How I Bought A Laptop With Money Earned Using My Smartphone: My 2022 in Review

I wasn’t going to write this piece until I watched a TED talk by Taylor Doe titled “How People Get the Good Jobs”. In the video, Doe spoke about the ‘and then’ moments behind people’s life-changing opportunities. What I learned from the talk was that we can change a person’s life by simply sharing our stories. That message resonated with me and I decided to take action.

Imagine what it would be like if one person's life changed after hearing my story and if a thousand more read it. That is why we are both here today, my words displayed on your device screen and your eyes glued to them like they’re in love. Worry not; this article loves you right back or even more.

So let’s get to the real meat of my story.

January to March (Goals Setting)

My memories of January to March 2022 feel like a recovery from amnesia — not that I have ever had one, but it feels similar. I remember writing my goals down for 2022 by January.

While writing this article, I decided to check and see how many I had achieved. I am impressed — I reached about 90% of them, including getting a laptop, which didn’t happen in January.  Keep calm; we are getting to how I was able to do it.

In January, I traveled to another state in the country without informing my family at first because I wanted to be out of my comfort zone, but I don’t think I want to try that now unless it is convenient.

So I attended a conference and got back on my birthday, and I remember being moody on that day. It was because I felt nobody cared about me and partly because I thought I should be younger. It sounds cringy, now that I think about it, but that is what growth looks like. Growth has felt like an extremely slow but energy-consuming sport, but I am starting to see how my growth is paying off.

My friend told me I had changed a few days ago because I kept posting my long-ass birthday wishlist last year because a small part of me wanted to fit in. Things are so different now. My birthday was on January 25, and guess who hasn’t released a wishlist yet? Me!

First lesson: Growth may be slow or fast, but you will reap the benefits if you take action to improve yourself.

April (My Web3 Journey Started)

In January, I contemplated writing about web3 and blockchain, but I didn't do it because I felt it would be tough. By March, I had this conversation with a friend, and he told me how much my life could change from being a technical writer in web3.

So I decided to try it and publish an article by April, and here we are. Where is ‘here’ exactly? A laptop screen to my face and me typing all I know. That is partly true, but ‘here’ is:

• Deciding to choose myself first.

• Creating content to impact the lives of others (I reached more than 10,000+ people last year, hoping to reach and impact a million people this year through my content)

• Deciding to be kinder to myself so I could be more considerate to others.

• Equipping myself with the right tools for growth and doing the same for others.

• Working to improve my skills in web3.

• Chilling without a high paying web3 writing gig. The truth is, I have never been more happy and contained with myself as I am now.

  
  

For me, the last bullet point is the most blissful. In the past, I applied for every job that had the title Content or Technical Writer. However, since this year, I can count the total number of jobs I have applied for on my ten fingers. I decided to work on my skills and increase my focus on gigs I am a fit for in 2023.

By the way, I published my first ever web3-related article. I was happy then but didn't celebrate myself as I should have. It took me three weeks to put that article together, and I wrote and designed everything with my smartphone. You can see how huge that is. I need to give myself more credit, and you should too.

But how did we get ‘here’? Please be calm and fasten your seat belts because this pilot is about to take you on a journey to Mars… I hope we get there safe and sound.

May to July (Tough Times Don’t Last)

I thought I needed three articles to start getting web3 content writing jobs. However, that wasn’t the case.

During this period, several people reached out to me on Linkedin. Some were trying to figure out my pricing, and others were my skillset. Well, the truth is, at this time, I was running a race, not a sprint, when it came to job search, so I quoted bizarre prices.

It’s not a bizarre price per se, but it could have been lower because I had just started my journey as a web3 writer. But this pilot dreams big, and that’s why we are going to Mars now.

Also, I tend to be more focused on what employers or my clients thought of me than what I felt during the job application, which wasn’t the best feeling in the world in some cases. It felt like I had to be someone else every time I applied for a job.

Fast-forward to June 2022. Damn, my most busy month aside from January 2023, of course. I had seven interviews in June, and the one that struck me the most was the interview with Binance.

When I got the interview, I thought I must get this job. How could I let this gold slip away from me? But guess what? That’s right…I didn’t get the job...but it boosted my faith that anything was possible.

Heads up, I didn’t get any of the other jobs either. As a result, I started learning what to do differently in my interviews, but my learning was primarily focused on impressing clients and employers. However, today the greatest tip I use in an interview is: to be myself and focus on my client's audience instead. It helps me stay calm, collected and confident (the 3Cs).

The more I focused on impressing the employers, the more I flopped. If I cannot be myself at the start, then I should not brother because I would have to compromise on my principles — and as they say: “What you tolerate, you worry about.”

Oh, I just remembered that I bought my laptop in July.

‘What you tolerate, you worry about’ — Isabelle Mercier.

July to August (Got the Laptop)

August made it a year since I got my first-ever writing gig. I got the gig by applying on Indeed. In fact, I have gotten quite some gigs through Indeed, but I had to apply to at least a thousand job postings — which is somewhat not the best way to get jobs (if you were working with time).

Until August, I used a smartphone to create every form of content I released if you haven’t seen any, check out the dummies guide to Web3 and NFT. My phone has grown old (6 years) and is probably ready to retire.

But the funny thing is the only problem I have had with my phone is its charging port. Everything else functions properly…well, except there is never memory on the phone. The memory issue is one of the things that helps me stay away from social media.

My first writing gig (my and then moment) is one of the main reasons I could get a laptop. But for most of 2022, I stopped writing there, not because I had a huge contract but because I didn't enjoy the topics I was writing about.

I got my first gig in 2021 and saved at least 30% on every income from August 2021 till July 2022; that was how I bought my laptop. I also have a rule of not buying an item until I can purchase x3 of it, so that’s that on the laptop.

Before this, I would ask my friend to help me edit my article on an editor’s request with tools that could only be done using a laptop. It was a stressful routine, but I learnt a lot. In July, I got the laptop; by August, my perspective had started to change along with my goals. I call it the laptop effect.

September to October (Change in Perspective)

In September, I got to work at a big web3 firm, but after two weeks ended, our engagements ended. In this case, someone filed for divorce, and it wasn’t me… oouch. Well, I didn’t cheat, definitely not.

I was good at my job and taking feedback, but I had to improve my SEO writing skill according to them. I wish someone had put me through because I was happy doing that gig then. I was more passionate about that job than anything else because it ticked all the boxes.

October was the month I was laid off, and I went from being moody about how challenging things were to seeing challenges as they are — challenges. They don’t define me. So I decided to take many steps back to self-reflect. I realised I had not been taking care of myself. I was putting others first and felt like I was in a box.

My health (physical and mental) was significantly deteriorating, and I needed to care for myself. Therefore I realised if I wanted to impact anybody else, I needed to have impacted myself first.  If something was costing me peace, then it had to go.

Ever since I have had these moments, everything has changed. When I see challenges, I only think of how to solve the problem. I had to stop worrying about it if it wasn't in my control. I focused more on what was within my control, and life has been bliss.

Here is an example of what is in my control:

• Working to improve my skill in Web3

• Creating more content to help a person at a time

• Building stronger relationships

• Eating healthy and on time

• Taking care of myself.

  
  

These are more within my control than the poor network condition in my school and a client's response.

November to December

I resumed school to write my first semester exams. I had to read an entire semester's work in 2 weeks, attend classes and complete my programming and system design projects (4 projects). It was a wholesome experience because many things were out of my control, but I remained calm. I was still beginning my self-care journey, so people and situations out of my control still affected me.

However, it got better, and now we are ‘here’. During these months, I had to solve problems on my feet, and I was proud of the outcome of these situations. I haven’t seen any of my exam results yet, but I hope the sleepless nights and days of reading pay off.

So What Next?

The plan is to continue working to improve my skills and me. The rest is a secret till it is out of the bag. Regardless, I want to be a significant part of the web3 adoption by helping those who wish to learn web3 hard skills quickly make the transition.

An extra tip: if you worry a lot like my younger self, try picking an appointment with your worry on a particular day of the week. When you start to worry, say ‘I will worry about you on Friday at 8:00 pm”. By Friday at 8:00 pm, you will have nothing to worry about.

I hope you learnt a thing or two. Thank you for attending the ‘My 2022 in Review’ TED talk by Zainab Owolabi.