Failing Forward: $10,144 in 100 Days

Marat Miftakhov is a software engineer from Serbia 🇷🇸 who recently challenged himself to earn $100,000 in 100 days.

He wrote about his experience on Reddit.

Marat had no prior experience in sales or entrepreneurship, but he decided to push himself outside his comfort zone 😱

During the 100 days he tried…

• Creating a mobile app
• Creating some digital products
• Offering mentoring services for new programmers
• Making YouTube videos
• Freelancing

In total, after 100 days, Marat ended up earning $10,144… far short of his ambitious $100K goal 😔

He writes…

I failed. I’ve made 10X less than I aimed to make…

…I’m happy that I’ve made 10K and I believe if my goal was $10K I would make only $1K or so.

Also…

I learned something new about myself. I’m happy to know that I can work hard and be disciplined. It gives me confidence that I can achieve anything I want, that I won’t quit.

So it seems there might be something to that saying…

Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.

But here’s the most interesting part to me 👇

$8000 of Marat’s earnings – ie. the vast majority – came from…

a freelance project where I work as a backend developer, just like my main job. I understand it’s not very entrepreneurial because it’s just a job

Next best was the $2115 he earned from mentoring other programmers.

Which means he earned only $29 from all his other efforts combined 🤯

Through this experience, Marat realized…

at this stage it seems like [freelance programming is] the best option to make some money, because I already have the skill 

True, freelancing may not be “very entrepreneurial,” but who cares?

Money is money 💰

If freelancing is the best way to earn a living online – and it usually is, especially for people just starting out – then embrace it.

In my experience, this progression works well for most folks… 

• Start with freelancing or a remote job
• As you gain experience, increase your rate 📈 and reduce your hours 📉
• Enjoy your free time or invest it into building a higher level business