That was the Last Photo I Took Before Everything Changed

We really can’t put all the eggs in one basket.

This photo was taken on my wife’s birthday last year, in January 2020. Shortly after her, my life was never the same.

I am an actor and writer. I never had a job without an expiration date. I am always hired on the job, which means staying on the job for a few years and then a few months off until the next job starts.

Because of this, I cannot have the lifestyle that my income provides. After all, I know that I will be unemployed for a long time, so I have to prevent myself during the fat months. As I do this since I graduated as an actor in 2001, okay, I’m used to…

Then came my last soap opera on Globo TV, for which I was hired in 2015.

Our soap opera had a severe structural problem: the broadcaster changed the soap opera's size on the air and did not warn us. Our predecessor was an hour and twenty; we had an hour and ten. As the team I was part of was known for the dialogues, when editing the images captured to fit in an hour and ten minutes, the soap opera’s director was forced to cut scenes. And the worst: cut dialogues.

That made the soap opera challenging to understand.

As this is a product that should reach the largest possible audience, that should understand the story without using much brain; the soap opera ended up having a weak audience. It was not a failure… But it did not stand out.

As soap operas are the main product of Brazilian TV, the blame had to fall on someone’s back. Was it the management who did not warn us about the changes?

Of course not.

They blamed the authors’ team.

The result was that our team ended up dissolving. Only the primary author remained hired. And we have no prospect of starting a new job.

At 47, I had to start looking for something else to do.

I decided, then, that it was time to put my book in bookstores. It was ready in 2015, but since I wrote a miniseries based on its story, I waited for the broadcaster to approve the miniseries before publishing the book.

Yes, I know, I’m naive.

I got in touch with several publishers, one of them was interested and made a good proposal, and I started editing the book.

At this time, Quora in Portuguese got online.

I had been a Quora fan in English since 2013. I was always translating answers for my girlfriend. When I saw that they were writing in Portuguese, I thought it was an excellent opportunity to show who I am. I decided to start writing there to get known. So, who knows, when the book was released, I would already have some people interested?

And I did this. I started writing daily on Quora in Portuguese. I put five answers a day; it was my goal. Gradually, I became a little known… When I had around five hundred responses, I received an email from Quora, telling me that I had been invited to the Partnership Program.

I didn’t even know there was a Partnership Program!

And I decided to take a chance. I found out how the program worked, created a working method, and, in the first month, managed to earn enough to pay for my car overhaul (which must have cost about two hundred dollars).

Not bad!

In the second month, I earned more than half what I made as a Globo TV employee.

In the third month, I earned more than I made on Globo TV.

And from the fourth month onwards… I was earning like I never have in my life.

Excited, but with my feet on the ground, I kept most of the money, of course. Who knows if this partnership program was serious or not? But I kept earning well… And breaking records… So I started thinking, “What if this is going to last? What if I can finally organize my life? Make my plans?”

I started a company to “legalize” the money and “assume” that, from now on, I was an entrepreneur—a man with a steady income who would never abandon me, with no expiration date.

And in July 2019, I finally set my wedding date.

According to my plans, we could make a reasonable down payment into an apartment using the money I had saved from Globo TV and Quora. With the income I was having, I would pay the installments calmly and move on with our lives.

Until January 2020…

I receive a message from Clara Chagas, responsible for Quora in Portuguese, saying that the Partnership Program would significantly change in a few days.

I had already received similar messages, and such significant changes used even to increase my earnings.

That’s why I didn’t worry.

Only, the next day… When opening the Quora app…

I saw that I started to earn one thirty than I did before!

That is, in a month, now, I would earn what I earned in a day!

For a long time, I hoped this was a mistake, then just a bad phase… But when I saw that many people seemed to be trying even harder to work with Quora now that we only received crumbs as payment, I gave up. Why would they pay well again when there are so many people willing to work for change?

Today I still write at Quora in Portuguese for the pleasure of learning and sharing what I have learned.

But that January day sealed my life.

All the plans I had were over.

For more than a year, I have struggled to earn some significant income again, without success.

My luck is that I am cautious and saved money, otherwise…

We really can’t put all the eggs in one basket.