Reflections on Side Hustles: Triumphs and Trials in Pursuit of Financial Freedom

Everyone wants to excel in life, become wealthy, and be able to afford all they need. To achieve all this, the need to indulge in side hustles shows up because it usually helps us have multiple streams of income and also grants us access to financial gain and self-improvement. Although there could be days we experience loss, we should be sure to take away lessons from all our experience in this for future transactions, and today I'll be sharing my story with you.

It's no longer a secret that our world is plagued with high costs of living in almost every nation in it, and to survive this daunting realization, one thing we must do is scout for side hustles we can dive into to have multiple streams of income, and when all of those are put together, it'll amount to something in helping us afford all that's needed to make life more friendly for us and our loved ones.

Through my life, I've always been someone who despises poverty, and that's probably because I grew up in a family that's well below average financially, but then we managed to keep sailing through each need with our survival based on what each new day presented. With all of those, I made up my mind that I don't want to be poor, and neither would I want my children to experience 10% of what I did when it came to struggling due to poverty.

And as I grow up and start working, in a bid to amount to something, I jump into many side hustles to increase my income, and today I'll be sharing two of my side hustle experiences. To start with, let me talk about a side hustle I dived into a few months before the pandemic.

I was just thinking within me that I needed another stream of income, and one day, while stuffing through WhatsApp, I saw someone posting ads promising to teach us a side hustle on mini importation from China into Nigeria.

I paid for the class, and I was taught all there's to know about how the transaction would go. I went into my savings and invested 300 thousand naira in purchasing these goods, shipping them into Nigeria, and trying to sell them to those around me. I guess, being an introvert or someone who has little or no knowledge about marketing, I wasn't having enough sales, which led to me panicking and later selling the goods to people on credit as they promised to later.

To cut a long story short, at the end of the day, I couldn't get money from most of those who brought the items on credit, and to make matters worse, the pandemic came into the picture, making many people struggle, so when we came out of it and I did a summary of what I got from the side hustle, I realized I couldn't only account for 102 thousand naira as what I earn from the goods sold; with only 20 thousand naira of goods yet to be sold, I had a loss of 178 thousand naira.

With that realization, I felt so bad, disappointed, and unsure of what to do. Most of those still owning me are wallowing in the advent of the pandemic, and me asking for my money when I can obviously see their situation isn't a good idea, so I just gave up and vow not to do such business again, or if at all I'll, then I'll be more careful, study all ends, and never sell items on credit.

Taking about a side hustle I dive into and excel on, I'll say this is somewhat strange because although it's a hustle, most of what it requires is my time and data, and if you're wondering what it's, it's just farming for giveaways and ad competitions hosted by companies on Facebook. By doing this, most of these companies give out loads of rewards to winners.

I was fortunate to always be lucky, even though most of what I have to do for them is share and invite my friends to do the same. Although sometimes this competition is based on knowledge based on their organization or their product, I usually take out time to read about most of the companies that use their Facebook page to host such competitions so that when such questions come up, I will have a chance.

Via this side hustle, I went on to win many prizes—cash, items, just name it. All of these winnings make me excited, and I really find the prizes handy because I was an undergraduate.

Although most of them are still pretty active to date, I won't do it again. But I enjoyed those moments, and I was able to put the money I got from them to good use in my academics. Some of the items I got as a prize are either used by me, sent home to my parents, given to my friend, or sold to others, depending on what they're worth.

---

That's all about my positive and negative experience with a side hustle. I hope you enjoyed the read and learned something. Have a wonderful day ahead, and stay blessed.

---

_{Thumbnail designed on canva}

---