The First Steps Are Always The Hardest

I have been raised in a typical Filipino household where we've been taught traditionally.

Traditional in the sense that we were taught that the only way to achieve financial independence would be to graduate a course of either Engineering, Medicine, or law. Other studies were deemed "not profitable" by most Filipino parents.

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I even enrolled in an engineering course because people told me that it was a lucrative job; people were right to infer that it is a lucrative job, but they failed to mention how hard it is to graduate.

In our university, 150 students were in the first year; by the time that class reached the 4th year, only 12 remained.

Then I thought to myself, is this the only way of reaching my financial goals?

It turns out it wasn't.

There were tons of side-hustles available on youtube geared towards students. And this signified my first steps to achieving financial independence.

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I started cryptocurrency trading on Binance as I saw several YouTubers mentioned it was an excellent side-hustle for students. However, the amount that I earn from trading is not a lot; it's still a perfect way to make some money while studying.

But perhaps the most challenging side-hustle where I had to make my first steps was becoming a blogger.

I have always wanted to become a blogger and make money by writing great content for people to read, but just like everything in life, starting was definitely the most challenging step.

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I started creating my WordPress account, but I later realized that I had to pay for marketing and host my domain.

So, I began blogging on Medium, where I did not have to pay to set up my account; however, engaging with users was not as easy as I thought because several articles were behind a paywall, so I could not grow my network there.

Then I discovered Hive. I only started only a week ago, but I feel like this is the place for me.