My Freedom Project came to me gradually over several years. I want to tell you who I am and why I am doing this.
The desire to be free, when clearly verbalized, turned out to be the most crucial thing I could do for my life afterwards.
How I Started Out
In the second year of college, I moved out. It was about time to stretch my wings from an overbearing mother, and the idea of finally establishing my independence was exhilarating in such a restrictive environment that I grew up in.
My family reacted to my move in the most predictable way in hindsight. They told me, “From now on, you are on your own”.
So there I was, in an instant, going from the life where everything was given to me, to a life where I have to work for and earn everything – from food, rent, tuition, clothing, transportation, and fun. My financial life can only be described as “hand-to-mouth”. But it was the price to pay for independence. And I wanted independence more than an easy life. Much, much more.
The next 20 years went by quickly. In that span, I graduated from college, got my law degree, moved to Canada, became a Chartered Accountant, quit my job and went back to school again to study Mathematics and Statistics, found my love in coding, became a data scientist, and found interest in the financial markets (again).
They say the years in your 20s and 30s are your most formative years, and it probably is. My existence in these years was tough, and I worried about money all the time. Would I have enough money to cover my rent and food? Would I have enough room on my credit card this month? Would I have enough money to save for retirement? Of course, there was also the regular question, such as, am I really earning the right amount right now? All the subtle and sometimes not so subtle financial stress made me a serious person, often intense and always approaching life with deliberateness. My experience had taught me that I need to plan for the future, and I need to go out and make it happen.
Every now and then, when I reflected on how my life had unfolded, I would feel a profound sense of awe at the non-linear pattern of it. My life didn’t go in a straight line – it was more like a curve, full of twists and turns, and I was surprised at the trajectory when I looked at where I started and the path I have been travelling.
It can also be said that during these 20 years, my finance started to improve. But I was not satisfied with the rate of improvement I was obtaining. Not only that, it occurred to me that the overwhelming way of describing my situation was a RAT RACE.
Dissatisfaction
What I am about to tell you in this book came to me gradually over a number of years.
For the past 20 years, I have changed careers but I have always worked as what you would call a professional. But when it comes to living a fulfilled and satisfying life, however, the quality of my professional life gave me pause. I wanted more – more of everything. More money. More autonomy. More space. More control. More freedom. More flexibility. As it turned out, these desires are long-standing – I can suppress them for a long period, but not forever.
These desires eventually serve as guiding principles when the going became tough.
I have been working extremely hard for making my life as it is. But now, I want my life to work for me.
This was how it all started.
The Genesis of An Idea
In 2016, I got a few nudges from a couple of veterans at the software firm I was working with. Although I really loved my job in the quant software firm at the time, the veterans of the companies have been hinting that there might only be a limited future for me at that firm, on account of my lack of a doctorate degree in either mathematics or physics. In other words, unless I have a Ph.D. in these fields, my ambition of being a quant in the firm is far from being realistic. But considering how limited my finances were, and the fact that I was already a mature student while I was completing my second bachelor’s in Mathematics, I felt that getting involved in an advanced study was out of the question for me, even though I love the subject. Dejected, I started thinking about my career direction, yet again. At that time, Data Science was still a fluid job market then, and I saw that as an opportunity. For a math graduate, a job in the field of using applied mathematics, statistics, and computer science sounds too good to be passed up. When I saw the job posting with a local IBM subsidiary, I jumped at it. As luck would have it, I also had my best interview experience with the leadership team, and in late 2016, I started working as a junior data scientist.
But in a short year, my enthusiasm waned in that company. I wanted to work on something more interesting, and more importantly, I wanted more variety in my work, and I also want more flexibility in my hours.
I started looking through the job postings again. But this time, it was a lot tougher to convince me to move out of IBM – after all, I already work for a great company, and my pay was already very high. I didn’t really believe in changing jobs for the sake of changing. Unless the new job is substantially better in ways that I already consider desirable, I couldn’t bring my enthusiasm up to even give it a try. Monthly went by, and I continued with IBM, knowing that I could not see myself on this job for the long term, but also had no idea where I was going.
Until one day, I got an idea.
I WANT TO WORK REMOTELY!
No, not just working from home when the kids are sick, or when the contractors are coming. Not just working from home when the snowstorms hit. Not just working from home every Friday. I want to work from home ALL THE TIME.
Actually, I want more than that.
I want to work ANYWHERE I WANT. I want a job where this is nobody’s business, and I can go wherever I want, and work whenever I want. I understand that I will still need to deliver the results, and I will probably still be stressed. But I want to work remotely, 100% of the time.
That desire, when clearly verbalized, turned out to be the most crucial thing I could do for my life afterwards.