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Dropout -> Android Freelancer

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

J_Cup

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Hi!

I wanted to create this thread before but I needed to make sure... that I got rid of bridges behind me. Yeah, I don't see any of them. Burned. I improved a lot during this year. In the first post, I will write a little bit about my behind-the-scenes story. The story that motivates the shit out of me.

The Fakeline Millionaire

It was beginning of the academic year and I was so proud. I got into college. Wow. I thought that it would bring some hope and let me forget about the past and make me wealthy. For the first time in my life, I could live in my own flat. Doing whatever I wanted to do. I didn't have to listen to and watch my drunk dad anymore. Well actually- I started drinking.

Drink To Forget

I did it to relax and forget about reality. It was fun but only for few months because I recalled that my home is not ok. I just wasn't able to see it. I haven't lived there anymore. I knew that my mother couldn't give me as much as my friends got but I know that she tried to give me everything she could. But truly, she gave me a lot... of time. I took it and quit. F*ck. I left her with problems and I felt like an ingrate a**hole. Furthermore, I was losing too. I realized that I can't waste more time. It's my obligation to be successful. I started to see how it really looked like. Well- like shit. I never dreamed about cars and big houses. I always wanted to help my family and be wealthy enough to secure my own one in future. And to have time for them.

Money. If I had some I would skip 90% of my biggest family problems. At the same time, I was sitting in college having fun. Drinking a cheap beer for my mother's money. F*ck. I felt like the biggest pussy on the Earth. Maybe I was really close?

Closer To Success

I knew that I wouldn't make a big difference in 5 years living like that. I lied to myself. I wanted to stay in college but at the same time, I felt ultra upset there. I decided to drop it, hustle and improve my coding skills. From this time I became obsessed. I worked on my things as long as I could. Earned enough money to live cheap and then worked on my things. Hustled here and hustled there. I dropped every other activity except hitting a gym. Actually, it helped me to refresh my mind. Now I'm stronger. Mainly mentally.

It took me a lot of time to develop my current mindset. Maybe half a year? To develop my work ethic and confidence. It's no longer the fake one that I had. No... I got it from my small wins. And I knew that in this period time I did more than my peers. Now ex peers?

I listed everything that I knew can help me in my mission and I started to do it.

So what I've done?
  • I learned English. I speak this language whenever I can. Like calling some English speakers as often I can (more than in my native language). So now I'm pretty comfortable with it.
  • Improved Android skills. A lot. I believe that I'm really close to the first freelance jobs.
  • I started Android dev blog. Learned WordPress, set up a simple site and made 9 posts.
  • Created few youtube videos that I won't publish. But now I know how to do it. I learned to code and speak better at the same time
  • Learned some things about material design and used it in design tools
  • Created about 75% of the app that I use in my first blog series. I learned a lot. Now I will make it easier.
  • Finally earned some money to have more time for coding.

Magic of Goals

To be honest, I like this process. I try to plan as much as I can, to always know what to do. I learned to be more grateful and realized that I have a huge advantage. Most of my ex-peers still gets money from parents. They don't have to do anything. I think that I wouldn't have tried so hard if I had the same goods. Maybe somebody who was/is in a similar situation is reading it and thinks that he is a victim. Actually, you are not. My living conditions are probably worse than most of my friends. But I don't care. I buy my time. Now I'm hustling from the bottom of my heart. Lol. I really like it. And I don't care if I do my app eating healthy oat-milk or gluten-free brownies outside. It's temporary. It's made on purpose. It's my choice. It's the magic of goals.

Why I post it?

I don't want to be a freelancer for 10 years. I want to use coding in my Fastlane journey and freelancing will provide me some money.

I will post here trying to add some value. This one is like the introduction but maybe somebody who is 1 year younger version of me will get something from it. I'm still at the beginning but I want to share knowledge as soon as I understand something. I didn't want to create thread out of context so that's how the first post looks like.

Sometimes rough childhood is a win. It makes people strong. Do you agree?
 
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AdamMaxum

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look forward to seeing more from you. thanks for sharing
 

Echizen

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Will follow this thread.
If you didn't start to be a freelance with your android skills, hwo do you earn money at the moment?
 

J_Cup

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Thanks for comments!
Will follow this thread.
If you didn't start to be a freelance with your Android skills, hwo do you earn money at the moment?
Money and Spendings

I don't spend too much. I have to pay for a cheap, small flat. I eat oat milk, spaghetti eggs, and vinegar oil which are not expensive. I'm sure that most people have a lot of unused junk to sell. I sold it. I don't even have subscriptions like Spotify etc. I took a few my hustling actions from Gary Vee.

That's why I can survive doing small things like:
  • repairing computers
  • cleaning systems
  • playing a gig with a friendly band
  • sometimes flipping
  • selling things that I no longer need
It's a little bit risky but I've got savings so I can do it for few months. I believe that I will do it in this time but if not then I'm going to take any kind of half/full-time job. It's ok if you do it on purpose. And I got used to cheap life. I don't have too many old friends now due to lack of time and desire to talk to people that tried to pull me down. Or people that want to look like they have, not to have. So I don't have to spend money on parties. But I have books. Battleground Mentality is a great podcast from Andy Frisella when it comes to this topic. And actually, I talk to people a lot. I wanted to reply short message but I'm going to continue it. It's not only about money.

I Spend My Free Time Wisely

For example, recently I started to write to Android blog owners that I like to congratulate them. Really. I start to do it on my own so I know that I would be happy to receive such a message too. It takes a lot of time. I ask them how they made it too. One cool guy today responded like that:
I got it mostly due to connections. My friends new I'm doing Android development, and so whenever anyone gets asked, I'm the first one they refer to
. Some other guys gave me more bits of advice so I learned things faster. Today I have my planned for so long "recovery day" but I'm not doing anything. I just haven't scheduled this day. I talked to people and made some connections. But it's not only online.

I talk to strangers on the street and some of them are now my friends. Some even paid me money for help. It actually works better than typing online. Well, maybe in my case because I like to talk to people and it was hard to stay silent at flat and learn Android. @AndyBlack created this "Spend your money on diesel and coffee" thread. I think that I was wrong shutting myself and trying to figure everything on my own. Trying to save all credit for me. That's stupid.

I recommend everyone to call people that are some levels above them. Especially if you can't talk their language. Look at that:
  • I met people that are willing to help me. I wasn't even asking for help tho. I wanted to meet them.
  • I'm more and more confident because I'm vulnerable making weird calls, talking not in my native lang.
  • I learn English.
  • I get pieces of advice and it's fun at the same time.
It's risky and makes me uncomfortable but that's what I like. Now imagine my future freelance interview call. Picture my cold call. And how I will speak better in my youtube tutorials. I even write and read almost everything in English. I'm close to acting in a shop that I speak this language. My friends work in the UK to learn English. I made my flat the local USA.

Thanks for following!

I realize that it's my second progress thread that looks different than a list of things that I've done today. Surely I have 8 hours more to continue this post. Maybe it's better to write about what I actually learned from my actions. Not only What I've done today. Anyhow, it's good for me to write it even for myself. I sum up my thoughts on paper and analyze it at the end of the day anyway. It helps me to keep track and be self-aware. It would be great to provide some value writing about it here tho.
 

J_Cup

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Although our past and present situations aren't 100% the same, I very much relate to a lot you wrote in this post.

Thanks a lot for sharing!
Well, that's why I commented so fast in your introduction. :)

I wanted to make more free time today but I'm glad that you guys are following it so I just can't go to sleep now. I wrote that I'm going to continue the previous post so...

App is Live

Yeah, I uploaded My Wins to google play. It's not perfect. And I mean not even close but I don't want to keep it private for the whole process. I think it's better to make changes based on bits of advice than based on my point of view. Photos are poor because google required some and I didn't want to waste time on it now. App works. Well... My buddy told me that there is a problem- app wants 500mb to install. I think it's a problem with his device. I installed in on my real phone and emulator and it was like 1.6mb. Anyway, I will figure it out. If you want you can give me advice on changes.

I want to:
  • Add photos to the description and use it in success background.
  • Edit "Edit" mode. I mean change design.
  • Maybe change some colors to more readable.
  • Do add description activity that is not active now.
  • Edit on success click animation. Description fade in animation looks weird.
Do you have any ideas? This is the first simple version of this app. I have few with more things but now I want to focus on this one. I will create tutorials on how to do it asap. I mean I will start it as soon as I finish this version. But for now...

Blog is Dead

I turned it in maintenance mode because I made some small changes. Mainly in design. I learned that small changes are going to make you edit every previous post or even force you to do it from the beginning. I can afford it because it's my start. Anyway, I think that it's better to first finish app and then write tutorials. Or note everything that you do. Actually, I was doing both at the same time. Wrong.
 

J_Cup

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I Woke Up On Time...

And fell asleep 3 min later on my desk chair... Huh. It was meant to be a hard day. I slept 3 hours more than I wanted but anyway I didn't give up and made some changes. What? It's progress thread, not BS "I always win" thread. :D

I had a lot of tasks that are not related to Android but I gave it few hours! It was short (6h) but very intensive time. I asked some people for advice on my app. I added some features and despite that, it's not the final version, I'm few steps closer. Special thanks to @Echizen and @Rafael_PL for bits of advice. I actually used them.

There were some fails with updating older versions because I haven't changed database version. I'm glad that I learn about it now. When nobody cares about it. I improved lots of backend code that you can't see in the app. Now it's cleaner and easier to add new features. I have to eat something.

BTW. How many alarms do you set?
 

J_Cup

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I worked a lot
Yesterday I had to change the place where I work. I moved to my old room. I was unable to take my PC and monitors with me so I end up working on i3 4gb 17" laptop. Shit. Anyway, I had a lot of tasks to do so I sat in my previous workspace, imported project, and started to make some changes in my app. I was really productive. Sometimes I had to wait 3-5min for app start and it was impossible to open a browser. But I didn't care! I just opened a browser on smartphone and wrote plans in a notebook. Once a new version of My Wins was ready, I exported it. Immediately, I uploaded it to Google Play but it told me that something was wrong. The key was wrong...

Small fail
When I exported the first version of the app that I put on google play, I generated a new key. Unique key. I didn't know that I have to use this same one every time I want to update my app. But that's how it works. So I realized that I left it on my PC disk. It looks like you have to store it online and make 10 backups because you can't restore it. Lost key = no updates.

Anyway, I'm able to make changes. I can upload it too. Not as an update but as a new app if I want to. I decided that for now, I will not do it. Maybe tomorrow when there will be more significant differences.

Changes
Yesterday

I added:
  • a dynamic search bar
  • changed importance circles to 4
  • end date
  • design improvements
  • better sorting
  • bug fixes
And I learned that every time I make some changes in a database I have to change it's version ASAP. To not forget about it later. You have to take care of what's going on DB update too then. Another way you will get some crashes/data wipes. But...

Today
I added "add photos/images" feature and some design changes. Storing and using photos is a new thing to me so first I had to learn it. Now I could do it in 1h.

Old laptop and 1 monitor are a pain in the a$$. I try to do things that don't involve a computer. I mean all the stuff that I would have to do when I will be back in my place. And I will be there on Sunday/Monday!

BTW. If somebody is interested in, there is youtube video about Android Oreo on youtube Android Developers channel. It looks good. Is being impressed by new Android version nerdy?
 
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buildingbetter

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It's really interesting to read your journey so far. I hope you'll keep updating.

I definitely think a rough childhood can be good for us. It makes you very resilient and more comfortable with difficult circumstances but you can get dragged down by it if you're not careful. Keep pushing! :)
 

J_Cup

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It's really interesting to read your journey so far. I hope you'll keep updating.

I definitely think a rough childhood can be good for us. It makes you very resilient and more comfortable with difficult circumstances but you can get dragged down by it if you're not careful. Keep pushing! :)
Are you into Android or just into handsome guys? Probably both of them... I'm joking but it's much easier to do your job when somebody actually cares about it, so thanks!
 

J_Cup

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Back to the Code

I wasn't doing a lot of changes in my app. I was unable to use fast PC so I spent a lot of time looking for better code solutions. I learned about what I want to implement. There is something new every day if you learn just-in-time. Learning everything doesn't work here. I think that it's better to remember what book you have to reach for instead of remembering what is inside. Besides basics! But I use my PC since yesterday so ...

App is Updated

No, that's impossible! And I added some new features. Mainly it's about images. Images that took a lot of time because I had to learn few ways to store it and display in particular cases. So I used the best way. It's so easy to work all day now because I use a pretty fast computer. And many other tasks that I would have to do now, I had made in the previous week. Well, I feel a lot of changes in a few days...

But will start with:
  • Sliding images when one is enlarged
  • On long click stuff (like selecting or settings)
  • Better design
I have a lot of other future ideas but I will write about it later.

Do you make progress in coding?
 
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J_Cup

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Two weeks and 10000 hours later

Do you believe in magic? Well, better start to believe because I don't have another word for this shit. Basically, too many things collapsed this week. I mean almost everything that I was related to f*cked up. Of course, some of this was my fault but it doesn't matter. I wasted one day. Literally, doing nothing practical. It took me almost all day to realise that I'm mad as F*ck. I've never been really happy for too long but this time it was a hardcore level of madness. I realised that if I want to get on track without losing too much I have to win 4 days. By win, I mean to do as much in 4 days as normally would take me 2 weeks. And I wasn't fooling around recently. It seemed to be impossible.

I woke up on the first day and I took shower, ate breakfast, wrote plan not in 1h as usually but in 30 min. Same quality, same food, same everything except being hard-pressed and mad as F*ck. I didn't yell at anybody, it was more like inside my mind only. I got out to one day job and on the way there prepared a post for my blog. I did my job, got out walking 2 times faster and shopped on the way back to flat. In flat, I coded and uploaded a new version of my app. I got out to repair my friend's computer for money and he gave me 50% more than he told day before. I cleaned his devices too because I was a little bit ahead of my plan. I didn't want money for it but I got.

...

I don't want to write my diary here or to whine. All I want is to show is that if you think you are doing 100%- probably you are F*cking not. I know that recently it was a lot of work time and I did a lot. But I realized that it's really about details. I know that in this turbo mode I wouldn't survive for too long. But I'm sure that I can do 1.5 times more than I've done before for a long time. Until I will be able to do 2 times more and so on.

I really like MFCEO podcast. To me, it's not only motivation but some practical advice too. I was stressed every damn day in my life and I thought that nothing is going to surprise me. Now I think about how scared are people that have to pay employees and don't have enough money for it. Like it's not about you and your family but possibly lots of people that trusted you and their families.

I just wanted to say that to everyone who is discouraged by any loser who tried, failed and got out. Sometimes impossible is possible.
 

J_Cup

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Not a Quitter

Quitter Alert Radar seemed to be red. But actually, I learned a lot. And what actually matters- I coded a lot. My first app is almost done and I just started my second one. The first project took me a lot of time but it seems that I had to learn lots of things. Now my second app will be developed in 10 days, not 60. And it will be bigger and better. I guess the third one will be better than the previous one and so on. It's about the experience.

Where's the Fastlane?

Well, yeah. For now, it doesn't look like Fastlane. But I didn't have good enough portfolio to get an even small gig. I didn't want to waste time so I decided to develop 2 medium apps, put them on google play and then get a job quicker. I wrote a lot of posts on my blog too. I deleted 2/3 of them but recent ones are getting better. All my ex-friends think that it's a waste of time to write something that nobody reads but I don't think so. It's better to learn to write and share it with few friends. I got some tips and used them. I started 2 weekly series. To me, blogging is like playing in a band. I don't want to sing out of tune in front of strangers (write stupid stuff on for example medium). I want to learn to sing in my rehearsal space with bandmates and close friends. I would go out once it's good enough.

Who is testing?

Few of my close friends actually help me testing my stuff. Giving bits of advice. When it comes to "partners" it's getting harder. I met some people but the majority of them are freaking posers. They care about looking like wealthy, not actually being. Ego so huge that are afraid that somebody will see that they just started. And faking is no longer possible then. On the other side, I met few hard trying people. One of them is even this forum user.

Plan for next weeks

It's not so complexed. I will continue my Wednesday and Saturday blog series. But the biggest goal is to publish 1.0 version of my second app by the end of this month. The current one is 0.3 so it means that I have to increment version by 0.1 every day. So I will have 1.0 and 3 more days for testing and bugs. It's possible. I wrote all my todo version updates on paper. Then I will have both of them cleaned, and prepared as a good looking portfolio in 10 days. Ten days is a lot but I will clean my blog and create about me page too. I will be sure that everything works fine by 10.10.

Next goal will be hitting UpWork 11.10-30.10 and getting as many good reviews as possible. I can afford not earing too much but just hustling now. If October won't work- my backup plan is to get a job. It's not 5 mln USD in the 1-day plan but I'm happy about what I've done recently.
 

J_Cup

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I think it's a win. Did more than I expected in 14 hours. Version 0.4 is uploading. It was a good day.
 
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