My Journey to Freelancing

Back then, I was hired as a Training Officer in a company here in our town and as a fresh graduate, it was really an achievement to get a job right away after graduation in college. After handing unlimited applications and resumes to companies inside and outside of the city, I finally got hired! It was one of the biggest highlight in my life and I thought that's the start of my journey to success.

I really took that job seriously and worked hard to get an increase in my pay grade. But it's not that easy as I thought. Several months had passed, my colleagues are starting to show off their true colors. They are treating me like I don't belong in the team and they are underestimating my capability to handle my position maybe because I am a fresh graduate. I've tried proving my worth to everyone, but no one believes in me. I became an outcast in the team. I barely talked and slowly became unmotivated and unproductive at work. Then I realized, maybe that position wasn't really meant for me. So, I left my job because I can't handle the situation every time I go work and no one wants to talk to me. I became unemployed with no savings. I got depressed and my anxiety attacked because I thought that's the end of my journey, and that I won't be able to achieve my goals in life.

How I got into Freelancing

After a month of being unemployed, I spent most of my time browsing the internet. As I was scrolling on my Facebook feed, I saw a Facebook ad showing a person who's holding a lot of money, an eye-catching caption. So I clicked the ad and it leads me to a website that says, "How to earn money from home". But I had doubt that it was not a legit site. So I went to Google and searched "Legit ways to earn money from home", then voila! A lot of blogs, videos, websites and platforms about earning money while at home appeared. Upwork was one of the result with what I've search. So I registered immediately and created my profile. Back then, Upwork was not as strict as today, so I did not experienced to get my profile under checked or get rejected. It was indeed hassle-free that time. I applied to different jobs that is related to the duties I had from my previous work and out of 20 submitted proposals, I only got hired once which is a Virtual Assistant position. My working schedule was flexible and I had a rate of $3 per hour. That was my very first freelancing job in my freelancing journey.

I am very grateful that I had the courage to let go of my career and switch to a different journey in life. If I stick to my corporate position, I won't be able to experience success, I won't be able to buy things that I cannot afford back then, I won't be able to save enough money for my family's future and I won't be able to feel that I am financially stable. Sometimes, we need to take a risk and beat the fear inside of our minds in order for us to grow. We should always believe in the saying "when one door closes, a bigger and better door always opens". Let us always welcome and embrace every opportunity that will knock in our door and seized it.