Going independent is the dream - and the terror - of every talented technologist. From Geek to Peak is Thomas Myer's candid, month-by-month field guide to surviving and thriving in your first 365 days as a technical consultant, written in the voice of someone who has actually done it and lived to bill for it. This is not abstract career theory. It is a working playbook that walks you, week by week, from the day you decide to hang out your own shingle to the day you realize you have built a real business. Myer opens with the unglamorous but decisive groundwork: figuring out what kind of work you actually want, doing honest market research, setting fees you can defend, and writing a business plan that fits on a napkin but still tells the truth. He is unsentimental about the questions most newly minted consultants dodge - whether you are temperamentally suited to selling, how much runway you really have, and what you will say when a prospect asks why they should hire you instead of the big firm down the street. Then comes Launch Day: setting up a working environment that keeps you productive, building a website that actually converts visitors into leads, and sending the first promotional emails that announce to the world that you exist and are open for business.