Background
That was the year of 2009. I admitted Rajshahi University of Engineering Technology(RUET). My subject was Mechanical Engineering. I tried and gave lots of effort to pass the first semester. My 1st semester GPA was only 2.83(out of 4) and passed all the subjects.
After this semester, I realized that I could not continue this. I don’t like this or I don’t understand much those subjects. I thought even a job life would be terrible. 8 am to 6 pm office and per week only one holiday. The most terrible thing will be lower wages. In my initial job life, I would get only $300 to $700. Later (I guess at least 8 years), it could go $1500.
I never dreamt this kind of meaningless life. Never!
But, I cannot ignore the reality, and I cannot change the subject even I cannot stop my study. So, my thinking was:
1) I need to continue studying and try to pass only.
2) I need to find something where I can scale up my salary and get the flexibility of my life(especially work time, holiday, etc.). And I need to do it before completing my graduation.
I found my aim in life!
In the year of 2010, I got my computer with 1GB(per month) internet connection. I have not many friends in real life. I was spending almost my all day with the computer. Gradually, I realized I love technology, I love blogging, I love to read tech info. I was enjoying this.
At this time, I found a few articles about freelancing in our local language tech blog.
Within a few days, I understand it could be the best option for my future. It has all the necessary flexibility that I was looking for.
What should I learn now?
SEO? Never, that is low budget work!(Now I know how important SEO for business). Of course, I should learn web developing related to all work.
Yes, I did that. I learned lots of stuff like HTML, CSS, PHP, javascript, bootstrap, WordPress, Joomla, Magento, Drupal, and so on. I spent almost 2 years with them; still, I was not a pro of those languages or cms. Why?
Because Engineering study isn’t easy. Even only to pass the exam you have to give lots of time there. I was concentrating on two things, and my frustration was increasing day by day.
I was getting so much pressure from my family too. They wanted to break my computer because all-day I spend on the computer and do not study my curriculum book.
Take Action
So, now my thought was, let’s try freelancing marketplace. Time was May 2012, I was targeting low budget easy work. It took two months to make 200 bucks. Wow, lots of money! Really, when I received that money I was on the top. Now, my parents also thought it’s ok that I am doing something that makes money.
But, they still thought that I should concentrate on my studies because it will not give you much money.
I needed this. Really, I needed this. Not for me, but for my parents too.
Now, they understand that doing this kind of stuff I can earn more than any traditional job.
What about the study?
What about the study? Oh, my God! Backlog backlog and backlog!(Read: Fail, fail, and fail!) I passed all subjects only 1st semester after that I never passed all subjects rest of the 7 semesters (I failed every semester 2,3 even 4 subjects out of 5 subjects).
So, I totally stop freelancing. Thought, complete the graduation, then start again freelancing. It was the wrong decision, but I had not any other way.
Extra one Year!
My friend completed their graduation at the end of 2014. But I did not. It took an extra one year to complete my graduation because I had lots of backlogs (fail).
Graduation Complete!
In the month of December 2015, I got a job from a web developing company that was offering me $850 per month, and they will increase more after 3 months. But, I did only one and a half months of that job. There was so much pressure, and I need to work at night. Because their office time starts at 9 pm(our local time).
Niche site plan!
So, I had $1200+, and I did not want to withdraw that amount. I wanted to invest in my niche site.
Look, I had more than 20 sites. All sites failed, and I didn’t income any penny from those. Because I did not take seriously any of those projects, the content was very low quality, and I did not understand SEO.
This time, I was making $300-$400 per month to bear my daily expenses and plan to create a website from scratch and invest those $1200 in this single site. Then I make $50,000 within 9 months. Want to know how I did that? Check here.