Being My Own Boss Came with a Price I Wasn’t Ready to Pay

Unpaid invoices and sleepless nights were just the beginning.

Image licensed via IStockPhoto

I was 18 when I became a freelance writer. Back then, my laptop overheated if I used it for too long. But it got the job done.

One day, a company asked me to write an article about digital marketing for $200. Not exactly life-changing money, but enough to feel like I’d made it, and it was the first step toward freedom and a life on my own terms.

So I got to work. The article wasn’t groundbreaking. Probably a little rough around the edges. But it was mine. Every sentence came from hours of typing, deleting, and retyping. After all, I second-guessed almost everything.

I felt a rush of something close to euphoria when I hit “send.” I imagined myself moving out of my parents’ house, renting a penthouse apartment, and upgrading my laptop for something new and sleek.

That $200 wasn’t just a paycheck. It felt like a sign.

I checked my email obsessively over the next few days. At first, the waiting wasn’t so bad — it even felt exciting. By week two, however, the excit…