> [!info]- meta > **Source**: [Original URL](https://tomcritchlow.com/2019/04/04/the-strategic-independent/) > **Author**: [[tomcritchlow.com]] > **Full Title**: The Strategic Independent > **Category**: #articles > > **Summary**: The concept of a "strategic independent" involves understanding the context of your work to provide more value to clients and charge higher rates. By engaging in strategic work and maintaining long-term client relationships, you can enhance both your impact and income. Curiosity about your clients and their industries helps you identify opportunities for strategic work and fosters better client partnerships. > ## 🔦 Highlights & Commentary - being independent offers more value for your clients by enabling you to gain adjacent context that your client might not be able to see and that we get this adjacent from our network - and therefore we should really think of being codependent with our network. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jvsd7ta0wejmz1nj3cxzzknt)) - I discovered that actually the SVP’s OKR for the quarter was ensuring that the business unit was functioning smoothly. While revenue was obviously a thing that they cared about, the more important context was around process and communication around that process. Once I had this context everything became easier since I could be more closely aligned with the objectives of the business. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jvsdn33pk2fmnkw291feq4pb)) - There’s a certain kind of experience that I want to describe where everything goes to shit. Certain events in business collapse the environment. For example - let’s take that context model for app design from earlier in the post. But let’s assume that the growth objectives are “in crisis” - this could be missing targets, people change, overspend, change in marketing strategy etc **These catastrophic events collapse the environment and cascade downwards**. Every circle inside gets ignored, paused, cancelled, changed, redefined. These events are felt like system-shock for anyone operating in these lower circles  But for those above the fire-line there are two things that are crucial: 1. Their objectives and priorities haven’t changed much, they’re still operating within the same context they were previously (although they may feel some turbulence) 2. **They likely knew about the catastrophic event ahead of time**. They may even have been responsible for causing the catastrophic event. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jvsdppybhh2kpsr8ec76831y)) - Riding these crashes is a skill that I think in theory you can get good at - learning how to sprint at a moments notice in a new direction and operate supernaturally fast in a crashing environment. But I think it’s way easier to instead always be searching upwards for more context awareness - i.e. working strategically. This helps you ride out those catastrophic events with more planning, awareness and foresight. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jvsdq4z43qxhxjnznbw6kpt6)) - **Some of the most helpful context you bring to your clients as an independent is the context they would otherwise not have access to or overlook**. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jvsdzt8jvmxxf1s1bzjp407j)) - Adjacent context is thinking laterally about an industry, organization or problem - looking sideways for unusual or unexpected analogies or insights into expanding contexts that might not be obvious to you or your clients. You can only get this from hanging around a blend of interesting people who are also context-aware. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jvse08rkjnnr404gxmpqmvjj))