Pursuing Your Dream

Do you still remember when you were still a kid, your teacher asked you this question

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Cliche as that question might be, as universal it is, I can't help but ponder about the same question even today. Of course, the answer varies from person to another. As this is a open ended type of question where there are no real right answer. Obviously no one would answer this question unethically, and there's a fine line between an ethical and immoral answers. I'm speaking about the situation where you answered something that would put your loved ones livelihood in jeopardy. In that sense, quitting your job to start a business is one of them. It is not unethical, but yet it is not ethical either from the perspectives of those who are around you. It is a big decision that could lead to disaster if you failed in pursuing that business. I can vouch for that - and I am currently working by my own.

I do not come from a wealthy family or I do not inherit anything from my great gramps. I am married and have a child on the way. I worked on and off for companies, primarily as a project engineer in the past. I quitted my job for quite some time now to build businesses along side few side hustles. It felt cringe for saying that. But it is what it is. I'm not doing super well, but well enough that I am not in a position of desperation. All I can tell you is that it takes time. Lots of it. Lots of failures. Lots of learning. Lots of standing back up. Truly. No magic formula. No habits building. No productivity hacks. None of those will work. Below is one of the example I'm talking about.

Now, I'm not saying that work is for idiots who wasted half of their lives stuck in traffic jams. To be fair, most working people are really smart people. I am not here to discredit any of their work. Their jobs are important. My point is not everyone is lucky to have opportunities knocking on their door. Too be honest, that rarely happen. The right way to think about wanting to be successful in your business endeavor, you have to knock the door of opportunities, and in my experience, there are no doors most of the time - you build the door, and knock on it. Proverbial speaking. That is how it has been for our gramps, and that is how it will be for hundreds of years to come. There is nothing wrong with working, people need to put food on the table and provide for their kids. "But, but, but, not everyone is lucky enough to have surplus on their paycheck!" - You will have surplus on your paycheck to save and invest if you cut your spending on but not limited to:

• Entertainment money
• Excessive utility bills
• Eating out
• Useless subscriptions
• Designers clothings and accessories
• Habits - smoking, drugs, po*n, party, whatever.
• More stupid stuffs

Not everyone is exposed to financial literacy, case in point, I have to expose myself to them. It is not being taught at school. If you want to have a proverbial financial freedom, you have to teach yourself that. There is no other way around it. You just have to learn it. I took interest of financial literacy while I was doing my undergraduate course years ago. And it has been serving me well as I am still a student until today.

From my experience and observation, If you are wondering how most people converted their day to day job to owning their own business, this is your typical work flow:

School -> Work -> Quit job -> Create a Business -> Success / Failure -> Find another job

It sounds stupid but it true for many people. While for some does this as well:

School -> Work -> Save enough money -> Quit job -> Create a Business -> Success / Failure -> Find another job -> Try again & again

How I managed to do it, in the simplest way:

School -> Work -> Save enough money -> Quit job -> Create a Business -> Success / Failure -> Find another job -> Save enough money again -> Invest (tradfi/gold/crypto) -> Learn business startups -> start doing businesses as side hustles until it can run on its own -> Use some of the saved & invested money for expansion -> Fail -> Retweak/Rework failure ventures -> Quit some of the business -> Start another one -> Today

*There's a lot of failures. It will fill a whole book if I were to write them here*
*Underlined for key that makes a whole lot of difference*


There are no harm for those who are working, who love their work, to have investments and side hustles on the side. In fact, its an added bonus on top of your salary. For those who will keep doing what they do, even if they are not paid well enough for it, kudos to you good sir, you are 1 in thousands. Personally, this question leads me to my own answer. "Would you still do what you do, if you still get money even if you are not working". This is not an UBI topic, so refrain yourself from arguing from this standpoint. It will not work - enough said. The question pertain to those who wish to retire early from their job.

A good friend of mine does well financially despite having a low paying job and no business.

Work -> Paycheck -> Invest first -> Spend -> Rinse and repeat

He loves his job as it provides food and tuition fees for his family and do not plan to stop anytime soon. In bad times, his investment will cover most of his expenses for years to come. He kept up his insurance for just in case situations. He invested a little in crypto knowing its volatile and risky and does well himself. He treated any profit from crypto as bonus.


Since I have a little bit more time on my hand due to the nature of my businesses and side hustles, I set aside time for my parents and their business interest. Next year, hopefully, my dad could retire from his work comfortably while attend to his own business.

My latest side hustle is on the youtube, as you could see in my previous posts. It is much more of a hobby to be honest, but its a shame if I could not make some money out of it. Also it is worth pointing out that youtube business is quite interesting as it does not operate the way any traditional business would. We just uploaded another video yesterday, although far from perfect, we are still proud of our accomplishments.

As a result of my persistence and a little bit of shame of past failures, I have been doing well and will continue to be so, while my investments bear fruits in the future. As I do not spend money on unnecessary things like sport cars and bikes (as I deemed them stupid, not from an engineering standpoint, but as a luxury items) I have continued growing a passive generating investments through tradfi and defi, and probably will continue doing so.

I am still proud of my academic accomplishments, but those days are gone, as the experience that I have in life and business ventures out weigh them in terms of importance. Of course, due to the role I have as a Project Engineer has boosted my knowledge in businesses and management. But then again, maybe I won't be an engineer, but I will be someone who could provide for my family in less conventional way, the way that I know how and I plan to pass down my knowledge to my future kids.

If only I could answer that to my teacher years ago.


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