Should I Continue Working Even Though I’m Not Being Paid Adequately?
Is it ever worth your time?
As a young adult, yet still a teenager, I’ve abruptly been thrown into the world of bills, debt, and responsibility. But what if I don’t want that yet?
“Suck it up”, they say.
“It’s all a part of the life cycle”, they say.
But I know for a fact that humans were not built to spend their teenage years studying to get into a university and do more studying, to then get a job and work 40 hours a week until you retire for a year, still broke and die a few years later.
I want to start fitting my work around my life — and not the other way around.
I started freelancing a few months ago. And so far, my journey has been interesting, to say the least. I’ve set up this Medium account and made it to 100 followers in one month of trying, only to abandon it after that; I started my own marketing agency after taking a course before realizing that nobody will ever take a 19-year-old seriously. Hell, I even wrote a finance journal and published it on Amazon — but so far I’ve had a grand total of zero sales.
It’s safe to say that I’m beginning to run out of ideas and motivation. Sticking to one thing is hard — especially if the odds are already stacked against you.
But the one place I have found a glimpse of success is Fiverr.
Well, that is until my account got suspended.
I found 4 clients on Fiverr offering me long-term work, and of course, I took it all on in a heartbeat. But it didn’t work out quite as well as I hoped it would. One client asked me to spend 12 hours a week coding for her as she suffered from a broken wrist and couldn’t do her job properly. She paid me for one trial session and never contacted me again after that. It was a shame, but I had agreed to do so for just £8 per hour, so I wasn’t missing out on much.
Unfortunately, I didn’t learn my lesson.
A second client requested I became her virtual assistant and run the business marketing side of things — you know, the usual social media, checking website errors, SEO blog posts, etc. What I didn’t know was that I was basically going to be running her entire business and spending 30 hours a week editing YouTube videos and creating posts and reels every single day, as well as setting up her marketing platforms and whatnot.
I told her I’d take just $200 monthly. I regret that now.
While I’m currently enjoying success with the third client who pays me well, on time, and gives me a very basic workload, the fourth client was a shambles. I was hired as a part-time social media marketing manager and paid £18 per hour. But she fired me after 3 weeks due to a lack of work for me to do (which is true) and never paid me for the excess hours that I did.
So, here is my predicament. This has been a rocky road.
Yes, I’m only 19. I’ve got lots of time to learn. But I want to have fun. I want to grow and develop my career, but I want freedom. Where do I find that? Is it found in my struggle to set up my own businesses and income streams, begging people to pay me for my services, and doing work that I hate doing?
Or should I opt to get paid an okay salary with flexible terms to grow somebody else’s business?
Why can’t I have what I want? Who told me I couldn’t?
I don’t know how, but I know I’ll get there.
For now, I want to start writing about what I feel like writing about, not about what gets followers or reads or money. And I want to start working on meaningful projects that will impact people. I want to create my own reality.
And nothing can stop me.
If you have an alternative opinion, pop it into the comments below. 💬
Let’s have a friendly discussion. 🌎
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