That's good advice, but the problem is that the ??? comes at the point where your only sources of prospects are morally equivalent to oDesk. No matter how good you are at qualifying and closing deals, it does no good if deals.filter(:is_qualified?) == []. Based on Patrick's account, it sounds like good consulting work mostly just came to him — he commented late in his consulting career how strange it was having to actually go out and hit people up for work lately. You do need to close the deal when you find a good prospect, but we're still jumping over the ???, which is where you get that steady stream of good prospects in the first place.
That's why my best guess is "luck" — because I've never heard anyone say anything about what they did beyond, "Eh, I found good clients and became a successful consultant" or "I did not find good clients and struggled in my consulting career."
That's why my best guess is "luck" — because I've never heard anyone say anything about what they did beyond, "Eh, I found good clients and became a successful consultant" or "I did not find good clients and struggled in my consulting career."