We are in tough times. Times when so many people have lost jobs, have no food and are living in uncertainty. During times like this, one is likely to despair and wonder how they will come out of such a dark tunnel.
What we all need is resilience.
If there is one time that I look back to and acknowledge that I was really resilient, then it is when I completed my university education.
It was indeed a rough patch in my life.
Graduate with No Job, No Food
The year was 2014 and I had no job. My parents were poor and I had a some hundred thousands in students loans that I was yet to clear. I also did not have house rent, food or decent clothing to change when I moved from one interview to the to the other.
Since I had already bought an old rickety desktop computer back in college, I decided to venture into freelance writing. Back in my university heydays, I used to have this love for writing and my colleagues advised that I might as well try to use the hobby as my profession.
A Trial at Freelance Writing
So here I was trying to eke out a living from freelance writing.
But things were not going to sail smoothly.
Not just yet.
Getting a mentor who would tell me of the best freelancing writing sites was not that easy that time.
They all wanted to charge you something before they revealed these secrets
Internet was also damn expensive back in those days and I found myself spending more money buying internet packages that I was actually making by the end of the day,
Most of the writing forums which I ended up joining were also rather crappy. They were content mills that were not very newbie friendly. For a 500 words, one ought to write it in a record 2 hours and earn a measly $2.44.
That might seem low. But for the newbie that I was, anything was good. Yes, writing such articles meant that I was earning about $1.2 per hour. I would do about 5 articles before burnout caught up with me and then I would watch a movie.
After writing, you would have to wait for the clients to review the article and either approve or reject it. Rejecting the article meant that I would fetch nothing and my research on the article, time used plus Internet would all go to waste.
I remember there were days when I would wake up only to find some lousy clients who had rejected all my five articles done the previous day. My entire day work would be reduced to nothing. Zilch
I would feel so disappointed and at those moments, I wondered why I ever stepped into University.
A call from my parents back home would scare me because I did not want to tell them that I had not yet secured a formal job. I was also worried that they might ask me to support them in the daily running of the family while I was barely able to raise my rent.
We Finally Hit Gold
But with resilience, determination and faith, I still went back to my keyboard, turned on that rickety computer and worked on another set of articles.
Over time, I was also able to research and know how to start my own blog that has been fetching me a good passive income for three years now.
I have been using the Amazon associates program as well as other ad network programs to monetize my blog.
Had I given up during those tough times that taught me how to research and write articles even with intense pressure, I believe I would not be reaping the fruits that I am reaping now.