How To Earn From Your Skill

It Takes Discipline and Positioning

Ajulu

Jun 15, 2024

Hello friends, and welcome to Day One

If you were forwarded this email and want to receive my next article in your inbox.

Kindly subscribe using the button below.

As you opened this post,

Money was the first thing on your mind.

But let me quickly talk about something first.

One that if you imbibe, making money won’t be a problem.

Applying what you learn in this post won’t be a problem either.

I believe that all through your life.

You must have crossed certain roads and bridges that connect two locations.

A starting point and a destination.

That is exactly what Discipline is.

It is the bridge between your goals and results.

One of my favorite quotes on discipline is by James Clear.

You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems

At every point, the results that you get depend on the systems you have built around your goals.

And those systems can only be activated by discipline.

You need to be able to wake up every day and put in the work.

Nothing more, Nothing less.

As someone who has been building a career in tech over the past eight years.

There are discipline-powered systems that have kept me going.

And the beautiful thing is that these systems also helped position me to achieve something important too.

Earning from my skill.

That is what I want to help you understand with this post.

So read on.

On Weekly Calendars and Daily Schedules

I have found out that the single greatest determinant of what you achieve in a day.

Is being sure of what you are meant to do that day.

If you are reading this, you are probably a student who wants to learn a tech skill.

Or a graduate who wants to learn a tech skill.

No matter where you fall under and what you intend to achieve.

There is something that you need to have in mind.

You need to have a system that helps you dictate what exactly you would do every single day.

Are you a student who has lectures five days a week?

You can devote a time of the day to learning your tech skill ( e.g 10 pm to 12 Midnight)

If you are studying intensive courses, you can choose to devote three to four hours between Saturday and Sunday to learning.

The same applies to graduates who have a day job.

You can devote hours of specific days to learning.

Or choose to go the weekend route.

Now if you are self-employed or have a more flexible routine.

You can choose to focus certain days on certain projects.

Currently, I have two projects that I am involved in, and my work week starts on Tuesdays and ends on Sundays.

What I did was give each project its specific days.

The first project has my focus from Tuesdays to Thursdays.

I focus on the second project from Fridays to Sundays.

Since I created this schedule, I have become far more productive than when I did what I felt like any day.

You need to be very intentional about designing your day.

Positioning To Earn

I have found out that the single greatest thing that positions you to earn is sharing your journey.

I started learning UI/UX design in April 2019, and by August I had gotten a job with a global company.

It took me just five months to get there.

There are a lot of people who learn a skill for years before getting a job.

What did I do differently?

After I started learning, I signed up for a design challenge.

I was able to complete the challenge even though it was for 100 days.

Designing every day for 100 days (except weekends), helped me to become a much better designer in a short period of time.

I was also posting my design every day on Twitter and my WhatsApp Status.

If you are part of the people who are shy about posting their work because they think it is not perfect.

Then it will be very long before you get a job.

On the very first day of learning UI/UX design.

I designed a social media profile section.

It looked so ugly, but I posted it that way and asked for feedback.

I was more concerned with putting my work out than what people thought about it or me.

Some people would always make fun of your work.

Don’t allow them to rob you of the people who would appreciate your work.

Project-Based Learning Path

Earlier, I shared how I designed a social media profile section on my first day of learning design.

You mustn’t fall into the trap of watching endless tutorials.

The best type of tutorials are the ones that teach you how to build something.

If you are learning HTML/CSS, focus on tutorial videos that teach you how to code a simple app (e.g. calculator) than the ones that talk just about the concept of coding.

If you are learning how to design, write, paint e.t.c

The same rule applies.

Build as you learn.

You won’t learn anything until you build something.

Don’t worry about being original in the beginning stage.

Build a clone of whatever you are seeing in those tutorials.

As time goes on, you will learn enough to build something more original from scratch.

Like I said earlier, as you build, share the process.

Tell people what you are building and what it can be used for.

A while back, I was looking for a product designer to hire for a project.

I came on Twitter one day and saw someone who created and published a fictional case study of a project that was similar to what I wanted to build.

That was all I needed. I have found my person.

I hired her immediately for the project.

I have seen this happen over and over again on Twitter, people getting hired because of the work that they are putting out.

Make that a habit and it would give you a lot of opportunities.

But you have to balance this, don’t be all talk but limited skills.

Your skills should match whatever you are putting out.

I have seen people steal the works of other people and post it as theirs, that’s what happens when you put undue pressure on yourself with too much talk.

The fact that you need to market yourself as you learn shouldn’t make you build a fake persona.

Volunteering

This is a great way to put yourself out there.

You can volunteer offline in physical tech events, it’s a great way to network and build relationships.

In the online space, you can also volunteer for online events or contribute your skills to a worthy cause.

Non-profit organizations are some of the best places to volunteer.

They may not be able to pay you with cash, but if you do a great job it would provide you access to a log of high-value people and opportunities.

Skilled people always get asked to work for free in exchange for exposure.

My stance on this is that the people who can give you real exposure would never ask you to work for free.

If you want to work for you, you should pick the organization yourself and work with your heart.

Don’t let anyone take advantage of you.

Conclusion

Earning from your skills takes a lot of intentionality.

The actions that I shared above have helped me and most of my students.

It’s not enough to read this post.

Depending on what stage you are in your tech journey

Pick one thing from what I have shared and commit to doing it in the coming week.

In no time, you will be glad that you did.

Have you been able to earn from your skills?

You can share what helped you do that in the comments below.

Thank You.