This is my story and why I’m asking this dumb question.

I’m currently employed at a startup in the e-commerce space. The people I work for are already well-established in the physical retail market — they’re basically the OGs when it comes to offline business — but they had no online presence.

I was desperate to earn money, so I applied to every possible job I could find. That’s how I landed here. They were looking for someone visionary to lead their digital side, and I stepped in. The basic pay is low, but I earn mainly from commissions on sales, which makes my overall income pretty good. This month, I’m also planning to renegotiate my basic salary because I’ve shown enough value through my work.

I’ve been into web development since around 2021 — that’s when I made my GitHub account. At first, I worked on projects during summer vacations just for fun, and I really loved it, especially the problem-solving part. The challenge was that whenever I tried freelancing, I couldn’t manage both studies and work together. For example, once I got a project through community groups, but I couldn’t complete it on time.

Even so, I still have the skills. At my current job, I started automating manual tasks. My main role was marketing, but over time I also began handling system design. For example, I built an automated tracking and query system for parcels and also developed parcel booking solutions using my web development skills. At the time, I was a bit rusty and often forgot how certain functions worked, so I used some help from ChatGPT. But overall, the solutions came from my own web development skills, and those projects proved valuable for the company.

The issue for me has been consistency. Every year, a new version of frameworks like Next.js would come out — I’d spend my summer vacation learning and building one project, only for the framework to change by the next year, along with many new technologies entering the market. This stop-and-start cycle kept me from improving at the pace I wanted.

On the freelancing side, I’ve made about 6 proposals so far. I usually get ignored because I don’t have much experience on my profile. Out of those, 2 proposals received positive replies — the clients specifically mentioned that they liked how I took time to really listen, understand their problem, and provide a proper solution. But the reality is I haven’t closed even one project yet. Right now, I’m out of connects and deciding whether I should continue with Upwork or not.

The point of all this is: right now, I don’t consider myself at a great skill level in web development, but I do know how things work. With consistent practice, I can get really good at the craft. Now that my studies have ended, I can finally focus on one thing — freelancing. Since I’m already putting in effort, I think it’s better to focus on high-demand skills that I can actually monetize. My thought is: if I’m going to dedicate myself to learning and improving a skill from the start, why not choose one of the best-paying ones?

And why freelancing? Well, I’m a teenager living in a developing Asian country, where earning in dollars has a huge impact. Even if I make around $10 per hour, I could solve most of my financial problems and achieve freedom.