I Sold My Business. Here’s What’s Next For Me.

It was winter of 2011, a freezing cold day in Pennsylvania.

I was driving home to tell my parents I’d failed college… again.

I still remember this day. VIVIDLY. I was in tears the whole drive home. I was 19 years old, and I knew that I didn’t love the degree I was pursuing (R.N.). It wasn’t something I’d ever love or become great at.

My parents were devastated at the news, just as I thought, and my father wouldn’t talk to me the rest of the month. It was heartbreaking to know that he lost all faith in me, and I spent the rest of the day in tears.

But the next day, I got up early–at 4 a.m.–and applied myself with renewed zeal to the side hustle I’d started during my first semester of college.

My side hustle was building, unbeknownst to me, a freelance writing career. At the time, I had absolutely no idea it would be a career. It was simply an avenue I believed I could be good at, that I truly enjoyed. I wasn’t sure it would last a year.

But here I was, getting up early, applying for writing jobs, writing every assignment myself to gain experience, and slowly but surely building a brand. My first brand idea was awful: Writer4U2Hire.

I built a free website on Weebly and blogged regularly, and to my surprise, gained clients that directly inboxed me for work, repeat work, and then to ask if they could refer others to me. I ditched my first ugly brand idea, and began to build a brand I…