The Secrets of Consulting by Jerry Weinberg

Starting out as an independent is challenging from a sales perspective. You're probably way more likely to find very very small low budget MVP like build it build a tiny little app for me kind of engagements and those can be great. But I've always found way more intellectual stimulation from large organizations that have a lot of warts and a lot of problems  and a lot of pain. Take advice from people who haven't done the thing they're giving advice about so just be careful of that.