viodemus:



Am glad you know that. I wish you success.

I still say, don't under estimate the adjustment period. You go still know say, next chapter no be always the end of the book.

I don't plan on following your new post, since you finished the naija part. until maybe sometime in the future after you have adjusted and gained some life and skills experience, that could be some years later.


I am not under-estimating your potential. But I think you are under estimating the challenges you might encounter. Like I said, maybe you have previous work skills that can pay you handsomely and assist you settle in immediately, qnd/or you have your accomodation situation settled for the long haul. Then you have the early basics of your immigration paperwork straightening, driving license or identification. and even the issue of friends. If you haven't factored most of these, then you are just been aloof on reality. Get busy with that, no time to do reporter when you are about to climb a steep mountain.

The challenges are not insurmountable, but it can be very challenging and could end in regrets and tears.

Person wey just graduate from primary school, cun go secondary school, will be aloof to think say secondary school na easy period before you reach ss3.


Good luck. I mean that in good faith.

I can sense your bitterness and how you wish things will continue to be hard. Once again, my pattern of thinking is not the way you assume it is and I will advise you to keep your negativity far from here. I am not interested in engaging you further. Please don't quote me again.

viodemus:


Real experience bro. You know wetin you dey talk. Experience wey nearly blindside you. lol. That kyn gbege dey make spit dry from mouth. Pillar to post movement for a couple of hours. If na igbo people, dem go say na ishi/isi mgbaka (head scatter). You no go understand why the thing dey escalate. Na so.


He neva experience transportation, housing, feeding, job daily operation, job skills,trainings, and certifications to earn, etc. Not to talk about the underground world, easy to setup, easy to be distracted, easy to be misguided. I wish am good luck in his next chapter. Because sometimes, mouth no fit talk wetin eyes see.

My problem with people that claim to know it all is that they assume the world is linear and everyone experience is the same. Look, I was never given a chance in this life. I have been tested so many times and there has always been a way out as you can see from my write up. Don't assume I am naive and think life is a bed of roses. I hope you sit back and read this thoughtfully before you reply. Peace.

writeprof:


I said it. Faculty of Arts? Possibly English, Linguistics or CLA .

I'm following you.

No ooo. It was faculty of the social sciences.

Dshocker:


No, i am in Nigeria.

My younger brother drivers a semi truck over there.

Though you have to start from somewhere, before driving for a someone/company, then buying your own truck, driving inter state.

Alright, let's connect then. I sent you a pm

Lamanii22:
awwwwn this your life story is Oscar worthy… I’m tearful now….

Thank you, Lamanii22

Joebryan:



Big congratulations, man. I'm really happy for you and thanks for sharing your story. It's so inspiring.

What I learned from your story is that, anybody can achieve anything if they put their mind to it and work towards it.

That is a great lesson.

And I hope some people who believes that they cannot make a fortune online, would read and learn from this.

After taking and failing on several salary jobs, your biggest victory came through freelancing.

A lot of talented Nigerians are struggling with salary jobs, some are getting underpaid and would even go broke before end of the month.

I have also experienced it. Ever since I left school, I have worked in just 3 different places but my monthly salaries from these 3 places combine together is not up to what I now make in a week with just my Sample phone and HP laptop.

There are several legitimate and profitable business one can do online and make money from. You don't have swindle people, invest 10k to get 50k or bring 2 people to bring 2 people before you make money online.

All those sh*t are the traps that scammers set for lazy people who don't want to invest in themselves to learn and master a skill that they can offer as services to people and make money.

Money is byproduct of value. If you offer people something of value, a solution to their problem, they will give you their money.

The reason some people struggle with salary jobs is because they don't want to learn any other thing than what they learned from school. They are so obsessed about their degrees.

The world has moved beyond degrees to skills and it moving towards AIs. If you must survive in this country, you must acquaint yourself with high income digital or tech skills.

Then use that skill to build a brand, sell products online or offer services to people who needs it and can afford it... you will be surprised how sapa will be flying away from you gradually..lol

Once again, thanks for sharing your story man. I appreciate and I pray for God's favour and protection to abide with you in the US 🇺🇸.

I also pray that God who helped you will also help everyone who is willing to pursue his or dreams including myself. It is well with all of us.

Stay safe, brother..

Thanks for the good wishes bro.

Whoknow:

Congratulations brother I am well encouraged from your story, I want to inform you that I jot down all the points you made from your story. I understand that there remained hope for those who refused to give up, also I learnt that you did not settle for less, you knew what you wanted and you went for it and there you are. More grace Brother.

I'm glad you're encouraged. Please keep the hope alive.

omoluabiguy:


First I want to congratulate you for escaping the stage 1 struggle which is “Escaping Nigeria”

Secondly I want to welcome you to Stage 2 struggle which is “Newbie in Yankee” plus you are on student visa.

My guy you go still suffer and face a lot of humiliation ooo. A lot of realities await you but I believe you have the hustling spirit in you. If you can survive Naija, you’ll figure yourself out here too. Proud of you son! Keep the zeal afloat.

Thanks for the well wishes. But I will not suffer again sir. Not even Nigeria could stop me. There will always be a way. If you're in the US, let's connect.

oscarnoble:
What's the name of the school you allied for and how much did everything cost you ?

I applied to so many schools. There's a US travel thread here on nairaland. Please check it. I also wrote an estimate of how much I spent in one of my posts.

abidex0z:


Congratulations 👏🎉.....Your story really motivates me to keep on pushing on, because my cousin committed suicide in 2018 due to things not working out for him despite been denied us visa twice....

I'm sorry to hear about the death of your cousin. God will forgive his sins and grant you the strength to push on too.

Adflex1:
Your Story is Very motivational, thank You for sharing. You really took the bull by the Horn.

The day I will drop mine here. The invisible pillers of Nairaland will shake, people will cry and they will also clap and smile for my success Story, For now let me keep pushing towards Victory.


Once again congratulations (247Hustler)

Thank you 🙂

Mikael0407:


I am also at this phase right now. I pray that God that did it for you will do it for me also. Amen.

Amen. God will do it 🙏

GreatKingg:
Oga, make una try dey calm down small small nah... shooo....

How can you just start throwing figures around like that?... What truck drivers make $30-50k a month... abeg calm down small..... don't mislead the guy at all....

Yes, truck drivers make money, but not that much.... not even half of what you quoted.

I will advise you go for number 1 on the list, which is IT....

Track some naija guys around, there are always different IT classes you can enroll in.... It won't cost you more than $3k-5k, and can take between 6 weeks to 12 weeks.... After the training, package your resume.... post on Indeed and Dice, and also package your Linkedln profile... that's all you need...

Meanwhile, find other jobs to do while taking the IT classes... cos you go need bar to take dey pay your bills and even pay for the class.... trust me, in about 6-8 months, you would be happy you did...

As for the others on the list (Medical Doctor and Nursing), those ones go still take you at least 4 years (Nursing), and at least 8-9 years for the Medical Doctor.... so the IT is your best choice for now...

Even the truck driving will still take you a while... cos you have to go through the driving school... and then you have to shadow someone, before you become a full driver..... If you decide to travel inter-state, there is money in it... but not even up to half of what was quoted here......

So use your sense.

I sent you a PM.

Incredibleme:


Hey bro I'm verry curious, How old are you now and what course did you study in University while in Nigeria?

I answered these already. Please check page 8-9.

queengift:
This story is so inspiring, please, always give us update, about your progress in the USA.

Indeed Determination is a gain of Success.

All the the best dear.

Thank you, queengift. I am thinking of creating another thread for updates on my journey.

Tozocalamity:
OP. i wish u can throw more lite oh how you managed to remain focus and not get distraacted until it ended in praise.

My background motivated me. As much as I fancy fast life, I give up my comfort from time to time so I can move ahead. I am also not afraid of starting over. You can read that throughout the story. I hope that helps.

OctavianAC:
You must be Hercules, Achilles, the great Octavian or Alexander

Yes, and I am a hustler, too

BossGerald:


Bro, I have too many questions, but I'll make it sure...I'd also appreciate your response.
1. What course did you study in school?
2. Your upwork freelance job, what exactly is the job description?
3.the upwork job was a remote one, are you a programmer??

1. I don't want to mention my course of study here because I want to remain anonymous. But it was one of the social science courses.

2. I worked as a recruiter

3. Refer to 2

Dshocker:


Have you gotten a job yet

If you want to make money in the United States;

1.......IT
2....... Truck driving
3....... Medical doctor
4....... Nursing

If you are serious, you can be making $30,000-$50,000 a month driving truck.

Per annum you make $360,000-$600,000

Thanks bro. Are you in the US? I just sent you a pm on nairaland. Let's connect if you're also here.

Ikennaford:

From your dates of high school and tertiary, your age Wil be 31 or 32 now right, don't lie to me,,, I'm in L. A

You are right. I just told someone my age in one of the replies.

That's very good. Send me pm on nairaland and let's connect.

CallmeTrinity:


The story is made up fiction

That's how it should sound because I made up my mind that I'll rather die than live on my knees forever. Please change your mentality bro. I am 32 and I have been fighting to change my situation for 20 years and that is enough time to become a boss if you pick up a new skill.

The road to America

By the end of March 2022, I have received responses for all my school applications. I have four total offers with one being funded. I was very happy but I decided to keep calm as I have read several cases of people being denied visas at the embassy.

I proceeded to arrange for the payment of my SEVIS and visa fees. I had a little delay with the payment of my SEVIS fee, so I could not pay on time. For this reason, I missed the early dates that were released for the interview. When the money was finally paid, I started looking for interview dates in Abuja. This process was arguably one of the hardest as dates were always not available. After a series of sleepless nights and sleeping on my computer keyboard, I managed to get a date that was a few days to resumption. I picked this date and began my preparation for the visa interview.

When it was two days before my interview, I left Ogun State for Abuja by road. Prior to this time, I have read news of kidnappings on the road. Although the news greatly disturbed me and my loved ones, the flight cost was exorbitant and going for that option would create a big hole in my finances considering my current and future expenses.

I got to Abuja at night and lodged at a guesthouse for two nights. On the day of the interview, I woke up very early and went to the US Embassy at Diplomatic Drive. When I got there, I met other people who were the for the same purpose and I went straight to the front. About an hour later, we lined up and were told to go in after the checks.

Throughout the process, I was so nervous because the stakes were so high. Since I was the first person in the queue, I was also the first person to be interviewed by the visa officer. My interview lasted for less than three minutes and I was approved. I quickly took my files and left the embassy for the guesthouse. Then I called my family and friends to inform them about the good news. It seemed surreal! My visa has been approved and I will be going to America!

A few weeks later, I booked my flight and the travel was scheduled for December. After spending time with my family and loved ones, I departed Nigeria for the United States in December 2022.


Yes, dreams do come true! I hope someone will try again one more time before giving up on life.

Going solo: using freelancing to finance the dream

At the point of quitting my HR job in Lagos, I decided to create an account on Upwork. The site was easy to create an account but I found it difficult to decide what to include and not include so I could make my profile attractive to clients. Nonetheless, I read a couple of things online and used the information to set up my account, and then left the account as there was no time to apply for jobs.

However, a few weeks after I resigned from my job, I got invited for a permanent job that would pay about eight hundred thousand naira (#800,000) per month. It was a US-based company and the client was willing to hire many people for the same role. Since I have never submitted any proposal in the past, I struggled on what to include and not include in the proposal. Due to my inexperience, I couldn’t write a good proposal and answered the screening questions poorly. This made me the only one that did not get the job out the four of us that were invited to apply. Although I didn’t get the job, I was happy I was considered. Then I continued to apply on both LinkedIn and Upwork. I got two other ones around October and November but didn’t earn anything from them.

In December 2021, I was back in Ogun State and penniless again, but this time like the proverbial prodigal son, broke and penniless. My aunt cried when she saw me because she thought I needed stability and I was not going to achieve that with my pattern of life that was filled with costly adventures. She didn’t understand why I couldn’t just continue with my job on the Island since the pay was not totally bad for someone with that year of experience. But for me, it was just a transitional phase towards something bigger.

From January 2022, I became more aggressive with my application, and by the middle of February, I landed a gig with a company in the US. This job took about two months and I earned about one million naira (#1,000,000) for the first time by the end of the project. I later got another long-term project with a company in Ireland. I got other big projects that I declined because they would run throughout the whole year and I was expecting to leave the country before then. Overall and for the first time ever, I made about three million naira (#3,000,000) from freelancing within seven months!



Edited: I noticed many readers are curious about my course of study and my freelance niche. Here is the answer below.

I studied one of the social science courses, and my Upwork gig was in the Human Resources niche.

I understand why people are so focused on those two but it is important to state that they are not so important. The reason is because: a) one can freelance with any skill as long as they are good at it; b) your undergraduate discipline does not really matter when applying for study abroad.

Risk, risk, and more risk

After two months, I resigned from my new job in June 2020 because I spent all my salary on feeding and transportation without anything left, and returned to my friend’s place in Ibadan. Then I continued my online search for things I could do. This time, I discovered I could do online surveys to earn money to keep afloat. The only problem was that the money was not consistent and our accounts (which were paid for) usually got suspended with money our money it. However, I did make a decent amount of money to the tune of about five hundred thousand (#500,000) through this means and the bulk of it was spent on feeding, data, rent and a few other things. So I had little left.

With the money in my possession, I thought about starting my US but decided to shelve the idea because the money would not be enough and I would have no money left. But as luck would have it, in late 2020, I got another HR job on the Island with a pay of about two hundred thousand naira (#200,000). I took the job and left for Lagos again. The job came with a lot of mandatory expenses which usually left me with little after the expenses. From the little I set aside, I started using what would have been my savings, including the money I borrowed from friends, to finance applications to schools in the US. After about nine months, I resigned from this job again in September 2021 and left Lagos for Ogun State. This was a big risk as I was still expecting decisions on my applications.

I am writing the remaining part of the updates. Let me know if you are still following

The search for a feasible solution

Even though I have read stories of how people make money online, I have never tried it and the whole thing seemed like rocket science to me. Okay, maybe I have made money online before but the method was not sustainable. I learned gambling from one of my friends during the final year of my undergraduate days and I lost more money than I ever earned. So, I knew by experience that making it through gambling, if anything, was a pipe dream.

Nonetheless, I began my research into the skills I could learn and start earning money within three months. Crazy right? Yes, it was! That was the timeline I had, otherwise, I would find myself on the streets beginning for alms. In the course of the research, I came across different skills and businesses I could venture into. As you may already know, a bunch of the things I found were not just practical, at least in my situation. Some of the practical ones were UI/UX design, front-end development, graphics design, digital marketing, sales, data analytics, writing, and recruiting. I decided to try front-end development, but after a few weeks, I found out I could not make money from it within the timeline, so I gave up on it.

Recruiting looked feasible and I have read so much about it in the past, and even did a short diploma course on Alison when I was still working in customer service. Hence, I decided to try it out. At the same time, I registered for a two-week course with one of the leading Human Resources practitioners in Nigeria. After the training, we were encouraged to apply for jobs in the field but I didn’t get any results within a few weeks.

Time was going and my savings was depleting fast. For this reason, I thought about gambling again. I would play small odds to double my little stake of five thousand (#5,000) or a little above that. This time, I was lucky and I recorded better winnings than my losses. The money I earned from this enabled me to hang on.

While this was going on, I got an entry-level role in human resources in Lagos. The pay was less than a hundred thousand naira (<#100,000) and the job was on the Island. I thought this was a good opportunity to practise my new skills and make money at the same time. The only problem was that I needed to slow down on my American dream. I took the job anyways.

The challenge of financing the American dream

I have all the information required for the journey from A-Z. Now what?
From the information, I estimated that the journey would cost an average of two million naira (#2,000,000) if I was going to try once and get a positive result. This was a lot of money and I have never held one-third of that in my account before as at this time. The biggest puzzle then becomes how to raise the money.

The American dream

The first time I ever conceived the idea of travelling to America was in 2018 when I was checking on my friend and senior colleague who travelled to the US at the same. In the course of our conversation, she gave me a faint idea of the process and the total cost. Although this was a great idea, I couldn’t act on it because I was fresh out of university, broke, jobless, and desperate for survival. Nonetheless, I decided to act on this idea after I lost my job in 2020.

Back in my apartment, I thought about my options and called my friend in Ibadan to discuss my plans, the chief of which was travelling out of the country even though I had no money to execute them. I also told him I would need to stay to leave Lagos and stay with him for some time. He agreed and I joined him in April 2020. During this time, I had already bought a mini laptop out of my savings and I had less than a hundred thousand (#100,000).

After a few days in my new place, my friend informed me that he had just secured a fully funded Master's scholarship to one of the major countries in Europe and I was so happy for him. This meant I have to figure out whatever I needed to do on time as he would be leaving the country soon. The news motivated me and gave me the sense of urgency I needed to execute my plans. For this reason, I started my research on the internet and joined a couple of WhatsApp groups for people travelling to the US, and within a few weeks, I gathered all the information needed to begin my US journey even though I had no money for the execution.

Thank you for following. I will post updates on the journey to America shortly

Let me know if you're following 🙂

gaby:


You don dey ginger me to write tori for NL to help our people forget some of the stress wey dey chop us all...

I go try when I don make up my mind and feel less lazy..

You can do it! Starting is always the hardest part

NYSC, failed job, and the challenge of survival

After graduation, I was posted to serve in Rivers State for my service but I redeployed to Oyo State. During this time, I had no money for the redeployment. So I borrowed money against my allowance from an organization that lends corps members money while they deduct it from their monthly allowance. I managed to live on the remaining balance of about nine thousand naira (#9,000) throughout my service year.

Before the end of service, I started applying for jobs in Lagos. A few months after passing out from service, I managed to land a job at a company in Ikeja. The salary was about one hundred and ten thousand naira (#110,000). This was supposed to be the end of my sufferings but I was not retained after my one-month training. Again, I was disappointed.

The pain was so intense that I thought about giving up on everything. At least, I have tried. During this time, I was in an apartment I believed would be a temporary place while I attend the one-month training for my new job, and it was around Akowonjo, Lagos Mainland. The apartment was a store that was converted into a room. The size was like that of a bathroom, and it had no ventilation. For this reason, I do not stay in the room during the day and I had to always leave the door open to allow the room cool off.

Although the job did not work out, I was paid a token of thirty thousand (#30,000) for the training. I was surviving on this money and was desperate of landing another. After several efforts, I landed another job in customer service but the pay was not much - the pay was about seventy thousand (#70,000) when the bonus was added. I was so broke that I didn’t have money to fund my transportation and feeding at my new workplace before being paid. Thank God for my then-girlfriend who came to my rescue by lending me the money for the first month. This job took so much of my time and I literally exist to work Monday to Saturday week in and week out.

After working for more than six months and not having a hundred thousand naira in savings, I looked back at my life trajectory and concluded that I would not go far if I continued that way. Hence, I started looking for alternatives so I could leave as soon as possible. In march 2020 when covid-19 struck, the company was closed and all employees were temporarily laid off. Even though I wanted to leave before this time, I wanted to get an alternative. With covid-19, however, I had no choice but to travel this dreaded path.