[jd_illa]

my partner was a consultant at Bain and regularly worked 100+ hour weeks in a small town outside of Dallas where he ate all his meals at a hotel. The day he left was one of the best of his life!

It's a definitely a lot more than being confident. There's a ton of important data skills, people management and strategy skills involved, and a lot of times your "clients" are not on your side. It's pretty common for a CEO or department head to hire a consultant to work with a department that's not doing well, so the folks you actually end up working with can resent you (especially when they know how much you're getting paid).

[As_You_Wish]

Bain is different than what he is talking about. You are an employee at a services company. It's like being a lawyer or an accountant. You have to maximize the hours you work because the money goes to Bain so they work you to death for their money.

If you work for yourself, you are your own boss and can work how you want.

I know great companies that do work in the industry. I talk to business owners, find what they want and need, do an analysis, and then get the companies that I work with to come in and do the actual work.

I do the upfront work for free and then collect a cut of the work done by the companies that do the work.

Maybe I'm a salesperson, maybe I'm a consultant. I call myself a consultant, I guess, since I do the analysis report and bring in the solution?