Who Is Ray?

In case anyone is ever wondering.

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I’m starting this blog as a way to track and document my very unsettling and skeptic journey of achieving financial freedom and starting my own business (and, you know, becoming my own boss!).

The reason I use words like “skeptic” and “unsettling,” and I would go as far as saying frightening and insane, is that I don’t personally know anyone who’s ever done this before.

At least not someone who didn’t initially have a huge sum of money (because they come from a rich family or so) to start with. Everyone I know follows the typical “active income” lifestyle: A day job and a salary for the hours they worked at the end of the month and that is it. And most of them live a month-to-month kind of life.

So, I am certainly taking a huge leap of faith here!

But before I take you on my journey, here’s a brief background about me first.

I’m a telecommunications engineering graduate who never really worked as one. I graduated in May 2015 with the decision to pursue a career as a writer instead. I thought the hardest thing about that decision was to face my parents with the fact. Boy was I wrong! That was probably the second easiest thing I’ve ever had to do. 

The hard part though was to actually pursue the career. Have you ever felt like you just don’t fit in a certain crowd? If so, that makes two of us!

In the brief 4 months of me taking online (because I couldn’t find any off-line) writing courses to polish my skill, I started to feel a lot like an impostor on that field. For two main reasons really: 1st, everyone in those courses was an English speaker who lived in an English speaking country; 2nd, none of them was an engineer.

See, my plan was to write a novel and publish it and become a published author and while I do that, I would find myself a day job as a writer/copywriter. And God only knows why I ever thought that this was going to be that easy.

First reality check was when I realized that where I live people do not need my skill. As you can clearly see, I write in English, and that is not my country’s 1st language. So, an English writing job that is basically for fiction readers is not something you would run into that often (in my case, ever!).

And don’t get me wrong, I do love my 1st language, but for some reason I have always felt more comfortable expressing my ideas and thoughts in English. I enjoyed English literature in school and the more I read the more I was encouraged to write.

Perhaps this ease that comes with writing is for the sole reason that it is not my mother tongue. If I were just as fluent in German, that would have been the language I write in. (And there was a brief moment in time when I actually did.)

Anyway, so when I realized that the fact that I love to write stories in the English language was the kind of thing you say in an interview to sound more educated, creative, and thoughtful, but not the kind of thing that would actually land you an interview, I started exploring my options.

Sadly, I couldn’t find any job in my field of study (telecom engineering) that didn’t require a prior experience of some sort. That was when the customer service genie opened its wide arms to my unemployed potato head and I got my first job as a customer care agent for a telecom company (the irony!). 

I spent 10 months in that customer care job, during which I joined the 2015’s NaNoWriMo for the first time and wrote the first draft of my very first novel, as I was still hanging on to that dream of becoming a writer one day. (And, in case you were wondering, the draft is still untouched to this day.)

I then left that job for an opportunity to work as a scientific copy editor at an English research publishing company/online magazine. I figured that was a step closer to my initial dream and as close as it gets to my dream job. And let’s just say that feeling was amazing while it lasted! But 6 months into that job, I realized it was too boring for my brain cells. 

Fast-forward to April 2018, I would land another customer service job at yet another telecom company (when fate is clearly sticking out its tongue at you).

September 2018 was when I decided that this was no longer what I want to do with my life. I no longer want to be a customer care agent, this was supposed to be a temporary thing until I actually find a job I want.

But now it felt I was just wasting my days, approaching my 26th year alive with absolutely zero accomplishments, zero goals, zero boxes ticked off my bucket list (which I started in high school, but in my defense, there are some unachievable stuff in there, like owning a home on an island before 30. What was I thinking?)

So, it was kind of an existential crisis in a way. I left my 30-day notice that month and, despite what everyone said, I didn’t care if I didn’t have a clear plan yet. All I knew was that this was not what I wanted to do with my life, and that was enough reason for me to quit it.

The few days following my quitting the job, while still unclear about my next step, I received 3 other customer service job offers, 2 of which were really easy to reject, the 3rd was a harder one, but rejected nonetheless. (I got to that point where if it won’t fulfill me, I don’t want it.)

However, something else happened too, I ran into this video Getting A Job Is For Losers by Rich Dad Channel on YouTube.

And that was when it hit me; I realized that what I really needed was to not need a job. I was more drawn to the idea that I do not necessarily need to work for someone else to make money, the idea of being financially independent, of having an income whether or not I worked for 45/50 hours every week.

That’s when I started to research on this more and figure out other ways to have a source of income. And throughout the posts of this blog I will be experimenting with all the ways I find and share all the tips and methods I run into that would help me (and hopefully whoever reads this) achieve that goal. *fingers crossed*

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Author: Ray

Because a goal is a dream with a deadline, I started my one-year journey to achieving financial freedom. On those rare hours of day when I'm not working on that goal, I'm writing fiction, watching a film, or feeding birds.

9 thoughts on “Who Is Ray?”

  1. This was an interesting read Ray! Here’s wishing you all the luck in the world of blogging. Am 200% sure of your success because your writing style and portrayal of words are excellent as they have the much needed clarity a reader usually seeks.

  2. First and foremost, I do congratulate you Ray for your hard work and perseverance to deliver your thoughts in such a wonderful way, you have succeeded ??

    The idea of being financially independent is really impressive and can be a turning point to anyone’s life, with no doubt

    Eventually, I firmly believe that, God sends his help in many forms, even in people to help and support, so keep moving forward and be sure that you will achieve your goals as well as you will help others to achieve theirs, THANK YOU

    1. Why thank you! It’s such a great encouragement to read and know someone else believes that this idea is not entirely lame and can actually be of help to other people too. Thank you for your words!

  3. Haha, it’s so nice to find you here. I have been struggling and doing the same! I don’t call it financial freedom but I certainly want to write more, help others, and be more free work-wise. Looking forward to read your adventures!

    1. Oh I love that I can find like-minded people who share similar goals to mine. Thank you for passing by! Looking forward to reading yours too!?

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