it’s a learning opportunity!” And that’s true. But I’m also tired of dressing up my mistakes as something pretty and perfect.

Freelancing is a huge learning curve. We often only share what’s going well, and that’s so understandable. Admitting to mistakes can feel like damaging your brand, which is everything to a freelancer. But at the end of the day, we’re all human and it’s time to give ourselves a break.

Let’s celebrate the fails of freelancing and just let ourselves make a mistake once in a world. No one got to success with a completely smooth path, so let’s stop pretending and share what went wrong so other people can learn - and make new mistakes all of their own.

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