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Pursuit of Happiness and Financial Freedom: An Introduction to a Series

By Haniya Saleh —
"Because you're a fool when you start something new. And so if you're not willing to be a fool then you'll never start anything new. And if you never start anything new, then you won't develop. The willingness to be a fool is the precursor to transformation". - Jordan Peterson

Decided to put everything out on the "table" and start with this quote (this dumb pun will make sense in my next post). This quote refers to my resistance and huge self-built pressure preventing me from writing and publishing my first post.

"How do I even write a post? Is there a template/format I should follow? Am I doing this right? How stupid will this look?". All the thoughts going in my head each time I started a draft. I don't know. And I won't know. Not until I be a fool.

Motivation

Anyways, on to some real work. This post launches the start of a series of posts which I'd like to to call "Pursuit of Happiness and Financial Freedom".

My current projects in life focus heavily on creating sources of income as financial freedom is a macro goal I've committed to as of 2 years ago (in Feb 2020). To vaguely introduce my current financial standing, I'm pretty new in my career (graduated masters less than a year ago), and just moved out of my family home in 2022 locking in a high Canadian rent expense that alone takes up more than half my monthly income. After living home all this time, I need to start increasing that gap between my income and expenses (i.e. savings rate) again if I want to keep progressing towards my goals of financial freedom and not become stagnant here.

I'm currently in the stage of raising capital on my financial independence journey. This implies working on things that are more active income (but potential for higher growth) and less passive income. Passive income tends to require some money to make more money (e.g. real estate, rental income, laundromats, etc.). More active side hustles require more time, ideas, systems to make money. (I.e. Robert Kiyosaki's concept of business quadrant vs investor quadrant). For example, even with stocks there is active income (i.e. day trading) and passive income (i.e. investing, dividends payouts, etc.).

"Everyone is a genius in a bull market." - Mark Cuban.

I have been profitable day trading for the last 1.5 years (from August 2020 until October 2021 when I started taking the gas off the pedal). But now I'm looking more to experiment in new ventures.

This first series of posts will revolve around new ideas I come across that seem fun, creative, and profitable. This can be things like furniture flipping, selling custom resin tables, or crypto farming/liquidity pools. I will be documenting my journey along the way from idea inception, to execution, and everything else in between. I don't know how any of this ends. My story is being written as I go (literally and figuratively).

"Pursuits" and "Happiness"

In the next several posts, you'll notice a fun concept/theme I want to play with. I'd like to break down my posts referring to concepts of "pursuits" and "happiness" (as an entity or noun).

  • "Pursuits" - will refer to an idea to chase. The result may be successful, or it may not. The end result does not matter, it is an attempt.
  • "Happiness" - will refer to hopeful outcomes from a "pursuit". It is something to be grateful for. It's one thing that can potentially lead to something even bigger.

Part of why I started this blog is to overcome some of my imposter syndrome. To focus less on the results and more on documenting what I HAVE done. While I do this, I want to keep reminding myself that happiness is the journey and not an end goal.