One Year of the FLF: My Failure

[Invictus]

A few months back, my year anniversary for the FLF came up. I decided that it would be a good idea to create a sort of “Yearly Update”.

Honestly, though, I kept pushing it off. I was scared as hell. More than that, I was even ashamed. When others post their yearly updates and they’re just doing so well, it’s intimidating. Because my story isn’t the same.

You see, while I could blab on and on about how much I grew as a person, the results just weren’t there.

This is a story that ends in failure.


Why My Progress Thread Died:

I had a short-lived fiction writing Progress Thread that I ended up abandoning. It was an attempt to write for the market.

Unfortunately, I hated the market.

It was terrible. I hated what I was writing. I’ve always enjoyed telling a good story.

But, since writing purely for a market was making me lose my enjoyment of writing fiction, I decided it wasn’t worth it. I would find something else.

MJ mentions something similar in TMF . He has a friend that can paint quite well, however she refuses to sell her work because it would affect her enjoyment of the process.

So, I shelved the ‘write to market’ idea.

But I needed something new.


Back in the Freelancing Game

I freelanced regularly in high school. I didn’t have to work as many hours as my friends and it paid for my pizza and Steam games. So, I dusted off my eLance/Upwork profile and got back into the game.

My plan was to develop a large enough income stream that by the time I graduated college, I wouldn’t need to pick up a traditional job. This way, I could focus on a Fastlane business in the future.

After brushing up on my copy skills (my ‘profession’ in high school) I went back to work.

At first, it wasn’t bad. I was getting jobs relatively easily, consistently got good reviews, and I was making a bit of money.

But it wasn’t enough. I was juggling a part-time job, college, and the freelancing. So, I decided to leave my job to focus on the freelancing. I had been considering leaving anyway, so freelancing worked as the catalyst for it.

At first, it was going well. A few hundred bucks here and there. Happy customers. It looked like I would be able to make it work.

And then a wall. I couldn’t ramp up the income.

My fault? You're damn right. I could have applied to more jobs. Spent longer time on each proposal. Tried harder to get off Upwork.

I’m not going to bullshit and say, “But oh, it’s so hard on Upwork.” Yea, it was hard. But I could have done more. I could have tried harder.

It was no one’s fault but my own.

I was getting just enough work to keep freelancing, but not enough to make it a real income once I was out of college.

You blend that with some stupid spending habits and I found myself dug into a hole.

Thankfully, the hole wasn’t the biggest hole in the world. But, it was more than big enough to hurt.

By the end of it, I was burnt out. Stressed about everything. It was time for a new approach.


Which Brings Us Up to Now

Here I am.

With:

• A Liberal Arts Degree. Because in my wisdom, I thought that would be a good move.
• Credit Card Debt. Manageable, but a priority to get rid of.
• Low Income.

But that’s being ungrateful. Taking stock of what I do have:

• No student debt. I had a merit scholarship, so my degree didn’t come with ten thousand in loans.
• Copywriting Experience.
• Few expenses. No kids, very affordable rent, etc. Things could be much worse.

I’ve also picked up a local retail job. It’ll be regular income so I can pay off my debt and take control of my bills.

So? My year’s recap: I won’t say I crashed and burned. But there was absolutely a totaling of the vehicle and plenty of fires to be put out.


My Goals for the Next Year:

Pay Off my Debt: Obviously a priority.

Gather an Emergency Fund: Just in case things go south.

Increase Income: I’m going to alter my freelance approach and niche down. I’ll also be on the lookout for job openings. This will let me achieve the above goals faster, and start accumulating a war chest.


Things I Have Learned:

• Don’t Be an Idiot: I spent badly and for stupid reasons. However, silver lining, I have better habits now. I can at least be glad that I didn’t dig myself into a ten-thousand-dollar hole to realize this.
• I Don’t Mind Working Every Day: For the most part, not having a day off didn’t faze me. I rather enjoyed always being ‘on’, constantly thinking about work. This did backfire at the end, as I was really burnt out by not having a single ‘off’ moment.
• My Girlfriend has Infinite Patience with Me: Too much, probably. More than anything, she wants me to be happy. More than anything, I need to do right by her.

Wrap Up: I could write a thousand more words. Talk about things I could have done differently. The few things I did right. A hundred more things. But I've taken enough of your time here. I just wanted to let the forum know that my first story ended with failure.


But my next one doesn’t have to.

 

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[ZCP]

You have any other avenues other than Upwork / freelance?
Craiglist / etc. type ads for the same vertical?
Hustle / side business buying and selling things to make connections, see opportunities, and increase capital?
End goal? A business? A firm? A subscription service?
Exit strategy?

You have learned a lot and got some good experience. You are in a crowded sector. Are there other avenues around you to create other money streams?

 

[Invictus]

You have any other avenues other than Upwork / freelance?
Craiglist / etc. type ads for the same vertical?
Hustle / side business buying and selling things to make connections, see opportunities, and increase capital?
End goal? A business? A firm? A subscription service?
Exit strategy?

You have learned a lot and got some good experience. You are in a crowded sector. Are there other avenues around you to create other money streams?

At the moment, I don't. I had put all of my eggs in the freelancing basket, so to speak.

And, I had focused almost entirely on Upwork. I believe I wanted to prove to myself that I could make a decent income solely off of the site. It was foolish and driven by my ego.

I have, however, been considering taking stock of my skills and trying to do something different than just freelancing. With my new job, I don't have to rely solely on the money I'm making from Upwork so it gives me more breathing room to test out new ideas.

 

[Maxboost]

You are missing the most obvious blessing in disguise...You are young and you found out the bullshit early on. I spent the last 10 years living in the "scripted" bullshit that was sold to me by society, my parents and friends. You have literally 10,000 at bats coming up, and MJ taught you the principles on how to hit a homer. You are bound to hit that homerun at least once which will radically change your life. Most people never get to play the game or they swing at the plate and give up to easy. Stop being hard on yourself and keep trying like all of us!

 

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[Vigilante]

It's not a story that ends in failure as the ending hasn't been written yet

 

[Iammelissamoore]

While it is cool to do the update, what's even more cool is the fact that you have taken full responsibility for your own failures. Failures aren't the end of the world AND, as any successful business person will admit - Failures are the greatest stepping stones to success, the most valuable lessons come from it.

As for the businesses, the only way we overstand that we can or cannot do something is if we actually get active doing it, outside of that thoughts and dreams are just that without action. So, it is safe for you to admit that you acted, so you have first hand experience of what may/may not work where your industry is concerned.

So, as you may have recognised, you may have failed the first year in trying your hand at Fastlaning; however, it is important to overstand that:

1. You have already been adapting your mindset.
2. You recognise you already contain the ability to push harder towards your goals.
3. The first year may have been tough, but you're ON this journey and it doesn't end there.

 

[Sean Kaye]

I'm going to assume you're early twenties.

You're young, take the last year on the chin and move forward. Think of it like a mulligan in golf.

But in life, you should only give yourself one of those otherwise failure becomes a habit.

 

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[garyjsmith]

I like your writing style. Are you available to compose my posts in the future?

 

[Ika]

I like your honesty with yourself, and the courage to share your experiences. Plus you take full responsibility for your choices.
Rep++

My "One Year of FLF" is coming up soon, and I started to reflect my year a while ago.
Similar to you, my personal growth went through the roof - but my income growth did not. After all I've earned around 1300 bucks so far.
But more on that in three weeks in my own thread, I don't want to hijack yours.

I'm writing this because it helped me a lot to think about how I'm going to compress the whole year into one post.
And to make it a valuable post to others, how can I explain my failures and successes?


In this case, how can others avoid what made you fail - and what can others do to replicate what made you succeed (or overcome the failures)?

* Why did you burn out, even though you liked what you did? How will you avoid burning out in the future?
* How did you change your spending habits?
* (If this was not a part of your character at the beginning of the year) what have you done to enjoy working every day (in contrast to writing fiction, which you did not like)?
* Next to working every day, do you have any tips on how you took time out to spend time with your patient girlfriend? How you maintained the relationship?


Will you start a progress thread?
That would be a great follow up to this thread:
My failure -> My progress to succeed.

 

[Ika]

Hey @Invictus , are there any updates?
What have you changed in your behaviour since writing this post?
Are you closer to your three goals?

 

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[Invictus]

Thank you, everyone, that commented on this. You all gave me a breath of fresh air and helped me look at the future with a bit more optimism.

An update, I believe?

I'll be starting the retail job within the next week or so. Because of a delayed background check, my hiring was pushed back.

On the freelancing side, I'm in talks with someone for a rather big job. It isn't super glamorous or even that high paying, but it would be a large enough contract to knock out the majority of my debt in a single stroke.

I've also started working with someone to get his email flows up and running. There's a fair bit of work to be had if he likes my work (and so far, he does). He's also said that he'll be more than happy to refer me to a few of his friends in the business. Some of the work will be actually setting up the campaigns in a software (similar to MailCheat(Chimp), but built for Shopify users) which gives me another tool in my arsenal.

Niche-wise, I've also got a better target audience and an overhauled bio/sales strategy. Should help secure a few more jobs.