The title sounds counter-intuitive, but if we get into details it will make much more sense. So bear with me, this is planned to be a quite lengthy post.
Intro: why I changed my main professional decision in 2020
In April 2017, I started learning web development, years later I specialized in WordPress, pushing some themes to GitHub. Those themes are for learning purposes. However, those projects enabled me to advance my skills in development.
I have also created those themes aiming to showcase the knowledge I acquired and get a job as a WordPress professional.
I tried to work as a support technician
Since I was not highly skilled as a developer I applied for WP support technician. To beef up my profile and have more chances to get the support technician job, I volunteered in the WordPress.org support forum.
I most often answered questions with no replies. For that, I did some research, read articles, and provided quick answers. This improved my troubleshooting skills and WP knowledge as well.
I updated my resume, personal site, LinkedIn profile too and I applied for remote positions. Meantime, I learned a new Google search technique that was quite handy to find the most recent job vacancies. It is the following: after:YYYY-MM-DD at the end of the search keyword.
So I typed a Google search query like the following:
WordPress support technician remote after:2020-05-10
In this search query I considered that the current date is 2020-05-17.
I did a search a week during the weekends. I don’t want to get in-depth about Google search techniques but there is another method. For that, check this post on the Search Engine Land website.
A few WordPress companies shortlisted me as a result of my applications to customer support jobs. However, I didn’t make it to the final round.
Why this is not a bad news
If I kept working for let’s say 1 year to get the support technician job the probability is very high to reach my goal with a rewarding income. But I will lose precious time working full-time and not learning new interesting skills related to development, SEO, and business.
Moreover, I won’t be able to dive deep enough into non-fiction books, podcasts, or WordPress themes and plugins development.
I was not very honest with myself. For a long time, all I wanted is to have my own business by creating a plug-in or a web app.
Here comes more clarification about the title
Why I said more freedom means more work: I am very keen on spending most of my free time working on programming and technology-related projects. I don’t play video games or watch movies. Simply put, freedom is the liberty to be more productive and invest in a better and extraordinary future.
Since my main goal is to be an expert developer and business owner I read lengthy books related to WP technologies such as Professional WordPress: Design and Development and The PHP Workshop: Learn to build interactive applications and kickstart your career as a web developer.
With no doubt, I won’t limit my learning to reading books as there are other methods to evolve into a skilled developer, such as reading and deciphering the source code of WordPress core, plugins/themes, and build my own software.
Then, I am optimizing my life and time in a way to boost my computer know-how to become a proficient programmer and business owner.
This is why I need to work hard and smart, in fact, it is double work. To build my own app and turn it into a successful business. It is fundamental to be both proficient at programming skills and also business skills, especially sales and marketing.
A widespread mistake among developers who create their own app is thinking that a superior app is only superior programming skills or more features and they forget about the business side.
Some thoughts on being creative
Moreover, to find new ideas for an original app, I read non-fiction books, listen to a variety of podcasts, and also check what other business owners and developers do on GitHub, Linkedin, blogs, etc…
I am also inspired and obsessed with subjects that stimulate my curiosity. This obsession pushes me to work long hours and be still motivated. Particularly, when I combine business with pleasure.
My goal to create a successful business is a long term plan. It is certainly a stretch goal as well. It will help me improve my professional and personal skill sets.
In fact, as written in a previous post eating healthy, exercising, napping, and evolving spiritually support my personal and professional growth, and as a matter of fact, I became much more gracious under pressure. Besides, I take better life and business decisions.
Finally, why more riches?
More exciting life and most probably superior financial success. Pushing regularly to level up my skills related to IT, business, decision making, time-management, and what I consider essential for success, is a fulfilling and enriching experience in itself.
I can remain flexible and craft my life the way that suits me. For example, only keep working as a freelance linguist with the clients I appreciate the most, develop my own WordPress plugin, and at the same time create WordPress sites for local or/and international clients.
Meantime, I keep working from home, enjoy nature by walking by the seashore, and do other activities that are productive and fun.
This flexibility is not possible if I work full-time or even part-time as a support technician.
Hopefully, I changed my plan and I already bought a new domain name and migrated to a far better hosting service named Oxahost that I highly recommend. Oxahost helped me kickstart my new online business for website creation, optimization, and SEO.
As thought beforehand, this new endeavor, even still fresh new, is already advancing my knowledge mainly the practical side of it. As the skills I am learning and implementing are now more business-oriented and aim not only to satisfy my thirst for learning but also the needs of my clients.