Story of Asma Tariq exploring multiple sources of income

My name is Asma Tariq. I belong to a middle-class family and here’s my story about fall and rise, sorrows and joys, and continuous struggle.

Early Days:

Like 80% of middle-class girls, I wanted to become a doctor with high ambitions of living a truly rich life. As a medicine field aspirant, I never foresee a life beyond the medical field. I applied and appeared for a medical college entrance test.

Sadly, I was rejected. That failure hit me hard. I never imagined doing anything in the future except being a Doctor. It was a dream crushed into small pieces and so did I, literally breaking down and going into depression. If this setback was not enough, the most agonizing incident of my life happened. My father died. It made me lose any remnants of hope. Now the circumstances had changed altogether.

The true reality of life dawned upon me. The protective shelter a father gives to his children is not there anymore. The pressure of being the eldest daughter, tons of expectations, and my emotional breakdown, all were happening simultaneously. I wanted to get over my loss, take a lead and act as a responsible, dependable elder person of the family.

Road To Self-Discovery :

Started wandering through books and sometimes on the internet, I kept looking for solutions for financial freedom and independence. Over time, this desire became more and more disturbing and stimulating. A new world inside my mobile phone was waiting for me. There was no internet at home. My pocket money was spent buying Internet bundles so I can stay online.

I stopped going to cafés with friends to save money. The thirst inside was more than outside.

I listened to lots of lectures about financial independence and completed online courses on Digiskills, Coursera, Edx, etc. I still have those notes. They helped me change my thinking. I started using Facebook, Google, YouTube for finding work. I realized that I didn’t know anything about this new experience. It is not even an experience, honestly speaking — it is a new world.

Starting My Writing Career :

After exploring and trying my hands on few different skills, I found the writer inside me. I started writing regularly. In 2 years, I wrote more than 300 articles for national and international sites and newspapers about social and developmental issues. Initially, I wrote some books together with other writers. I made some money and then also tried my luck by writing my own books.

University Life :

When I took admission to the university, I made extracurricular activities part of my priorities along with my studies. This boosted my confidence in public speaking and taught me how to deal with people. I began to meet new people, starting networking, and participated in events and activities.

The idea was to come out of my comfort zone and step up to come on front and chase my dreams.

I made new friends connections, started sharing ideas with people around me. We took a lot of little initiatives in our university. We sold books, lemonade, stationary, etc. Honestly, “Networking” paved the paths for earning money.

Activities Alongside Writing :

After the Pandemic when everything was shut down, I launched Pakistan Leadership Program with university friends. We didn’t have offices, we converted our rooms into classrooms. With the help of online classes, we trained more than a thousand school and college fellows about career development and leadership.

We also launched online WhatsApp classes for Rohingya camps in Bangladesh and trained more than two hundred people about basic digital literacy.

In March, I won the bull award from the biggest international community “Startup Grind“.

In April 2021, I got recognized as an instructor by the Ministry of Ontario. I started teaching in Canadian School as an online science instructor.

Around this time period, I also opened a YouTube channel about social and personal development.

Gaining Financial Freedom:

Here are the exact ways that will give you an idea about how I started getting paid from multiple avenues.

1- Using Facebook & LinkedIn for Jobs:

I modified my social media profiles, made them professional, and presented my work on social media sites and relevant educational platforms. Realizing the importance of networking, I connected with the people related to my field. I Joined the online social media communities relevant to my work. Here, I must point out that Facebook and LinkedIn suited me the most. I also used their job sections a lot and would spend half an hour daily searching for new opportunities. I used to apply for good opportunities, sometimes got good responses for contractual work.

2- Mentors and Ideals:

I’ve learned that we do not need to copy the people but need true mentors and ideals. They help you in improving, becoming a better version of yourself. I continuously searched and still look for people who are doing great in their fields and have a good reputation. I add them and follow them like a good student who wants to learn. By following the success footprints of mentors, you achieve your goals faster.

Pro Tip about Mentors:

When you open yourself to lifelong learning. Following mentors and learning from their journey helps you a lot to learn new things. They also share a lot of opportunities if you stay by them. One good opportunity could be a life-changer.

For example, I got interacted with a lot of opportunities through these networks. One life-changing opportunity was Startup Grind.

3- Becoming Online Tutor :

Because of the pandemic, everything went online. In order to make ends meet, I started teaching online. There are many websites providing online teaching services such as preply, tutor.com.

As you’ve seen, many international schools are getting online. LinkedIn can help you to connect with the international communities and get a dream full-time or a part-time contract.

4- English Speaking Practice :

Most of us know English but have the fear of making mistakes, especially in spoken English.

To improve English and get rid of fear, like me, you can also join the online toastmaster’s clubs. Here nobody knows you and this makes you comfortable and open to learning. You can speak whatever comes to your mind and get corrected by experts for grammar mistakes. My selection of words and vocabulary has immensely increased over the years.

Make international friends, connect with them. They don’t bother the grammatical mistakes unless you are clear with your message and are able to convey your point of view. This also creates new financial opportunities in the long run as someone may hire you for your expertise.

Conclusion:

In the end, I just wanna share the best learning of my life, every story doesn’t start with smiles, but after that, in every story, God gives you the choice to hold on to it and ask you to take it where you want to.

Discover yourself, be consistent, move on, and just do not give up. Stay in the game until the last second of life, no matter how many disappointments you get. Most importantly, with the passage of time, one must upgrade themselves and grow in life. One must improve every single day. This to me is the only way to open up for new and better opportunities.