This is Annus Awan. I am 13 years old and I am from Karachi. I am a school student, My father is a retired employee of Pakistan Steel Mills. I am the youngest in my family.
How did I learn to freelance?
I was not at all a tech geek but amid Covid 19 spread and when the schools got closed, I started learning some skills on a computer. With the help of my elder brother, who is doing a bachelor’s in Computer Science, I started taking courses on Openclassrooms (an online learning platform).
Initially, I started learning Web Development on Openclassrooms. I learned the basics of Html and CSS after a while I lost my interest in programming and soon I realized that this was a very hectic and tuff field for me.
I asked my brother for help, he suggested me to learn UI/UX Designing. From my childhood, I was very interested in art and designing. After taking a couple of UI/UX courses, I built an interest in this field; way more than in Web Development.
I started learning the basics of UI/UX from Youtube and I found a great tool for UI/UX Designing which is Figma (it is a browser-based online designing tool). This made my learning easier as I found Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator more difficult than Figma.
A few of the perks of Figma is that one does not have to install Figma. I can use Figma from any browser and my designs will be stored on the cloud. This means, no one has to worry about any design loss usually not many software offer this much ease of use.
After learning the basics of this software, I started designing projects to sharpen my skills. Within a few months, I was impressed with the quality of designs I was making.
The year 2020 is when I worked on Fiverr:
I started my freelancing career last year in 2020 on Fiverr. I made my account in October. I still remember, I received my first order in the last week of November and I delivered it on 1st December 2020.
Look, it took me 2 months to get my first order. Sometimes, I laugh when I see posts on Facebook pages and groups, asking mentors about not getting orders after few weeks of creating an account in a marketplace. Getting an order is a process, be advised — the process takes time.
My First Earning:
My first earning was 8 dollars. From that point, I started getting orders. Alhamdulillah today, I have earned nearly 400$ dollars and right now working on a project worth 500$. I faced many challenges which inculcate criticism from my family for using the computer. According to them, I’m wasting my time. Other problems were load shedding and of course slow and bad Internet issues. The biggest problem that I am still facing is that I can not create a proper bank account in my name as I do not have a CNIC *I am under 18*.
Alhamdulillah, I also got featured in the book of 102 freelancers written by the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB). Here is the link to the interview on Miss Salma Noreen’s YouTube Channel
Conclusion:
The biggest traits that helped me are consistency, hard work, and motivation, and the biggest motivation for me was, having a big vision to help Muslims and my beloved country Pakistan. I hope I will be able to do more great things for my country and the Muslims around the world.
Good things take time. Sometimes longer than expected but one should not give up. Giving up hope is the last thing you’d do to stop on your journey. If you want to stop today, ask yourself twice “What if I become successful tomorrow”?. You never know, the next day SUN may also bring light to your life, may enlighten your path to success with bright sunshine. Wait for that glory, it may be all yours in the future. Do not stop!
Jazakallah.
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