Hm...
I'm 34, been doing marketing for the last 8 years. It's possible to ramp up quickly and build up valuable skills — but this is a very uphill battle and even with my experience—that digital nomad fantasy of endless 1099 work and big contracts is still a bit far off for me.
Honestly, that's not my main money maker, that's just to pay bills and give me capital for my options trading business.
I leveled up way past buy/hold value investing. Did
CAN SLIM from Will O'Neil's IBD methodology—good shit, probably the most sophisticated buy/hold strategy for active common stock folks.
But yea, besides that, I've traded precious metals very successfully since my college days. That got me into options trading and now I sell volatility on: precious metals, tech, bonds, countries, hot sectors, loser sectors, etc.
I also had a very successful DJ career since 18. Went solo when I was 25-26, made 10x more money for 10% the same work, ridiculous. Was part of a big conglomerate too long. It wasn't until 2020 that I could not DJ at all. Whenever I got laid off, needed a new toy or wanted to disassociate and work through weekends—the DJ booth was always there for me. It was a bad thing in that sense, I didn't trade options nearly as well as I could of. But in 2020 and the glorious high volatility, this has been a landmark year for me. Honestly, I went super sayjin this year trading vertical credit spreads.
Hm...
Both this vocation path and investment path took a lot of time to cultivate, I'd say their both doable though. Trading... the ramp up is... purely dependent on your coachability and ability to follow a disciplined system—80% of people say they can, but can't in actuality. So yea, you gotta be honest with yourself.
Marketing..online certs are easy to get and most are free. You could build a portfolio, get get skills, certs, some small customers and then get a full-time job. But marketing is littered with crazies. It's a very gynocentric environment. Even the male figures are pretty cucked or worse, feminist allies and bullshit. One of my last bosses was this Ken-like Photoshop god with a jawline that could cut class. He banged the girls on the customer success team...and he was married. And he got fired. If you like being a normal white male in marketing, it will not work, it will be VERY uphill. I have dodged false rape allegations. My last CEO was banging my marketing director—started off as an emotional affair, but the dead bedrooms made him as desperate as a wounded gazelle. At my exit interview, I told him honestly I was surprised he was not #metoo'ed. He did not learn, hired another female director. I left in July—I'd rather risk poverty then risk unearned jail time. Earlier in my career, I have survived psycho lesbian supervisors, old corporate small hat women and worse. If you do not have the fortitude and political prowess for that, then do not swim where even sharks can drown.
(So yea—your perceived status as a male figure in the marketing world is very complicated. I am not white and can hide behind an Asian baby face fortunately. My height confuses people though at 6+.)
So yea, I also had lots of insides sales experience before marketing which motivated me to get the hell out of commission dependent jobs, it's way to hard. I got sales mojo to handle rejection for hours at a time, but I'm still human and that shit can get to you after a couple dry streaks. Programming CRM automation was WAY easier for WAY more money. And having a DJ background, I can manage events with utter confidence. I also enjoy public speaking so being a master of ceremonies is a walk in the park for me. This was VERY helpful in the beginning of my marketing career because most people run away from the stage in technology companies and even just as an MC/host for events and stuff, it got me very visible at my corporation and running AV + managing the green room, setting up microphones for speakers/VIPs... that helps a lot if you're rubbing shoulders with leadership all day and they can obviously see your valued contributions.
I've even saved 2 major conferences just because I had my DJ gear handy as a back up. Yea, I'm insane like that. I loaded 3000 watts of Yamaha DXRs + subs and 2k in microphones just in case... I'll tell you what, that gets you a measure of job security that paper can't convey. When the CEO owes your a favor.. that's nice. Having LED uplights and lasers too makes things very interesting. I tell you what, my cubicle was lit as fuck cause I had ALL the toys. =)
So yea, I would really look to figuring out your temperament and personality traits. I've made my career work for me in that way. Truth be told, nothing of what I write here is the highest and best use of my talents and interests—but it was a starting point and I'm still working at it. I was busy fighting for my life with my family in my late teens and early 20s, college was an afterthought. I was a bit of an academic prodigy as a child but my family's insanity and instability fucked me up solidly. It took me my entire 20s to leave them and build a life. So yea, it doesn't have to be perfect. Just start.
Look into the big 5 personality test. I hate a love/hate relationship with Dr. JBP, but I gotta give him credit, he leads the field on the Big 5 personality test that he and his team perfected. Yea, if you use discount code: Jocko or Rogan or JRE — you'll get a slight discount, it's like $15-20. Worth it. 100%. Then look up jobs based on that. Myers-Briggs personality test is bullshit because there are no wrong answers. Trust me, in the business world, there are absolutely bad set ups to avoid at all costs. I'm very fluid myself but I still come back to my core instincts. Like one thing Big Five measures that MTBI doesn't even contemplate is neuroticism. People react to stress and tribulation differently. You need to know. Hell, I gate it to an ex-girlfriend once. She came back with like 5% consciousness. She was the absolutely bottom rung. I was like wtf. Well, this girl later I nuked from orbit after she cheated on me and covered it up. She committed 6 figure medical fraud at work and was hiding an alcohol addiction + a heavy rotation of SSRI's. Yea, I noped away and exposed her to her family. She doubled down on the cheating even in front of her grandma. I was like fuck, there's no hope for you if you're gonna lie to your 88 year old grandma who loves me to death.
Hell, one other idea I found was I noticed a very interesting total lack of mobile public notaries in my area. Which seems improbable given the density of talent and all (SF Bay Area.) Well, I see a market niche. It costs no bucks to get started and I can get $15/per signature and also charge a fee for being a mobile notary. Hell, I can do that. =) More money for silver and gold.
If I could pick a trade, I would do locksmithing. It has a lot of overlap with IT. Think about door sensors, security, bluetooth enabled devices, etc. It's not just opening locked car doors and rekeying locks. There's a lot of technical acumen behind figuring out how things are stored under lock and key and having those assets managed digitally at scale. I fuck around with some lockpicks I got though. That is fun. =) Defeating fancy locks with the minimum of tools is very enjoyable.
I think welding is cool just cause you're fusing metal.
Plumbing is hard cause liquid shit. But the utmost respect for plumbers. Plumbers have saved more lives than doctors. When everyone was panicking for toilet paper in the spring time, I was like, freaking amateurs... I was worried about sewage options if the water mains stopped pumping.