Joshua, as a successful Fortune 100 consultant, I patently disagree with this .Here's why: every single time you score a Big Name deal, that Big Name deal is the entry card to your next Big Deal. To wit, the moment I scored a contract with Ernst & Young years ago, the fact that they had hired me was the golden ticket to the Brotherhood of Fortune 500 players. That said you have to have the chops to consult (most don't, as you point out) and you bloody well need to know how to sell. While I can understand you're making a point, this point is off the mark. The real point is to know how to sell, and how to parley one successful gig into the next. I never had to start from scratch once I got my foot in the door, albeit the hard work of selling never quit. I had the fairy dust of the Fortune 100 on my shoulders and I used it to do work with 21 of the Fortune 100 and many more of the Fortune 500, and I was a one-woman business. That is exceptionally rare, but I know how to sell. Don't like to sell? Get a damned day job.