All right. So, it's been a while since

last time I posted. Now, it's 2026 and I

think the last time I posted anything

here on my channel has been the rank and

rent update 3, which is like more than a

year ago. So, yeah, I haven't posted

more than a year and actually a lot of

things have happened. So in uh in this

video what I'm going to do is I'm

basically just going to run you through

what I've been doing since then and then

my basically my strategy for 2026

because I think a lot of people in you

know in this space building their own

businesses and even just working a

regular job well they are making their

plans and strategies for for the new

year maybe they already did. Um, I have

been thinking a lot on my travels uh the

past uh 14 30 days and a lot of the

stuff has now kind of solidified which

uh makes me able to make a video like

this just trying to walk also walk you

through and myself through what what I'm

going to do the for for this new year

and and and my uh basically my goals.

So since basically if we go a lot of

time back I started YouTube uh around

the time where I I quit my job actually.

So I quit my job initially uh in 2023

which was I think it was around March

2023 where I made the decision that now

I'm going to try to go full-time on my

own business. And at that time I did not

make YouTube videos yet but at the time

my basically my idea idea was to try to

build either a SAS do an agency or

something like that. So I went through

many things during that period of time

and it's something I can do a separate

video about uh it's not for this video

and um I did that for 16 months and I

did manage to make money but barely

enough to survive. I would say that I

would I would probably actually I was

quite close to making enough money every

month to uh sustain myself and pay all

the bills. But at the time I think it

was in the middle of of 2024

where I

eventually made the decision to go back

getting a full-time job simply because

at the time I didn't really have much to

do. I was kind of just working on

different projects, not really, you

know, doing anything with that. And I

also uh did some freelancing, but I

didn't get enough work in. So, I

probably only spent like 20 to 30 hours

actually working. The remaining hours

was kind of just I would say kind of

not really worth the time. And

then I thought at the time, well,

listen, it's just better to get a job

then, right, and make some money. and I

saw an opportunity to get a uh actually

it was not a full-time job but a

part-time job. I didn't get the job but

then the same people reached out to me

again probably a month later with a

different job and uh that was a

full-time gig and a month later I got

it. So, basically, I've had a full-time

job uh for now a year and a half at

least. And uh so, yeah, half of 2024,

all of 2025, and now I still have it.

But with that whole journey, building my

own business, I kept doing that. I kept

freelancing. I kept working on other

businesses that I have, which I will

also get into more into an upcoming

video. Um but yeah, so so so I did that

freelancing. Uh, I kept I kept

freelancing on Upwork and I also kept

working on my other business which is an

e-commerce store where I sell I sell

personal art. Um, basically something I

haven't been into but I live in Asia.

Uh, and I have, you know, contacts that

does paintings and then I have an a

website in Europe where I get clients.

So if you want to do like a personal

painting, they go through me and I

commissioned it to an an artist here in

Asia. So that's a separate business

which I will also be talking about in a

later video because I think it's going

to be interesting. So for those 16

months that I you know was working on my

own business I I I that was actually a

very interesting period of of of my life

and I think that whole period solidified

the idea that I actually I want to to do

that. Um, I want to become like my own

boss and I want to live off of myself

and my own abilities, you know, because

if you have uh if you have a job, right,

like I have now, the only reason I have

that is because the people that hire me

are better than me at commercializing my

skills, right? So, they are able to make

more money on my time that than I am

myself. And I think that's I don't know

if that makes sense, but that's for me

is just something that I cannot accept.

I want to be able to

take my own time and optimize it to such

an extent that no job at all would be

able to justify no salary would able to

justify

um it better than I can in terms of like

you know making money on my own time. I

don't know if that makes any sense, but

that's that's at least what I've been

thinking. And and also just, you know,

waking up every morning and working on

my own business doing those 16 hours

like every day was almost the same, but

every day it was it was it was the best

even though it was a very in a lot of

ways the the routine that I have working

on [snorts] my own business is almost

the same as working for a company or be

like being employed. But it was just so

so more such it was just uh so more

satisfying

simply because you are you're working on

your own dream and not somebody's else's

dream. You're not just some commodity

which you basically are if you are

employed and that's also how I view

myself now with this uh this job even

though I know it sounds bad but that's

just how it is. All right, just have to

accept that. So, so, so yeah, since I

got that job, I kept doing it. And um

2025 have been really good. So, I think

actually I I haven't done all the

finances yet. But I think actually I

made more money on my own business than

I did on my full-time job. So, I'm

actually in a point now where where I

would actually be able to quit my job

again and then just work on my own

business. It's not something I'm going

to do right away, but of course, that is

going to be the end goal.

again something I think I will talk more

about in a in a in a different video how

I'm thinking about that. Um but yeah I

think in those 16 months you know from

from early 2023 to mid 2024 I have just

been more sure and more uh sure in the

direction I want to do and I just and

that is to be self-employed basically

and with working on my own business.

It's just so much more fun. Um

it basically you know give you the

ability to work with whatever you want

when you want and where you want. You

don't have to justify your actions to

anybody else than than yourself. And I

and I think that's great, you know, like

like even with this job I have now,

there was some issues, you know, where I

like we made certain arrangements, agre

agreements before I got the job and then

when time came,

they kind of went back on that like I

had there was some for example I I asked

them basically I want to be able to go

uh take work and travel with it

basically and they accepted that and

then they took it back. So stuff like

that is just kind of annoying and and

and that's it's hard to do anything

about it unless

you are not dependent on that job now.

Like if they fire me tomorrow, I really

don't I basically don't give a

because, you know, I make enough money

on my own business. So it's like I can

make decisions and I can also use it as

leverage when I, you know, talk with

them with salary negotiations or

benefits and stuff like that. So, for

example, initially when I got the job,

well, I had to clock in from like uh 5,

no, sorry, I had to clock in from 8:00

a.m. to 5:00 p.m. every single day. And

after 3 months, I got uh work from home.

So, I still had to clock in at the same

time every day, but 2 days a week, I can

work from home. All right. And then the

next thing I basically made an

arrangement about was to have flex time.

So instead of have to check in or clock

in from, you know, 8 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.,

I got flex time. So I could basically

just control my time, manage my time

however I wanted. Like if I wanted to

clock in at 6:00 a.m., I could do that

and stuff like that. If I want to work

in the evenings on a Saturday and then,

you know, take more time off on a

Friday, well, I could do that. So that's

cool. And then after that, I got um I

got basically uh now fully remote. So I

can basic now I can work from wherever I

want when I want. So that's I think that

is as close as you can get to your own

business than than possible. And that's

just something I could only have after

have being at the job for a while. So

that makes it more convenient and easier

to keep it compared to like like for

example if if I didn't have those

benefits and if I had to clock in at you

know at the office at this time and

clock out at that time I think I would

probably quit the job today. But since I

have these benefits, all right, I'll

keep it. And then I can since I have

basically now two full-time incomes,

it's a lot of money I can put on to the

side, keep it, invest it, and then use

that in the future, like if I want to.

Yeah. So, I mean, for those 16 months, I

uh I I did make money, but but not not

enough. And that was basically the why

I'm, you know, I decided to go back to

getting a job. I didn't make enough

money and I did not have enough things

to do to spend all my time. I kind of

just chilled a little bit. I didn't

really grind, you know, and that that's

what I wanted to do. Um, it's also of

course doing something like that. Uh,

you know, quitting your job and doing

being self-employed for 16 months has

also been a big opportunity cost because

if I had a job, I could save more money.

I could invest it and so I lost a a lot

of money during that time because I also

took from my from my savings and

investments but at the end of the day I

I'm I'm pretty happy about the decision

because it made me more sure in the

direction I want to go in but also

it it it it has made my company stronger

now I can actually make a lot more money

while also having a full-time job. I'm

very happy about the decision and going

forward in 2026 and the next years I

think it's going to be really exciting.

So now I'm going to keep I'll start

doing YouTube videos again. I'll do some

build in public. I'm not sure. I I'll be

focusing on

um basic actually I'm not sure yet

exactly what I'm going to do but I will

be building a public and I'm going to

share progress in my own businesses how

going like basically like weekly updates

and if I work on some interesting things

related to making more money online at

something I'll be sharing. So for

example, I have an e-commerce store

where I sell arts and I will be um

making I will put more focus into that

business in this year and then also

sharing the progress basically on that.

And I think I'll also be sharing some

numbers like how much I make. So like

I'm I'm not uh you know one of the guys

that makes hundreds of thousands of

dollars every month. Not at all. Like if

I can make 10k for for one month it has

been a really good month for me. And um

and I think a lot of people they like

when I you know quit my job initially

like I didn't make I probably made like

you know $1,000 a month. Some months

I'll make two or three thousand.

Um so I I you know I've jumped a lot

since then and and I hope that will

continue and that's something I will

keep sharing also on this uh on this

channel here. And um and yeah then I

also spend a lot of time freelancing and

I think for the freelancing doing that I

think that's something I can use to

pivot to an agency. So start with

freelancing get a lot of clients get a

lot of contacts and then when things

make sense I will use that to

make an agency but agency is kind of far

away. it makes sense to just do

freelancing as much as possible and

that's also something I've been very

successful with this year. That's

something I will also be sharing some

insights about. For example, I have been

doing content not on YouTube but I've

been doing it on LinkedIn actually uh

quite a lot relatively like especially

in the beginning of 2025 I did I did

basically only content on LinkedIn and

not on YouTube and then I kind of did

some other things and that actually paid

off because I did get client through

that. So I feel like there's a big

opportunity especially as a freelancer

to um connect with people on LinkedIn

sharing content like high quality

content and then have that as sort of a

basically some kind of a lead magnet

where you can get some inbound leads. So

that is something I'll be focusing on uh

a lot in 2026 as well.

So yeah, uh that's basically an update.

Um in in terms of like the rank and

rents that I've been doing and other

stuff, it's something I haven't been

doing uh since and I still have the

website and I think I'll do a separate

update on the rank and rents because

that's some of the videos that got a lot

of views on I mean [snorts] relatively

compared to some other view. Um so so I

think so I think there's an interest in

people of of knowing like how how that

goes. I think generally just people want

to make money online. So I think going

forward also and that's also kind of

been the purpose of the channel is you

know just showing how I do it and not

that I'm not not saying that I am

successful with it because I'm I'm not

yet but hopefully we can kind of share

the journey and and maybe inspire other

people to start because it is it is a

grind and it just takes a long time um

to to to get any kind of success in life

right so so it's not something that

comes right away and I think a lot of

the content that we see on on on YouTube

and you know with all the gurus they

show you like do this follow this

blueprint that you probably have to pay

for and then you'll get success within 3

months and make 10K.

I know it's possible, but for for most

people it's not like like I've been

grinding on this for a long time and I'm

not that I'm a special person or

anything like that, but it took me a

while to even reach like a couple of

thousands. I know people that done it

very very fast following some kind of a

blueprint, but if if it was so easy and

and then everybody would be doing it

right. So I think it it's for for most

people if they want to do this and have

success with this like make money online

it's about having a you know a path and

a strategy and then following it and

stick with it. Um and I think the same

goes with like doing content like this

you know I I started doing it and then I

kind of went off of it and then I you

know I didn't do it for at all for a

long time. is like also like if I want

to have success with YouTube, I just

have to stick with it, right? And the

same goes for like online business or

doing content on LinkedIn or whatever,

whatever we do, we just have to stick

with it. Um, but I think that's that's

that's important and I think that will

just

return uh so much more happiness

compared to having a a normal 9 to 5

job. Uh I I think that even for most

most people that would be be the

solution. But it is difficult and I

think if it was not like I said you know

everybody would doing be would be doing

it. Um yeah so uh that's all for this

video and uh yeah subscribe uh because I

will be posting I think one time per

week now is what I will be um trying to

do. I will also be posting on LinkedIn.

Um I will uh haven't shared that but I

might do that later. And uh I think I

will also be doing some Instagram and

Facebook, but but uh I might might be

talking about that later. But for now uh

subscribe to this channel. I will keep

you updated on what I work on later. All

right, have a good one. See you.