Our priorities influence our daily actions, and our daily actions determine where we end up in life. That’s why the most important thing you need to do right now is choose your priorities wisely.

Let me give you an example.

Let’s say you’re scrolling through TikTok and you come across a video about “a new way to look for clients as a virtual assistant.” You watch it and think, “That could work. I’ll try this tomorrow.”

Believe it or not, if that’s your response, then you’ve chosen watching TikTok as a higher priority than finding clients.

I used to work with someone back when I had a full-time job. They wanted to learn freelancing but said they needed to buy a computer first so they could learn web design and start looking for clients.

They constantly talked about buying a computer once they had the money. But one day, that same person came to the office excited about their brand-new Samsung phone—which cost nearly ₦200,000. At the time, I had just bought a brand-new computer for ₦160,000.

Even though this person often talked about how much they wanted to start freelancing and build a career, it became clear to me that short-term comfort was their true priority.

And that’s the reality for many people today. They’re not failing because they’re lazy—but because they’ve chosen the wrong priorities. They’ve spent years choosing comfort over progress, and that’s a heavy price to pay.

Short-term comfort and instant gratification are the top priorities for most people. And if those are your priorities, you’ll keep doing the bare minimum while claiming you’re doing “everything you can.”

Before you act like you’re above it all, ask yourself: How many hours do you spend per day scrolling on social media or watching movies, compared to learning new skills or actively working on your career?

Be conscious of your daily activities. Hold yourself accountable. Acknowledge your weaknesses and make a conscious decision to be better, do better, and change your priorities.

It’s okay not to change anything—if you’re truly happy with where you are in life. But if you’re not happy and want a better life, that’s something you’re going to have to work for. The alternative is to change nothing, and end up like the majority—unhappy, with no plan, and no vision for the future.

I know a few successful people, and every single one of them always had a plan and a vision for where they wanted to be. And their daily actions clearly reflected their priorities.

Ask yourself right now: Where do you want to be 12 months from now? Do you want to double your income? Diversify your income streams? Build a better career?

Choose something you’d truly love to achieve in the next 12 months—and then start working on the roadmap to get there.

If you want to double your income:

Can you take on extra work or hours at your current job? Can a promotion get you there? Do you need to switch jobs? Do you need to get more clients?

Once you’ve figured out the path, the next most important step is to make it a daily priority.

Because it doesn’t matter what you say your priorities are—if your daily actions don’t reflect them, they’re not really your priorities.

Decide to be better than the majority who aren’t financially free. Be willing to sacrifice comfort in the short term to get to where you truly want to be.

Remember: Comfort feels good now. Progress feels better forever. Choose long-term growth over short-term ease—every single day.

What’s one priority you’re going to change today to create the future you want? Drop it in the comments.

Cheers

The post Choose Your Priorities Wisely! appeared first on Sadiq Umar.

What will it take? And how easy or hard will it be, considering I don’t have a degree—I only have a college diploma?

I decided to give it a test and see, even though I have zero intention of taking a full-time job.

I went to Canva and created a CV with this introduction/summary:

“Experienced Virtual Assistant and YouTube Content Creator with expertise in administrative support, project management, and client communication. Proven track record in enhancing efficiency and productivity for diverse clients.”

Now that I’ve got my CV in order, the next step is to start sending it to potential employers. I’m not going to use Upwork since the majority of clients on Upwork are looking for a virtual assistant, not a full-time employee. So I thought I needed to get on a job board.

I looked at Indeed.com, but I wanted something different. I remembered seeing an ad for FlexJobs, so I checked it out—and it turns out I need a subscription in order to start applying for jobs. So I went ahead and signed up on FlexJobs.

I sent 5 applications within 2 days, and on day 4, I received a response from one application. And the response started with:

“Congratulations! You have made it to the next stage of the recruitment process for the…”

Now, even though I’m not going to take the job, I felt happy that I was shortlisted for a $4,000 per month remote job.

I did a little research on the company to learn more about what they do, the size of the company, etc.

I considered going through with the next stage of the application process, but I decided I didn’t want to waste the recruiter’s time.

Remember, this wasn’t on Upwork or Fiverr, where I have client reviews and some credibility badges. I didn’t have a fancy degree, but I have one of the most important things many high-level companies are looking for: skills and experience.

This experience reaffirmed my belief that skills and experience are the most important assets in building a career.

And since most skills can be learned through YouTube and hours of practice, if you’re not skilling up every day, what are you doing?

I strongly believe most beginners in the Virtual Assistance industry are struggling due to a lack of skills and experience.

If you’re not happy with where you are in your career, you need to spend all the extra time you have skilling up.

Find volunteer opportunities, take on personal projects, look for an internship—whatever you can do to improve your skills and gain some experience to put on your CV should be your focus.

And if you do that, you’re giving yourself the best chance of progressing in your career.

Be willing to do more than what most people are doing, and you’ll have the best chance of reaching the level that most people will never reach.

Cheers

The post How Skills Got Me Shortlisted for a $4K Remote Job! appeared first on Sadiq Umar.

And that thing is: Every problem has a solution; some solutions are just hard to figure out. And if I just look hard enough, I will be able to see the solution.

Ever since I understood this, I’ve overcome most challenges faster and with minimal stress.

Let me give you an example. A few years ago, when I had two clients and was making good and consistent money, I decided there was no point in continuing my full-time job — so I quit.

But when I quit, I had big anxiety about losing my clients. I found the two clients — one on Upwork and one on Fiverr — but I was working with both of them outside of the platforms. So what if something happened and I lost the two clients within a month?

Even though I knew it was not very likely, it was still possible. At the time, I was a Level One seller on Fiverr and had no credibility badge on Upwork, so I knew if I lost the two clients I had, it would probably be a challenge and take some time to replace them.

That was a problem — but since I knew every problem has a solution, I just needed to find the solution.

I thought about it deeply, and surely, I found the solution. The solution was to take one client back to Fiverr and continue accepting payments there for a few months until I reached Level Two.

By doing this, I would have to give up 20% of my earnings to Fiverr, but in exchange, I would get a Level Two account — which would help me find new clients faster if I needed to.

I managed to convince the client to move to Fiverr for a few months.

In addition, I decided to find one more client on Upwork and keep working with them on the platform until I built enough credibility so that finding clients there would no longer be an issue.

That was the solution to the problem I had at the time — and once I knew the solution, I just needed to go after it with everything I had until I made it happen.

And sure enough, I made it happen — and I became a better version of myself in the process in so many ways.

That is the attitude I have toward every challenge that comes my way. I know it has a solution, so I am going to look hard enough until I find the solution — and then I am going to go all in on implementing it.

I think if you can also keep this in mind — and believe that whatever challenge comes your way has a solution, and trust yourself to do whatever it takes to implement that solution — you will reduce a lot of stress from your life and make progress a lot faster.

You can try this right now! Think of just one thing that’s bothering you — a challenge you’re stressing about.

When you pick just one challenge, isolate yourself in an undisturbed place, shut out all distractions, and really think about the challenge. Why is it a challenge? What can be done as a counterattack to that challenge?

Believe that you are capable of figuring it out — and believe you can figure it out today.

When you figure out the solution to the challenge, ask yourself: What can you do to start implementing the solution?

If you succeed in figuring out the solution to the problem and what you can do to overcome it, that will become a point of reference for you in the future — and it will help you go through situations with less stress and faster progress.

Cheers

The post Every Problem Has a Solution — Here’s How I Learned to Find It! appeared first on Sadiq Umar.

It’s fascinating to see how similar all humans are and how connected we are but at the same time how different we are based on our geography. 

One of the most common pieces of advice you will hear from virtual assistant coaches is “start with your family and friends,” which is advice that we all know is irrelevant to you if you live in Africa. 

I watched a documentary recently about poverty in one of the Western countries, and some of the things I saw in the documentary made me feel sad about Africa. 

I saw how a homeless family found shelter (a place to live) for free under a government program. I saw how people who had nothing to eat got free food for their families. 

One thing that stood out the most to me was when a mother went to a government office to find shelter, but the person she spoke with added her to a roster and promised to get back to her as soon as they found a place for her. But before the mother left, she got bags of food items that she could eat with her children for a few days. 

I imagine what would happen if that were Nigeria. What do you think would happen if the government budgeted for shelter for the homeless? And what do you think would happen to the free food that the government put in place when someone is in need? 

I don’t need to say what would happen, but I am sure you know exactly what would happen to the government budget and what would happen to the free shelter and the free food items. 

I watched a show where people gave their DNA, and it got tested, and they found their family tree or family history, I guess — and most people had roots in different continents going back hundreds of years. 

Looking at how every person has 2 parents, 4 grandparents, and 8 great-grandparents, and the numbers keep growing, you can see how if we go back hundreds of years, we are all connected. 

I guess that is why we are so alike in many ways. 

I used to think people in Africa were not as smart as people in the West until I started dealing with people from all over the world, and I realized that is not true. 

I used to think many things that turned out to be not true when I started dealing with people from all over the world. I eventually came to understand we are all the same but live in different worlds! 

I came to understand that, of course, people will behave differently if they are thinking of how to afford the next meal. Of course, they are going to behave differently if they grow up eating one meal a day. Of course, they will behave differently if someone they love died because they couldn’t afford proper medicine. Of course, they will behave differently if they live in different worlds! 

But despite all that, we have a responsibility to do every little thing we can to make our world a better place. 

I made it my responsibility to educate and inspire! What little thing can YOU do to contribute to making our world, our country, our continent a better place? 

Everyone is different, so I will let you figure out your answer to that question.

Cheers

The post How Geography Shapes Our Lives More Than We Realize! appeared first on Sadiq Umar.

Instead, people respect social status and financial positions!

I know it is ugly for many people to accept, but it is the reality of how our world works.

My brother passed away a few weeks ago, and we accepted guests for three days who came to offer their condolences. 

During those three days, I watched how people behaved when a religious person came to offer condolences, how they reacted when an average-looking person came, how they reacted to a known relative, and how they reacted to a wealthy or high-status person.

Something that stood out more within those days was when a well-known politician arrived. The moment he stepped out of his car, the elders sitting close to me started telling me, “Mr. X is here,” even though I could clearly see him arrive.

Some of them were even older than him, but before he even reached where we were sitting, they all stood up to greet him, and none of them sat until he sat down, even though some of them were older than him.

That level of respect was given to him only because of his social status and nothing else!

I am sure if you think, you can find examples of similar events that you have personally witnessed.

And if people respect social status, then it is crucial to develop the right self-image as an entrepreneur if you want your customers or clients to respect you and want to do business with you.

The Power of First Impressions

It is very easy to give a good first impression, but it is extremely hard to change a bad first impression.

Once people have a first impression of you, it is hard to do something that will change it. It is not impossible, but it is hard.

I always liked to dress well, and when I was working as an administration officer, I used to work with large supermarkets and supply them with products through sales reps at a good arrangement.

I was struggling financially during that time because my salary was not good, but because of how I dressed, whenever I visited one of the supermarkets to speak with the manager, I was treated like the owner of the company I worked for

One time, I entered the supermarket holding some samples of a new product, heading to the manager’s office. I met him on the way, and he quickly directed one of his staff to take the product I was holding. 

Before I left, he asked one of his staff to take my bag to my car—not knowing I didn’t have a car at the time

The point is, I presented myself well. I never lied about anything, but I was perceived as “important,” and so I was treated as such. I had an easy time working with the managers because of that.

How Can You Present Yourself Right Online?

This can be challenging if you are just getting started in online entrepreneurship because you have limited experience in most of the presentable stuff and you don’t have the money to hire branding experts.

But you can start with one simple goal: whatever you put out online, make sure it is at the highest standard that you can present.

If you are creating graphics like Facebook banners or social posts, find inspiration from high-industry standards and make sure yours doesn’t look cheaper. 

Don’t rush things—spend as much time as you need to brand your business or personal brand professionally.

Whatever makes you look cheap or amateur, avoid it at all costs—things like typing errors in your content, stock images with other brands’ watermarks, and bad AI-generated graphics or content.

…But Don’t Get Stuck!

As important as it is to be professional, nothing beats action. So don’t let yourself get stuck in the pursuit of perfection.

Try your best to avoid the obvious mistakes I mentioned above, but at some point, you have to just get yourself out there, do your best, and aim to improve every single day.

Even today, I looked at some of my earliest YouTube videos that I turned private because of how embarrassing I looked. I laughed when I saw the terrible angles, bad audio, and my stupid posture. 

The channel didn’t go anywhere because it was just bad, but I am good now because I started the best way I could and kept improving. 

If I didn’t start, I would never have become as good as I am now.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is, people will give you respect based on the level of social and financial status they believe you have.

And it all comes down to giving a good first impression and building a respectable self-image.

So, whatever you do online, never forget the importance of giving a good first impression.

Cheers

The post The Power of First Impressions: How Your Image Affects Your Business Success! appeared first on Sadiq Umar.

How many times have you decided to read a book and only read a few pages before losing focus? Or how many times have you decided to do something challenging, but in the tedious process, you lose interest halfway?

This is very common for most people, including myself. Our attention span keeps getting lower and lower.

We are now at a point where, no matter how important something is, if it is boring and tedious, most of us cannot get it to 100% unless it is something we have no other choice but to complete—something like a job where we know if we don’t finish it, we could get fired.

I think this is one of the major issues preventing many of us from getting ahead.

We just can’t do something boring and tedious if we don’t have to, even if we know that boring and tedious thing has the potential to make a significant impact on our lives.

That is why mental focus is so important—maybe more important than we realize.

How I Improve My Mental Focus

Personally, I am always open to doing the hard things, doing things that most people avoid if they don’t have to, but I still struggle with mental focus in other areas of my life, such as social conversations. I easily lose focus in a social conversation and either get into my phone or start thinking about other things.

I made a conscious decision to improve my mental focus, and I did some research on how to do that. I figured out one of the best ways to improve mental focus.

And that is through reading and writing.

When I figured that out, I decided to force myself to read just one book. I didn’t make any plans to read a certain number of books in a specific timeframe—I just wanted to read one book, and that was it.

And luckily for me, I got one of the most interesting books I have ever read as my first book: The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene.

The initial goal was to force myself to read, but it turned out I didn’t have to force myself. The book is about the core of human nature/human psychology, and I found that topic very interesting. Even though the book is not small, I finished it within a few days, and that got me into reading books.

I am glad I read my first book, and I am glad I started with a book on a topic I was interested in.

Reading books not only helped me with my mental focus, but it also helped me write well and become a better communicator in general.

One of my friends recently saw some new books I bought and said, “I don’t have enough discipline to read these kinds of big books.” I responded to him with, “It’s not about discipline. I just figured out what I was missing by not reading books.”

It’s not a coincidence that most successful people we know read books, and they all advise the younger generation to read some books.

Here is my recommendation for you if you are wondering what book you should start with:

Mastery by Robert Greene

This book will teach you how to be the boss or the master in your field. It will take you through examples of some of the masters in their fields and the process they followed to get there.

Atomic Habits by James Clear

This book will teach you how to make small changes in your habits that can make a big difference. It will also help you get over bad habits through practical strategies.

Goals by Brian Tracy

This book will help you understand the importance of setting goals, how to set the right goals, and what you can do to improve your chances of reaching them.

Based on the short details above, make a decision on what book you want to start with. Focus on reading just that one book from beginning to end. When you finish it, then you can decide whether you want to read more books or if reading books is not for you.

Let me know which book you are going to start with. And if you already read books, let me know your suggestion for a book that a beginner to reading should start with.

Cheers to having sharp mental focus

The post The Power of Mental Focus and How to Improve Yours! appeared first on Sadiq Umar.

I personally know many people who are obsessed with making money online and never make any money online despite spending their time and money chasing it.

I started making money online in 2019, and I was able to quit my full-time job and become a full-time online entrepreneur. Based on my personal experience and most of what I observe from others interested in the field, there is only one difference between the ones who succeed in building a career in online entrepreneurship and the ones who never get any money in their bank account.

This one difference is: Getting in the right direction!

It doesn’t matter how obsessed you are or the amount of time you are putting into making it work, if you are not in the right direction, you will just keep running in circles.

Let’s start with the misconceptions that lead many people to get in the wrong direction.

The Online Business Gold Rush Mentality

Let me ask you this question: What is the first thing you do when you feel interested in making money online?

For most people, including myself, it is going to YouTube or Google and searching “How to make money online?” and the first few pieces of information you consume become your foundation for online business.

And here is the problem—content on YouTube and Google is made to catch attention, attract audiences, and keep you entertained. That is why your first understanding of online business will be ‘Easy, Fast, and Effortless.’

When have you ever searched for “How to make money online” on YouTube and found a video with the title “How to build a successful online business in 2 years”?

But I bet you will easily find titles like “Lazy Ways to Make Money Online” or “How to Make $10K Every Month as a Beginner.” This is what we all know as “Clickbait.”

You make sure your titles are super interesting, promising “Get Rich Quick” in your titles, and then saying “This is not a get-rich-quick scheme” in the video.

For most people, this kind of misleading information on YouTube and Google is what sets them in the wrong direction—having an unrealistic view and expectations of online business.

And when you consume a lot of content that promises making a lot of money within a few days or weeks and you couldn’t make it work, you end up thinking you are not smart enough for this or start looking for a course, which, if you are not lucky, can send you on another chase.

The Reality: What It Really Takes to Start Making Money Online

When I decided I wanted to start making money online and started working on it, I tried several things, and I never made any money online until I started freelancing. And when I started freelancing, it took me around 3 to 4 months to get some money in my bank account.

The reality is, it will take the following to succeed and start making money online:

#1 Skills

You don’t need to be an expert in anything to start making money online, but you need at least a decent level of knowledge in whatever you choose to focus on.

For every online business you start, there are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people trying to make it work, and if everyone could just start and make money, then it would have no value. 

The ones that succeed in making money from it have a good understanding of the ins and outs of the business.

#2 Delayed Gratification

Succeeding with online business takes time, and if you can’t get over your need for instant gratification, then you might just forget the idea of making money online now—because it will not happen.

The problem with most people is they can’t focus on something long enough to understand how it works, what they are doing wrong, and refine it bit by bit until it is at the right level to get them results.

If you try something for a few days or a few weeks without getting any money from it, you will abandon it and jump to the next shiny thing.

Personally, every online business idea that made money for me took a minimum of 6 months of active work before I started making any good amount of money from it.

#3 Consistent Effort

I am sure you know about “Passive Income,” and you might even be looking for how to make passive income, and if you are, that is a problem.

Any type of online business requires a high level of active effort and work to make it work. Of course, you can make passive income from many online businesses, but every form of passive income requires either a significant amount of initial work to build it up or a significant amount of money investment.

So if you want to increase your chances of success, get rid of this idea of making money without too much work, because making money online requires a lot of work initially.

What Separates the Few Who Succeed from the Majority Who Fail

The main difference between the people who succeed in online business and the ones who don’t is that the ones who succeed believe in value exchange.

You exchange value for money. You find a way to provide clear value to someone in exchange for money, not looking for an easy way to make money in a lottery-winning style.

If you choose the right business model and get to work, no matter how long it takes, you are willing to keep learning and improving, and giving up is not one of your options, you will surely find a way to succeed.

How to Actually Start Making Money Online

If you are serious about making it in online entrepreneurship with no money investment, your first step is to start with a service-based business as a freelancer.

Offer a specific in-demand service to clients through platforms like Upwork and Fiverr. Learn how it works, learn the ins and outs of freelancing, and put all you’ve got into finding clients and creating a consistent way to generate income.

Prioritize learning and self-improvement. When you get started, you will make all kinds of mistakes that you will not even know you are making. The only way to get better is to keep doing the thing and trying to improve.

Because here is the thing—you will not make money until you are good enough, and you can only be good enough through self-improvement.

When you make freelancing work, and you have a reliable way to make consistent income, then you have the freedom and flexibility to try other business ideas that you may be interested in.

Final Thoughts

A major factor that is going to contribute to whether you succeed in making money online or not is being in the right direction.

So, learn to recognize misleading content on YouTube and Google, accept delayed gratification, don’t get distracted by get-rich-quick schemes, and never stop taking massive action every day.

If I have any formula for success, that is it—nothing else.

Cheers to achieving great things

The post Why Most People Go Broke Instead of Getting Rich from Online Business appeared first on Sadiq Umar.

We can have plans for where we want to be or who we want to become, but all we can do is try— and more often than not, the outcome differs from what we imagined.

Sometimes, things turn out exactly as we expected. Sometimes, they turn out even better. And sometimes, we end up in a completely different place due to unexpected changes along the way.

All we can truly do is make a plan, execute it wholeheartedly, and trust that in the end, God will lead us to the best place—often one we never even considered.

Recently, I had a conversation with someone who is around 60 years old, a person I deeply admire. He has achieved the level of financial success many dream of—the freedom to do what you want, when you want, with whomever you want, without needing money’s permission.

He shared a bit about his life’s journey, including how he ran away from home before he was even a teenager and how his father committed suicide. There is no shortage of pain in his life’s story.

One thing he said really stuck with me:

“Be willing to go through difficult situations rather than trying to go around them, and you will develop the resilience needed to achieve any goal you set.”

It made me reflect on my own life. Every single achievement I’ve had came after a really hard battle.

I always make plans for where I want to be and envision what the next phase of my life should look like. Sometimes, things unfold exactly as planned; other times, I end up in a completely different place.

But through it all, I strongly believe in three things:

Make a plan for where I want to be in the next phase of my life.

Do everything in my power to get there.

Trust that God will guide me to where I need to be.

As humans, we are wired to go through challenges. If you were to suddenly get everything you ever wanted without effort, you wouldn’t feel the joy or fulfillment you truly need.

Most people who win the lottery end up depressed. I recently read about the creator of Minecraft—he developed the game and sold it to Microsoft for $2.5 billion. But immediately after selling it, he fell into depression.

Many athletes who win Olympic gold medals also experience severe depression.

This shows that we need the pursuit of goals to feel alive and happy!

So, set your goals. Do everything you possibly can to achieve them. And once you’ve done your part, trust that God will take care of the rest.

Cheers

The post I Can’t Predict the Outcome, But I Can Control My Effort appeared first on Sadiq Umar.

Years ago, when I decided to start a blog with the purpose of monetizing it through Google AdSense and affiliate marketing, I found content writing so boring and exhausting. Even though I wrote many blog posts, I only wrote them because I have discipline toward work, but the truth is, I hated every minute of writing content.

Nowadays, writing is something I do when I want to relax. It’s like when you spend all day at home and feel kind of stuffy, so you take a walk outside after 4 PM when the weather is calm and nice. That is how I feel about writing.

I recently asked myself, what changed? Why do I enjoy writing now when I used to hate it?

You might think it’s because of AI—everyone can write easily with ChatGPT now. But that is not the case because, as surprising as it may be, I don’t use AI to write the content on my personal website.

It didn’t take me much time to understand why I enjoy writing now and why people enjoy reading my content better now.

The main reason, I figured, is authenticity!

I used to do keyword research to find keywords to write about. Then, before ChatGPT, I would find other top performing articles on Google, read them, and then try to write my content by “taking inspiration” from the top performing blog posts.

When AI became available, I would just use ChatGPT to write the blog post, and then I would go through it and make some changes with the intention of making it sound human.

My process of writing is completely different now. Let me give you an example.

This morning, I felt like writing something, so I opened my computer, opened a notepad, and then I thought, “What should I write about?” It took me 2 minutes to decide to write about the importance of authenticity, and I just started writing what was in my mind without doing any form of search or analysis.

At this exact moment, I saw that my computer was running out of battery, so I moved closer to a socket and connected my charger.

When I finish writing, I will use Grammarly to proofread and make sure there are no spelling mistakes or weird grammar. And then, I will go ahead and publish it.

I have no pressure to find top performing keywords. I have no pressure to optimize for SEO. I have no pressure to do anything. I just write what is in my mind, and for that reason, I take all pressure out of writing and only leave the fun of speaking my mind.

I believe writing is important, and if you learn to write well, it will be easy for you to speak your mind. I also believe most people will find speaking their mind relaxing.

Writing also helps me improve my mental focus, and it is without a doubt far more beneficial than mindless scrolling through TikTok.

I am sure writing is not for everyone, but if you don’t have a beneficial hobby, try it at least. Use some of the time you spend on social media to try writing, and do it to speak your mind—without the pressure of SEO and things like that.

You don’t need to have a website to start writing. You can write on your LinkedIn or Facebook profile, or you can sign up on Medium.com to start writing your thoughts.

Challenge yourself to write something from your mind, without ChatGPT. And when you do, put a link to your writing in the comments below—I would like to hear what is in your mind.

Cheers

The post The Moment I Stopped Writing for SEO and Started Writing for Myself appeared first on Sadiq Umar.

When I was in primary school, we were often asked in class or by family members, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” When I was around seven years old, my answer was always, “A soldier.” That dream was purely inspired by watching the movie Commando!

By the time I finished primary school and was ready to enter secondary school, my thoughts had shifted. I started dreaming of making a lot of money after finishing school. 

When people asked me what I wanted to do, or when I chatted with friends, I considered careers like becoming a doctor or a lawyer—probably because my father worked in a court.

The Harsh Reality We Live In!

After secondary school, I had a better view of reality, and my focus shifted again. I realized the importance of choosing a field of study with a higher chance of landing a job. 

Given the economic realities of the country I live in, the goal became simple: to secure employment as soon as I finished school. The industry didn’t matter much—I just didn’t want to graduate and be unable to find work.

But even getting admitted into a school and program of my choice wasn’t as easy as I had imagined. I eventually ended up studying for a Diploma in Marketing.

Looking back, I wish I had known in secondary school that being “Self-Employed” was a good career option.

Entrepreneurship Should Be Taught at an Early Age!

I wish we were taught entrepreneurship from an early age—not the kind of entrepreneurship they teach nowadays in schools or the kind they rushed to teach us at the end of our diploma program. That version of entrepreneurship is just for “SHOW.”

I’m certain that many youth wouldn’t be stuck in financial prison if they had access to real-world entrepreneurship knowledge early on.

I know everyone’s journey and circumstances are different, but I firmly believe that if you have real-world entrepreneurship knowledge—and the willingness to do hard things and resist the trap of instant gratification—you can find something that works for you.

The Key Takeaways

Here’s what I want you to take away from this post:

Never stop learning from people with practical experience. Watch entrepreneurship podcasts, read books on the subject, and expose yourself to as much actionable knowledge as possible.

Engage in practical learning. This means learning through action and implementation. When you learn something new today, find a way to put it into practice immediately.

Focus when you find what resonates with you. When you find something that resonates with you, and you know it works for people in your circumstances, go all in on it.

Ask yourself these questions:

Do you want to work for others for the rest of your career?

Are you okay with having your life controlled by someone else forever?

Or would you rather fight your weaker self, rise above mediocrity, and take control of your financial future?

When I decided I didn’t want to be poor anymore, I told myself every single day: “The only thing that will stop me from succeeding is if I don’t live long enough.”

If you have that kind of determination, you’ll figure out how to make things work.

Cheers to achieving great things

The post I Wish I Knew ‘Self-Employed’ Was a Career Option! appeared first on Sadiq Umar.