How I Left My 9 to 5 Job for a Dangerous, Unsafe, and Unknown Adventure

My four-figure journey in 6 months.

For the second consecutive month, I received a bonus of $500 from Medium.

This has to mean something, right?

I wrote my ass to get where I am, but there is so much to do yet. The more I write, the more opportunities I see ahead.

My main goal? To fill my followers with excellent content production. It’s so good to receive messages like this one:

Thank you, Jared A. Brock; I really appreciate your words. Thank you all for your support.

You don’t need energy drinks to boost your motivation. You just have to be better each day with your words, knowledge, and personal growth and share it with the world. It’s a simple formula.

With writing, I discovered the love I have for technology, innovation, and the macro-economy. But I also like to write about writing tips, personal growth, collective growth (see here) and running.

Another thing I have recently seen as a good strategy is to have my own publications. Right now I manage The Price of Tomorrow about technology and innovation and created this week another one, Collective Growth, not about personal growth, but about the power of communities growing up together, as a group; something you’ll hear about more often in the future.

Deciding to quit my 9 to 5 job in December 2020 to embrace a totally new challenge was a crazy decision, but everyone who knows me already knew I was going to jump into another exciting journey.

The reason I could make the jump had to do with working in the real estate investment industry. I had savings that supported me for one entire year. So, don’t think I’m going to challenge you to do the same. It depends on the circumstances of each one and the madness we are used to putting in our goals in life.

However, let me share with you how I made it. Let me say to you it is possible to earn $1,530.00 in a single month, writing on Medium.

1. Knowledge has a beginning but no end.

I read two to three books per month.

Ok, I have knowledge issues because I can’t stop reading; I know. I have this insatiable curiosity to understand how everything works.

So, if I have an idea to write about NFTs (non-fungible tokens), for example, I’m able to spend six hours straight reading everything that appears in front of my eyes on the subject. I collect all the information, research, and scientific studies, and then I build the model for another article in my head.

But the magic comes during writing because as I write, I see new ideas for new and different articles. I can tell you I just did one more cleanup on my drafts, and I still have work for over a month.

If you have a good habit of reading, you can be an expert on the subjects you write about. Everything is in the books. So, one of the things I think I already conquer was authority. People read my articles because I do my research.

Regardless of whether they agree with me or not, my followers know they will read a well-founded content, with a logical sequence that provides them with information on the subject, and that above all, it has a bit of provocation, but also common sense in the conclusions; without arrogance or egotism.

If you haven’t got the habit of reading, start today, start now. It’s something you really have to do. You’ll find a new world entering your brain, giving you not only knowledge but endless opportunities for new ideas.

2. Torture numbers and they’ll confess to anything.

I thought stats were something meaningful for my writing. I thought I should only be focused on my content, but I was wrong.

Understanding numbers is a massive advantage for your long-term goals. Numbers, sometimes, tell you what you don’t want to hear about. But you have to be courageous and confront your stats to your work.

Time is money and energy. I don’t want to spend my time wasted on things that don’t make my business move forward. As I evolve in my writing business, I spend more time planning, restructuring, and challenging my own business plan. Why? Because time is more valuable than anything else, and I don’t want to waste it.

3. Technology is a valuable servant but a dangerous master.

In my first online course, with [arlie] PEYTON, in Writing Income Accelerator, he showed me some tools that, for a non-native writer, were the perfect technology that helped me start my six months' journey.

Grammarly is my most crucial technological tool. It helps to make my drafts more readable. Sometimes I write so much content that I forget specific details about grammar. So, this perfect tool makes my work so much easy.

When I finish my draft, I pass it through Grammarly, and then I have the voice of a lady reading it to me, in another essential technological tool I have, the Free Text to Speech. Having an artificially intelligent voice reading what you just wrote it’s incredible. You can identify minor mistakes, little details that you would overlook otherwise.

I’m investing in Facebook ads to catch more new readers. Right now, I’m spending 5% of my earnings on this strategy. Why? First, I think Medium deserves to have more paying readers on its platform. It’s better for everyone. And second, it’s a huge opportunity to have new readers outside Medium coming to read your work. You never know who’s on the other side of the screen. Maybe a unique opportunity, perhaps someone that will help you get your business to another level.

I also invested in a professional editor, Bayley Sprowl, that edits two to three articles per month. It’s not technology, but it’s perfect to help to improve my writing to higher ground. When Bayley sends me back my drafts, I always have this feeling that my writing has to improve, and that’s a good thing. It makes me feel humble and understand that I still have to refine. These articles are the ones I submit to the best publications, like The Startup, The Ascent, or The Post-Grad Survival Guide.

4. Invest in yourself. Your knowledge is the engine of your wealth.

From the beginning of my journey, I knew I had to constantly invest in my knowledge.

First, because I’m a non-native writer on a foreign digital platform. Writing in another language rather than Portuguese, on a platform where you don’t know the game’s rules, it’s like go play a soccer game against FC Barcelona with a blindfold and one leg tied to the other.

I saw an interview with Zulie Rane and [arlie] PEYTON, and I immediately knew Peyton would be the perfect writer to support me in this long-term journey. Why? Because Peyton not only explains how to write on Medium, he also shared in his course all the brand journalism landscape.

Brand journalism is a mix of content marketing, public relations, and corporate communications. It makes you think in writing on one platform and build your entire business with multiple external sources of income.

Then, I invest in Sinem Günel’s Medium Writing Academy. She’s a non-native writer like me, but she has a unique energy. Her journey has been absolutely extraordinary. I thought to myself that I had to drink some of her magic potions. After I watched all of Sinem Günel’s lessons, my stats immediately raised up.

I’m about to invest in Tim Denning’s course. I’ve shared some ideas with Tim, as he also writes about the Bitcoin and blockchain themes, and we’re analyzing different details about the evolution of NFTs and crypto writing.

Investing is hard when our writing income is low. But you have no other chance if you want to quickly improve. You don’t know so many things if you haven’t access to these top writers that you can write for an entire year and see no changes in your stats, and that’s demotivating.

If you sow, you will reap.- Jim Rohn.

Final Thoughts

Jim Rohn was always right. For whatever you sow, you’ll reap. I never stop sowing in every project I went to.

Things have been pretty good for me in the last two decades. I’ve been learning how to better sow for better reaping.

I also had frustrations with some of my projects. I had two companies turned bankrupt, so I know what it is to have no money in my pocket and being forced to start all over again.

Yet these two misfortunes strengthened me. I’ve never been afraid to start again. Fear did not win.

6 months as a full-time writer made me believe it’s possible to be successful as a writer. I consume Medium’s articles every day. I learn so much with so many writers that I almost don’t need to go anywhere else to find new sources of inspiration.

I love Medium, especially in difficult times. I wrote an article about my opinion when everybody was screaming about this company. We’re so lucky to have such an amazing community.

I still think I’m privileged to have found this platform. Do I want to make more money? Of course, I do. But not at the expense of my bad mood.

I want to help this company grow. That’s why I invest in bringing people from outside into Medium. I also invest in my development as a writer and as a person. I wanted to add value to this magnificent project.

The relationship must always be with the philosophy of giving and then receiving. Life has taught me that nothing works as you’d expect if I try to do things backward.

It’s been a fantastic journey.

Thank you to you all.

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