When I was a teenager, my parents bought me a book from the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series, which quickly became my spiritual hideout whenever I was feeling low.
In a previous post, I wrote about Preply, an online learning platform that matches students with teachers worldwide from a product manager’s perspective. In this post, I would like to get personal and tell a story of the people I met on the platform.
As a student on Preply, I came to the platform wanting to learn a new language. Little did I know that I would receive more than language lessons.
What I discovered in the process is inspirational real-life stories of ordinary people, which made up my personal edition of “Chicken Soup for the Soul”.
Story 1: Dare. Dream. Do
My first teacher on Preply, from Chongqing, China, was in her early 30s when we met. She had been a college lecturer before she decided to become a full-time freelance teacher on Preply.
Her parents were not thrilled by her decision to quit. After all, she had a pretty stable 9-to-5 job; and at that point, she was a team lead. But she wanted to be her own boss, who does not have to answer to anyone but herself. With many years of teaching experience under her belt, she figured that would give her a leg up in the freelance tutoring market.
Her assessment was quite accurate. Yet, it was not an overnight success. It took her six months to build a pool of regular students on various online platforms. Once her income from online teaching was on par with her college job, she made the switch to being a full-time freelance tutor.
I once asked her which part of being an online teacher was the most remarkable. She replied that it was the connections that she established with students from all over the world. Our lives are all so different that if it had not been for the online teaching platform, our paths would never have crossed.
In one hour of the lesson, she taught the language; and I learned it. But we also got to learn about the person on the other side of the video call: our hometowns, family, favorite dramas, and perspectives on life. We could even discuss a multitude of social issues in our weekly lessons.
I later discovered that despite teaching full-time, she still managed to run a YouTube channel providing free content for Chinese learners with her husband. Switching from a salaried employee to a freelancer was just a stepping stone.
What she ultimately wanted to do was to generate passive income through content creation. Financial freedom is what she sought after. And she is still on her way to working toward her dream.
Whenever the writing gets hard, I think of how my first Chinese teacher on Preply is probably out there, daring to do what she dares to dream; that gives me the strength to carry on.
Story 2: Don’t take a leap of faith, take a series of calculated steps
From time to time, when I am in the mood for some mental stimulation, I go back to watch Christopher Nolan’s Inception. One of my favorite lines in the movie was what Saito said to Cobb to convince him to take on the job.
Don’t you want to take a leap of faith? Or become an old man, filled with regret, waiting to die alone!
Inception (2010)
It is the idea that once you are old, you will be filled with regret if you don’t take chances when you are younger to pursue what you want. Every time I hear that line, I think of another teacher I met on Preply.
When we first started having lessons together, she was a college lecturer in Beijing. That was her full-time job. At the same time, she taught private students on Preply and other platforms outside of working hours. Her day started as early as 5 am to cater to students from different time zones. And she worked late into the night, sometimes replying to students’ messages at midnight.
One time, I dialed into our weekly Saturday morning lesson; to my surprise, I saw that the sky was all dark on her end. It was nighttime for her, which was odd. Since she was based in Beijing, we were supposed to be in the same time zone.
That was when she announced that she had moved to Canada by herself, while her family was still in China. I did not see that coming.
It turned out that she was in Canada to pursue a potential career opportunity. Her plan was to stay there for a couple of months to see what living there was like. If everything worked out fine, she would leave her job in Beijing and relocate to Canada the following year.
Because it was a temporary arrangement, she still worked Beijing hours, while keeping all her online teaching commitments. That meant pulling late nights almost every day.
“Is it worth it?”, I asked.
“My life-long dream is to travel and experience the world. This is me finally pursuing my dream after having lived most of my life in the same country I was born and raised in.”, she replied.
“Was your family supportive of your decision?”, I asked.
She laughed, “They did not think it was a good idea for a 50-year-old to quit her stable job and move to a foreign country on her own.”
My teacher was not taking a leap of faith. She was taking a series of calculated steps to get to where she wanted to be.
At 50 years old, she had accumulated enough savings for an emergency fund. Her daughter was also an independent adult. 50 years old was not too old. It was in fact the right time for her to pursue her life-long dream with relatively low risks.
Whenever the writing gets hard, I think of my teacher, who was bold and courageous; and I am reminded that it is part of the process. And I want to reply to Saito in Inception that “no, I don’t want to take a leap of faith. I am just gonna take one step at a time. I will get there, only if I keep going.”
