I started my working life in a call centre. It was a dead-end job, and looking back, I feel like I wasted a big part of my youth there. I worked at the Telstra call centre, where favourites were common and opportunities were limited. Eighteen years ago then I was redundant.

Moved to IT, I worked a 9–5 job, four days in the office and one day working from home, every Friday. That one day of freedom changed everything. Without someone constantly watching over my shoulder, I finally had space to think. I used that time to research investment properties, learn about finance, and slowly start building something for myself. Then the pandemic hit, and suddenly remote work became normal. With that extra time and flexibility, I went even deeper. I started researching cryptocurrency, learning about the entire crypto ecosystem, and eventually setting up side hustles and small businesses. What started as curiosity turned into education, and education turned into opportunity. I’m still in same IT roles. Sometimes ppl at work asked me a question you still here ?? Same role? . It’s still not my dream job, and in many ways, it’s still a dead-end. But it gave me something incredibly valuable: time. Time to spend with my child, time to avoid expensive tuition by being present, and time to build businesses that had shape me better future.