I used to work in a dead-end factory job. I was working 12-hour shifts — varying between nights and days. I had minimal hours of sleep, full weekends, and no social life.

Although the money was good, throughout the two years I was in this job I destroyed: two relationships, my health, and my overall satisfaction and sense of fulfillment in life.

Since I worked a rolling shift pattern of four days on, four days off, we ended up getting a straight week off every month; only because the law demanded it.

Sounds lucky, right? Not when you’re constantly fighting your body to sleep by continuously adjusting sleeping patterns, which I can assure you mess with your body clock in a dangerous way.

During this week off, when most people were at work, I found I had the chance to spend my time finding something that meant something to me — as long as I was willing to put in the effort.

It was during this period of my life that I discovered Upwork — a freelancing platform you can sign up for find work, and connect with potential clients around the world. I was amazed at the selection of roles covering everything. Graphic design, web design, accounting, writing, and more. It was all here.

Writing, you say? I think that’s something I could do with my high school English ‘A’ grade.

In November 2016, I set up a profile, and by the 12th of November, I had secured my first job writing artist/band descriptions for a ticket-selling website.

You know, the little descriptions about the band or performer accompanying a picture are about 300 words long? I was so excited.

I started with 100 artists, which I completed in a couple of days. Over the next two months, I had completed over 2,000 for $900. Holy sh**, I thought to myself, this is something that could be feasible. I might even be able to leave my dead-end factory job!

So, for the next six months, I worked, hard.

I emphasize "hard."

I was working 12 hours at the cardboard box printing factory, now working on endless...