By:   SALVADOR A. CIUDADANO IV
          TEACHER III
          MNCHS

                    We’re now living in arguably the best time in history for an “average” person to earn a life-changing amount of money on his own — without following the traditional path of spending tens of thousands for college tuition, earning a degree, and climbing the ladder at a corporate job.

                   This is not the 1950’s anymore.

                    The internet’s introduced “new rules” for creating wealth that makes the “old school” ways of making money just that — old and outdated. You can earn money through selling goods or buying bitcoins or perhaps playing in stocks exchange will win you big. Is it truly all about the money?

          Things have changed from before. One may finish law school and end up getting a license to practice law, yet his passion is different from what he truly intends to do. There are just a lot of factors affecting a person’s idea of a career. Most of the time, we end up getting a job right enough to bring food to our family, clothes to wear, and a roof to keep us warm. Working way up to the ladder of a corporate job may seem too difficult to be carrying out. Because let’s be honest, we need a good educational background to get a raise and a total performance to get a promotion. While in-between working/the government is appallingly different– progress is slow and sometimes difficult. Even saying so or thereby assuming, there are still who honestly work their way to the top. It’s perseverance and real-to-honest hard work from sweat and blood- they made it.

If you’d be very lucky enough, you can start your own business. Online selling is the new normal since the pandemic especially after we suffered massive unemployment. You might want to start an empire. Ever notice how many siomai stands sprang like mushrooms? It’s everywhere in the Philippines. And when I say everywhere, it is literally saying, “When you go to the malls, parks or streets- they are inevitable.” You also have options like siopao or sushi. On the other hand, given that you don’t have resources as financial means to build your stalls or rent a place, you can go online. Use Facebook or Twitter or Instagram to sell your goods. Mind you! You can even sell “ukay-ukay” for crying out loud on those social media platforms. Just imagine how many prospects you can reach- possible millions of users worldwide.

So, planning to be a millionaire, or a billionaire for that matter, to live a life of luxury and extravagance requires a lot of patience and hard work. Because it is not a whirlwind romance with destiny and fate. It’s neither will it come from a genie in Aladdin’s lamp nor a strike from your fairy godmother’s wand. No. Selling drugs for the easy-peasy flow of money won’t help either. You can think a lot of ways to be comfortable with your life if you are not enriching yourself to the disadvantage of others. Or you can just live as simple as it is and do not live beyond your means.