I will make no illusions to the fact that in my situation, not getting paid will not put me behind a months rent or cause me serious financial harm. But to me working and not getting paid is worse than not, working at all or in my case working on my own projects. I am sure if my financial situation where different, I would still feel the same. To me, wasting my time chasing bad money no matter the prospects of alternatives is just not worth the risk when my time could be applied to productive endeavors. If I am going to risk not getting paid I am going to risk it on my project with far more potential upside than a wage. The way I see it, that client is putting the risk of the project on your shoulder, they are putting you in a pay for performance situation after the fact. That or they are committing outright wage theft.
I am sure if my financial situation where different, I would still feel the same
Don't be so sure. In the last fifteen months, I've gone from being completely broke to having no debt and about a year's salary in the bank. In my experience, it's much easier to make dispassionate and rational decisions when you're not in imminent danger of losing everything.
> I am sure if my financial situation where different, I would still feel the same.
This is based on your current "safe" mindset. I can assure you that if you were in a very different financial situation that your thinking would most likely change.
No it's based on me knowing myself very well through critical analysis of myself. I am an all chips in guy. I have been up and down but through it all, I have always been consistent on my principals, when I was starting out I walked out of a really bad position with nary a weeks pay in the bank. I barely landed something new and made the rent in time. Never the less, I stuck to my principals. I made it really big on an exit, bet it all on investments and start-ups, lost it all, went another round after working some jobs, had two good exits and started playing it safer by switching to consulting, irregardless of all of that my core values and principals never wavered. So I am pretty sure, if my financial situation was different, I would still feel the same.
