Hi friends!

My name's Harrison and I'm an aspiring pro blogger documenting the journey at http://profitanywhereblog.com (I'd love for you all to check it out and let me know what you think).

Not only am I attempting to chronicle the path to financial success on this blog, I also hope my blog helps others start their own profitable blog from scratch.

I talk to so many people who tell me that they go to their day job to make ends meet but their real passion is X.

I believe that in the amazing internet age we live in, almost anyone can create a successful business around their passions if they're willing to put in the time and effort.

Here's a little more info on my back story.

(And if you'd rather watch instead of read, check out my YouTube video about my background:

)

The neighborhood where I grew up is ranked the 22nd wealthiest in the US based on median household income.

This is where I spent my formative years, with four siblings and a single mom who never made more than $60,000 a year.

Sound like a paradox?

It was.

You see, my parents got divorced when I was born.

Before I came into the picture, our family was part of a wealthy elite.

After they split, my mom didn’t receive any child support or financial help whatsoever.

So we moved out of our mansion into a rent house in the same expensive neighborhood where the landlord heard our story and gave us a deal on rent out of the kindness of his heart.

My mom has lived there ever since.

Thanks to scholarships and anonymous donors, I was able to attend private schools from elementary to high school.

Once it came time to go to college, I did what many of my friends with wealthy parents did and attended the highest ranked school that accepted me, regardless of price.

That school was the University of Southern California.

Despite a significant two-thirds needs-based scholarship, I still had to take out $80,000 in loans, which ballooned to $90,000 by the time of my graduation.

I didn’t go into all this debt to obtain a degree with high earning potential like engineering or computer science.

I graduated with a degree in French and a minor in Business Administration.

You might be wondering why on earth I would go into enormous debt for a degree with low earning potential.

For starters, I was an immature kid who didn’t foresee the consequence of my actions.

I didn’t think about the ROI of my major, I just took the classes I enjoyed the most.

I didn’t realize that, in terms of earning potential, your major/specialization matters more than the university you attend.

Also, at the time I thought I might pursue an MBA.

(Some mentors I spoke with that pursued an MBA themselves recommended I do something different for my undergraduate degree since graduate schools would be looking for diversity in backgrounds.)

And for some reason, I didn’t make the connection that when my friends went to school, their parents paid for them, but when I went to school, I would be stuck with an enormous bill.

Even though this was a poor investment decision, certain aspects of my college experience paid off big time.

For instance, I met my wife and some of my best friends at college.

(Side note: my wife is kinda instafamous (and she's prettier than I am :) Check her out at http://instagram.com/jasminealley )

My college degree’s lack of practical application and clear career path made my job pursuit an interesting one.

During my senior year, I sent out 100+ custom resumes for various positions across the business and marketing spectrum.

I actually landed an interview for a position at DropBox but didn’t make it to subsequent interview rounds.

After graduating, I moved into my mom’s house back home to save money.

When I heard nothing from nearly all the companies to which I applied, I decided to ditch the conventional method of sending a resume and hoping for a response.

Instead, I found a local company I wanted to work for and sent one of their founders an email explaining how I thought I could help them.

This landed me an interview and ultimately a part-time social media manager position with Foot Cardigan, a sock subscription start-up.

At about that same time, I reconnected with a neighbor of mine looking for someone to manage the social media for his non-profit.

The position at Foot Cardigan didn’t work out.

They knew I was trying to transition into full-time employment, but they couldn’t afford to pay someone a full-time salary for such a small position (understandably so).

The good news is that I had built my neighbor a new website for his non-profit and had expanded my role beyond managing social media.

Thanks to these efforts, he was willing to take a chance on me and take me on as a full-time employee.

After about a year working for this non-profit, I received a call from an old boss of mine offering me a job at the hedge fund where I interned.

You see, before I left for college, I got a list of business contacts from my good friend’s dad.

In the summer of my freshman year, I regularly called one of these contacts and bugged him twice a week until he agreed to give me an internship for the summer.

During this internship I tried to do my work well and became good friends with other people in the office. My boss was impressed with my work and most importantly, got along well with me. In fact, he too came from humble roots and felt compelled to help me any way he could.

So when the time came for them to hire someone to help with a small real-estate fund they had started, my former boss gave me a call and offered me the position.

If you’re like most people, you probably think “big money” when you think hedge fund.

The reality is my starting salary wasn’t big money. It was $35,000.

So the burden of my debt still weighs heavily on me and has been a significant motivator for me to look for other ways to make money.

As I’ve learned more about business, entrepreneurship, and making money on the web, I’ve come across some valuable lessons – lessons I want to share with anyone interested; anyone also on their journey of learning to make money on the web.

I’ve learned some of these lessons from great books like Zero to One and the Four Hour Work Week (two of my favorite business books).

I’ve also learned a great deal by launching a few businesses of my own, most of which have failed.

For instance, in college I tried to lead a team of engineers to make an idea I had for an iPhone application – it never even made it to the app store.

Shortly after graduation, I made a website for my then girlfriend now wife where customers could place an order with her to have her paint a photograph of their choice (the website received few visitors and never made a sale).

In early 2016, I started a t-shirt line with my friend Matt and we made 1 sale before we shut it down.

Each of these failures taught me some painful yet valuable lessons.

As of 2018, I'm excited to be learning more and more about becoming a successful real estate investor at my day job.

And at night, I'm learning as much as I can about internet marketing, blogging, and being an entrepreneur.

Thanks for reading this post!

I'm excited to be a part of the Steemit community.