20K+ in One Week! Post-90s Guy Comparing 6 Years Corporate vs 2 Years Freelance — Reading This Will Make You Give Up on Quitting Your Job

Global Commerce

Work rhythm fully restored, went all-out for 2 weeks. Completely slack off on the weekend — played games all day, watched American dramas all day. But honestly, while playing games I felt guilty and anxious, so I didn't even enjoy it.

Starting from the weekend I was very anxious because I was looking forward to slowly stabilizing at 20K+ weekly performance. But felt these two weeks were just average. Luckily, barely passed again. Next two weeks need to take more actions, preparing for Q4 peak season.

1. These two weeks, almost 90% of energy went to the second site — "preparing" for over half a year, finally started working on it! Expect it to launch soon. (How soon? Not sure hahaha, among which I procrastinated doing nothing for 5 months)

2. Main site Instagram followers officially broke 10K!

3. Launched a new product, published 5 blog posts, posted some social media content.

4. Outreach for backlink collaboration from two weeks ago? Still no response.

5. What "positive feedback" comes from active social media and growing Instagram followers? I have social media engagement activities on my official site and thank-you cards — e.g., thank-you card says adding a tag to share on Instagram gets 3 pounds refund. Recently noticed people sharing slightly more, though not dramatically. One pleasant surprise: a big V shared voluntarily. Negotiating KOL collaborations went smoother, more KOLs proactively asking me for collaborations. And what "positive feedback" comes from word-of-mouth customer sharing? You tell me.

6. Q4 is coming, a peak season. Getting ready to charge. Looking back, I roughly saw improvement around November. Let's go!

Personal Brand & IP

Started some advance planning for next year's transformation. Will try livestreaming in Q4. (What? lvsao going to do livestream shopping?)

Let's Talk About Employment vs Freelance

My readers and followers should be 70% employed people with a heart to "escape corporate hell." Let me clarify in advance: a side hustle and going full-time freelance are completely different things.

A large portion of people want to do cross-border ecommerce as a side hustle. Honestly I don't want to talk about side hustle topics much. Even though I know talking about side hustle pie-in-the-sky gets good traffic, the truth is it attracts non-targeted traffic with very low monetization value for me. Because this group is most likely the type that bites off more than they can chew, thinking whatever they see in scammy posts online is great, can get passive income. Then when asked by scammers for 9998, they don't believe it, casually ask in my group:

"Can a cross-border ecommerce newbie do this as a side hustle? My requirements aren't high, just want to earn 4-5K monthly. But I don't want to stock inventory, don't have time to manage."

Either I've gotten tired of answering these questions, or the group members or I answer honestly, they don't reply or thank, just leave the group directly, thinking it's not as beautiful as imagined.

Today let's talk more about true full-time freelance vs employee.

What's Your Daily "Work State" Like? Is Personal Freelance Better?

One core difference: when we were employees, massive time and energy went into communication, coordination, management — interpersonal work content, internal, external, superiors, subordinates. And precisely this point creates the sky-earth difference between the two.

First, the Good Parts of Freelance

Freelance has zero possibility of social internal friction.

Many people, when thinking about those passive-aggressive B-colleagues and B-bosses, feel suffocated and painful every day yet have to face them. Every commute to work starts with sighs, the moment of waking up might be the most崩溃 (breaking point) of the entire day.

Though personally I'm very fortunate — all along I've met very excellent and loving leaders and colleagues. But hearing friends complain about office gossip and all kinds of weird stories, it's literally压抑 (oppressive) to the point of collapse.

But freelance, wow, every day just you alone无限solo (completely solo), you want to chat with someone but can't even find anyone. You need help with something? Sure, spend "resources" like budget money, and get equivalent deliverables, that's it.

Freelance, I'm the boss.

One copy line, one image, one tiny product adjustment — in corporate you'd need to coordinate many parties, internal approvals, external communications. When I was an employee, sometimes I'd崩溃 (break down), damn, such a simple thing, why does it have to be so complicated? I could do it myself in 1 minute, but endless coordination, endless approvals.

Of course, later I very much understood and accepted this system — isn't it also a system protecting employees? If I really did it myself and something went wrong, could I take responsibility? Could I afford to? Could I compensate?

But freelance, wow, work rhythm takes off. Previously working 12 hours a day at the company, real output might be just one image, one copy, coordinating 1 KOL. Hahaha. Try freelance — in one day you恨不得 (can't help but want to) launch 10 products, make 100 social images, contact 100 KOLs. What? Found a mistake? So what, delete and repost, you bear the consequences yourself.

The Hard Side of Freelance

Freelance requires your business abilities to be more comprehensive and grounded.

In the workplace, there's also a type of person who excels at interpersonal stuff. They might have zero actual business ability, but can complete work and receive praise through endless relaying of messages, organizing and coordinating. This type is the biggest beneficiary of the workplace and its system.

But if this type comes out to do freelance, unless they've accumulated solid resource abilities, they'll be very痛苦 (miserable). Because they'll find themselves unable to move an inch — they have no real business abilities, can't get anything done independently, every step depends on others.

This is also the most common type I've seen taking a fall. In the workplace they might be a so-called "small manager" — not strong at business, didn't accumulate resources. Suddenly one day they need to start their own business, only to discover that without the company system, they can't produce anything.

Freelance Requires Strong Self-Motivation

Some people say they don't like being controlled, but when they truly have no constraints, they completely can't adapt. They have zero sense of direction, don't know what to do. Might do some work for a short period, but give up within a week. And corporate hell's constraints are literally this type's紧箍咒 (golden hoop) — painful yet they can't leave.

90% of newcomers in my groups are like this. They complain most fiercely about corporate hell. But when it comes to going out and doing it themselves, they're the most cowardly,畏手畏脚 (overcautious), asking around, begging to be "taken along," begging for "companionship," begging for "materials," begging for "templates," begging for "divine tools," begging for "direction."

Begging and begging, refusing to execute or implement no matter what. When asked, still feeling no direction, very confused.

You love being led, love materials, love templates so much — why don't you go back to corporate hell? The boss leads you around, piles of plans and templates waiting for you to do, wiki is full of materials, study! Why aren't you studying? When working you didn't study, when bosses and colleagues were leading you for free you weren't proactive either.

What is freelance? What is "freedom"? If freedom has such clear, objectively set direction, is it still called freedom? Direction isn't given by others, certainly not planned out of thin air — it's what you explore yourself, what you create through action.

Back to cross-border ecommerce, isn't the fun of independent sites exactly this? Isn't the "violent money-making" exactly here? Big players are quietly and actively exploring and deep-diving those "unknown, information-gap-filled, free" areas, while you're still trapped in corporate hell's紧箍咒 seeking stability and certainty.

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