Day 6: The Grass Isn’t Always Greener: How I Learned to Appreciate My Existing Skills Instead of Chasing New Opportunities

Ten years after my first attempt in 2013, I’m finally starting a business again.

"What was my biggest mistake?" I asked myself.

It was this: I undervalued my existing skills and chased new opportunities.

My first idea was freelance SEO writing. I got my first win — I earned my first $30 online writing 5 SEO articles. But it pays too low!

What about sales copywriting? That earns thousands! I managed to sell a 5-email sales sequence to a financial advisor for dentists. For $1000! But the client kept making changes and edits... So annoying!

I then repeated this cycle: Have an idea, experience reality, and move on to newer, seemingly-easier things.

This also happened with Gen Propel, which I have been doing on the side on and off since 2021.

In 2021, my co-founder and I tested a live course teaching people how to land interviews in their job hunt abroad. With no audience and little marketing, we closed 5 customers paying $250 each. It was obvious we’re on to something. But then I wanted to immediately “scale” and record an online video course. This was too overwhelming, I got distracted with my day job, and then dropped it.

In 2022, I figured coaching and courses are too much work. I invited two friends to do real estate investing. We would buy a run down apartment, renovate it, increase the market value, and rent it out! After one year of studying it, we decided looking for deals isn’t how we wanted to spend our time. This is true, but the whole real estate thing was ultimately a distraction.

In 2023, I thought the idea to serve people wanting to move abroad is still solid. But what if we write a book instead? I just read the book, “Write Useful Books”. The idea of writing a book with readers and writing the most useful book for job searching abroad would be so valuable!

Luckily, my friend Mia told me, “Chiara, the Gen Propel coaching works. Why not continue that?” That knocked sense into me… So in early 2024, I sold a $1000 3-month program coaching 3 clients to land their next job in Germany. Everyone said it was life-changing.

It took me ten years. But I’ve finally learned my lesson. I’m sticking with what works and doubling down on it.