I’ve been out of it again for a week, had too much projects piling up but then again I enjoy the work. And the payout keeps me from looking for another job. I was offered a lot of jobs with salaries that I would jump at without a thought if I’m 4 years younger. But I’m older and wiser now and I guess I’ve bitten the forbidden apple of the work-at-home fame.

I started slow, I started with what I like and do best before I started learning all those technology stuff. I was an article writer, an editor and an ebook ghost writer. I was paid around $1-3 per 500 word article and $3/hour for writing an ebook. I was lucky enough to be doing the job I love and have gained my clients’ trust but I could never compete with Indians who would go as low as $1 an hour for ebook writing, I’ve even seen some going the cents way. I am proud of what I do and I know what I can do and going that low is like trampling on my own self-esteem.

So I did the next best thing I know, I learned a new language. I was never a coding type in college, we had a subject that requires us to program microchips and guess what I did not have any inkling on what to do then. Anyway, I learned HTML and when I checked the codes of sample websites – I didn’t like what I saw, I never liked the flow of tables, tr, td etc. so I researched and found out about CSS and liked what I saw. I’m not a minimalist, I like the glitzy stuff… I like to look at them, but I don’t want them on me – so the minimalistic codes of XHTML/CSS is good enough for me. Good enough to make me want to learn it and so I did.

I’m never the patient type when it comes to work, I don’t like to just sit around and wait for work to drop into my lap. I put my talent into action, I found out about oDesk and made my profile, made sure that I have high grades on the tests I’ve taken and searched for people who might want to hire me. I started low, I don’t have any portfolio to show prospects, all I had was confidence – I know what I can do and if I don’t know what clients are talking about, I just say I know it and then research, research, research. I’m pretty good with researching and I am a fast learner.

It was not an easy road to travel and if you don’t have the guts and the perseverance to go with it, you will not succeed. I’m lucky to get enough clients to trust me and luckier to have them as friends who refer me to other friends. There were times when I was just starting out when I had to look for other work, an 8-5 work, work that requires me to go to an office and report to a real live boss. And its not really suited for me… I tend to lose interest quickly with boring, repetitive jobs that don’t require me to really think – an image of a brain slowly going down the drain is stead creeps into my mind.

Working at home does have its downside though… I don’t seem to have enough time for myself, its either work, eat or sleep. I can see my kids and have them by my side but I don’t seem to have spare time to actually play with them and to really “be with them”. I discovered this when my nanny went home and it took me quite a bit of time to find a new one. They know I’m there but knowing that I’m actually with them just playing with them brings them more joy. I hardly ever sleep, I sleep a maximum of 5 hours a day, less usually. My day starts at 8AM and ends at 3 or 5AM. I get to sleep in between… And yeah, I don’t have weekends. All I have is half of Sunday if I’m really lucky.

But I would never exchange the way things are right now with a high paying job that would require me to be away from home, away from my kids, its better to see them and have them know that I’m there working but always ready to kiss any boo boos than be away and only see them when they’re asleep or God forbid, once a year or so. So a high paying job in an office or work at home in my own home office? I’d pick the latter any day.