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.

But in the world of plentiful choices, I also realized that it is equally crucial to choose a path that is right for you.

Charmed Lives

Let’s have some blue-sky thinking: wouldn’t it be nice to live a charmed life?

My definition of a charmed life:

• Never have to worry about money again
• Always can travel whenever I want
• Always can buy the materials possessions that I need
• Always have my health

On this vacation, I actually had a taste of that charmed life. I go out whenever I feel like it, I buy whatever I need (but not whatever I want), and I am also very productive on my projects.

A Plethora of Choices: Recorded Course on Algo Trading

I am a data scientist, a college instructor, and an algo trader. I do so many things all at once I do get bored with one singular task easily and having a variety of work is nourishing to me. But I also chose to live this way because my ultimate goal is to make it rich — no, not getting rich easy, and not getting rich dirty. Just getting rich in all possible measures: rich with time, rich with money, rich with relationships, and rich with generosity.

On one November day in 2021, something happened. One of my students gave me the idea of setting up a YouTube channel so that I can teach to the millions. I recognize that to be a fantastic idea right away. But no, I didn’t want to do YouTube (I am not cut out for it), but I did immediately go and furnish myself with a set of much more capable equipment in order to handle the tasks of shooting footage and editing lectures.

Both my employment contract and my contract with the university would not allow me to produce the same type of video content to my official teaching. But that was perfectly fine with me. I chose to offer a course on Algorithmic Trading. After all, I am an algo trader, and I have gone through years of experimentation in my algo development process before I figured things out for myself, and I think I can offer some insights and share my journey with those who are a little bit behind me.

And I decided to do this both on thinkific.com as well as Udemy.

The act of recording was very labour-intensive, and I must say, I dislike it quite a bit. It feels like work, and an intense one at that. As an introverted person, I had to dress up, be alert, record, stutter, record, stuffer, get really drained from talking too much, and rinse, lather, repeat. However, by the end of New Year’s eve, I did get all of them done.

The next piece of the challenge came when I had to edit. Tim, a close friend of mine, told me that editing was relaxing, because he can just brew a pot of coffee, and pulled a quiet and peaceful all-nighter. That sounds ok, but when I was actually doing it, it felt extremely tedious.

I was not having fun.

I was not enjoying the process.

To me, the entire process was something that I had to endure so that I could get to another side.

Finally, before the university classes resumed in the new year, I did get all of the editing done.

But the “process” was still not over.

By then, I threw myself into constructing my course website and landing page. Uploading the videos already took some amount of work, and fixing up the UI, adding the landing page, and sorting out all the bugs only took longer.

My course on the thinkific.com domain did go live. And it did go out at the scheduled time. But for somebody who is so big on doing something I love, I was not having any fun. Looking back, I could only say that if I had known what I know now, I would have questioned whether selling private courses online is actually congruent with my personality, and how much negative energy and friction this would have created by insisting on going this route given my introversion. It seemed that I went this route purely because this is the default medium these days, but if I am not having fun doing it, how can I possibly drum up more energy to do the marketing for myself?

And that’s the problem — lack of marketing. My python-algo.thinkfic.com site was hearing crickets — nobody ever visited the site. I wasn’t sure then, but I am now. And there is an additional issue — lack of traffic even when there was some form of built-in traffic on platforms such as Udemy.

I am feeling extremely discouraged. No traffic, no students, no revenue.

A Plethora of Choices: Writing

Contrast the pain of recording with writing. Now we are talking about a dramatically different world.

With writing, I can write whenever I feel like it — just waking up, just finishing the shower, just getting ready for bed, or just in the middle of work or class. I can, and I am able to write, whenever I feel like it, whenever there is an inspiration, or whenever the mood strikes.

And the mood strikes often.

Because writing is me. It is private, it is creative, it is intellectual, it is personal, it is relaxing, and it is beneficial when I write. And looking back on my various pieces of journal, I obviously had something to say, and in 2022, I realized that I have to give myself that voice. I had to publish my work. I believe that what I went through about the rat race is a common human experience, and I believe that I am not the only one dealing with the desire to escape the rat race, build real wealth, and get my time back. A 4-hour workweek is a goal, and that will take time, but I want to start somewhere, and I want to start now.

Here is my author page on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/jennyhung.

33,000 words later, I have arrived.

I wrote for the pleasure of writing, and I wrote to share my story. Yes, of course, I hope that my book is successful. My desire to make it in writing is as strong as my desire to be free from time-bound teaching; but in writing, I feel excited and recharged when I think about what my next book topic/article topic will be. The best thing about writing, for an introvert, is the total freedom it affords to our schedule, and the added benefits of having to read, learn, assimilate, synthesize, and integrate with our personal experiences, and our work is always the crystallization of our best thoughts, and in that way, is always the best versions of ourselves.

And I love that.

It is the most suitable form of self-expression for me, and it is 100% in alignment with who I am at the core, and it is entirely congruent with what motivates me as a person.

It is as if I have stumbled upon a piece of treasure that I have always had in my drawer.

Conclusion

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.

There are so many ways that we are able to “make it” without an employer — I have chosen my trading and my writing. Both are solitary pursuits with occasional communication. It is perfect for me — in this way, I am not required to talk all the time, but when I do talk, I have something useful for people. And I am much happier for having found this combination of “making it”.

My experience taught me that you need to figure out what are the activities that will yield you the opportunity to build wealth and get freedom. This road is not easy, or else everybody will be filthy rich. But this is all the more the reason to choose a path that is congruent to your style, so that you can stick it out in the long run to reap the benefits!