I Left Everything That Worked

I went to a restaurant in Bahria Town Lahore today with a few close friends. The waiter came with the menu and he looked so sad I felt he might cry at any moment.

I put the menu aside and asked him to sit with us for five minutes. He accepted.

I asked why he was sad. He said a girl he had been with for six years had broken up with him. I asked why. He said her parents were looking for someone more financially stable.

He said, “I could do anything for her if she gave me a chance. I used to give her gifts regularly, but I think that was not enough.”

Then he said: you must have an income these days that can fulfil at least a few dreams, otherwise anyone can end up broken like me.

First I felt sad for him. Then I realised something.

I am like that girl. I am the one who left for a better opportunity and did not care about love.

I reviewed my own past in a few minutes and told my friends. I used to try many things at the same time to earn more. I posted regularly on YouTube — it was giving me maybe $100 a month. Then I started article writing, and it gave me almost double, so I left YouTube. Then Fiverr gave me almost double of article writing, so I dropped article writing.

Speaking and writing. Those were my two passions. I left both of them for better opportunities.

It doesn’t mean I failed at YouTube and article writing. I got through the difficult part. I was earning decent money from both. But once I found something better, I left.

Let me explain the whole journey.

YouTube

I started YouTube in 2016 from nowhere. No expertise, no idea what to post, no good camera, no mic, no decent phone.

Me and a friend in the hostel planned to rent a camera and mic. He knew I was creative and could speak, so he had confidence in me. I had some confidence too — I used to speak at events, take part in debate competitions, write poetry. (Maybe I’ll share some of that with you one day.)

Two natural abilities from childhood: I could speak, and I could write. I used both in the videos.

We rented a camera and mic for 1,000 rupees a night from a wedding cameraman. We recorded many videos in one night and posted all of them. Then I made a few low-quality videos on my mobile and posted those too.

One of the mobile videos went viral. Around 250,000 views.

The channel was monetised within a year and the AdSense payments started. But I decided the money wasn’t enough. I didn’t understand what that channel could have become.

So I kept looking for something more. Then the same friend introduced me to SEO content writing. This was 2018.

Content writing

He knew I could write, so he referred some clients. They paid very little at the start — 0.3 or 0.4 rupees per word.

Writing takes a lot of time. I used to write all day and half the night. I had no table and no chair. I kept the laptop on my lap on the bed, charger plugged in all the time.

Clients increased. I hired an assistant, then another, until I had six assistants and a manager. I trained all of them. This ran from 2018 to 2021.

At its best it was maybe 1 to 2 lakh rupees a month. Good money — but not something I could see lasting.

Fiverr

A friend introduced me to Etsy in 2019. I made a gig on Fiverr and got my first $5 order.

I had no idea what to do with it. I spent the whole night completing one $5 order. I hadn’t learned this anywhere — I got the order first and worked it out as I went.

During Covid I earned a lot. Most businesses had closed, so people opened Etsy shops, and that created the work.

Then I built a system. I hired people, trained them, opened Fiverr accounts for them, agreed a commission. Between 2021 and 2025 I had around 15 active Fiverr accounts, two managers handling clients, and 10 to 15 people doing the work. It was almost fully automated.

Most of my earnings came from here. I dropped content writing in 2021 — it paid far less and took far more time.

Blogging and Amazon Affiliates

Around the time I started Etsy SEO on Fiverr, I also started an AdSense website in partnership with a friend. I wrote the content, he did the off-page SEO.

Even my first blog worked. It earned around $200 a month for many months.

But $200 wasn’t something I could stay with. I wanted more.

In the same period I started an Amazon affiliate site. That one failed completely.

The Agency Website

Fiverr was automated and I had a good team, but the work fluctuated. At the start of every year the team would go quiet.

So I built an agency website. Good site, decent budget on Facebook ads.

One client. That’s all I got.

I wasn’t trained for it. I didn’t know how to bring in clients, how to retarget, how to build trust cold. On Fiverr the communication was warm — the client came to you already wanting something. Facebook ads felt completely cold to me.

I have to accept I failed at that one. The good thing was that Fiverr was still running well.

The eBook

Etsy wasn’t available in Pakistan at that time.

I’ve always had a passion for writing, so I decided to write an ebook and sell it. I wrote the whole thing, built a website, ran ads.

I got decent sales. But it came out roughly at breakeven. So I dropped that too.

Looking at all of it, there’s a difference I only see now.

Amazon affiliates and the agency website failed. I couldn’t make them work.

YouTube, content writing, blogging and the ebook did not fail. They worked. I left them because something else paid more.

There is a time in life when you only stick to what brings in more money, because you need the money. And then a time comes when you start looking for your passions again — because the need is gone, and now you miss them, and you wonder why you couldn’t stay with them.

But I don’t think I was wrong.

You can’t love, you can’t follow a passion, you can’t do anything for anyone else if you’re hungry. First you need to eat.

That waiter was telling me his story. I was hearing mine.