REINVENTING myself

You probably heard of me when you looked for advice in advantage gambling. I’m better known for betting on sports, playing poker, trading stocks or forex and in general anything related to gambling and investing. Or, should I say, Ι used to be? Recently I have shifted my focus towards more creative hobbies, like photography and have almost let go of my risk-money-to-make-money career.

Have I really thrown all that away?

How easy is it to change course in your life? How can you let go of your past and look into your future more optimistically? Why is it so frightening to reinvent yourself?

Everyone makes decisions in their life. Tough decisions. It wasn’t easy for me to decide to drop out studying Chemical Engineering. I was set to become an engineer. A respectable and quite rewarding profession.

Yet, I chose otherwise, despite I had studied it for 4 years.

Why did I do that? Plain and simple, because I didn’t like it.

The more you don’t like what you do, the easier it is to quit.

So, I decided I wasn’t to become an engineer, after all. Instead, I was going to become an advantage gambler, starting by counting cards at blackjack.

I reinvented myself.

I took an enormous risk. In fact, I already knew how to beat the casinos and had already done so, before I quit my studies. I was already making money by gambling.

Still, it was a huge risk.

And let us forget about gambling at this point. The risk I am talking about here isn’t due to the path I chose myself.

Reinventing yourself is about taking risks. You are leaving behind a cosy place. People know you for what you’ve become. Most often, it pays your bills as well. You have settled down. It’s difficult to risk it all.

But you don’t have to go overboard with the risk. Before taking the plunge, do your research. Find out if whatever you are willing to turn into, can sustain your lifestyle.

Can you live off your dream job? Do others make a living out of it? What’s your edge against the competition?

We all dream of laying down in a sandy beach, drinking cocktails and enjoying the sun. But somehow, we also need to afford that kind of living.

So, you are ready to reinvent yourself. You no more like what you’ve become of, even hate yourself for that. You know, and that’s very important… YOU KNOW what path you want to follow in the pursuit of happiness and you have confirmed that you can make a living by doing what you love.

Now comes the hard part. It’s the actual reinventing.

The real deal.

But wait. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Have a backup plan. Don’t hurry up!

While I am in the process of reinventing myself nowadays, I don’t start from scratch. I never have, whenever I reinvented myself. When I was kicked out of casinos and became a sports trader, I still hadn’t crossed the point-of-no-return in my studies. I could return to university, should things turn sour. By the time I could no longer make it pay in sports trading, I had already learnt how to play online poker profitably. In the meantime, I was getting familiar with financial terms and stock trading strategies, which came in handy when I tried to go down that path. And while that reinvention of mine didn’t work out as planned, I had another business paying my bills: running blogs and developing websites.

Always prepare before reinventing yourself. Reinventing yourself without some sort of side income is truly hard. Stress will kick in. Stress is never a friendly advisor.

Before reinventing yourself, make sure you have enough money in the bank – preferably a yearly salary – or you have at least another stream of income. No matter how small that side income is, it’s a valuable, cash inflow. And until you stand on your feet in your new career, that money will keep you sane.

Also, if you have the option, give your new hobby a try in your free time. Take some days off your work and spend them on what you love. Is it indeed what you love? Will you still love that if you are doing it full time? Just, don’t quit your job yet, before being absolutely sure of your choice.

I am reinventing myself as we speak. I no longer search for mispriced betting odds, no longer keep track of economic reports and finance, no longer need to stay awake in the night to play poker tournaments or hunt down amateurs in online poker rooms. It’s been ages since I counted cards at blackjack tables.

I’ve done all that. I want to try something else. I want to create content. I want to be creative, as I discussed in my last video. And I can combine creativity with my field of expertise. I am reinventing myself.

Again.

Some random and a couple… non-random shots in the video were taken during the past few days, mostly testing the new Sony camera.