20 years of my professional life

It's been around 2 decades since I started a serious professional path. More or less. 30 years since I realized that you have to be persistent and creative to make some money. I offer a recap of my YoY professional and related milestones. Both, for myself and for you. Why? To summarize how all the ups and downs have paved my professional path, and how nothing happens without reason. 2004 Start freelancing as a content editor for an upcoming online media - content platform. 2005 Graduate from high school. Start my marketing freelance for an ambitious international project. Start studies at #1 business school in the Nordics. Start freelancing for then #1 IT development company in Latvia, designing web specifications, inserting content and testing sites and systems. 2006 Drop out of the top university. Start working for the IT company part-time as a junior project manager. Work full-time for a few months in telesales at a web hosting company. Work for 1 day at a real estate company as a junior agent. Its arrogant CEO bullies me, and I never return. Resume my undergrad studies at another university, with classes at night and on weekends. Land a full-time job at an advertising agency as a creative assistant / junior project manager. Its arrogant CEO bullies me even before I start to work there. I get bullied and fired in a few months. 2007 Start freelancing as a creative media planner, use my brother's company to invoice clients. Form an advertising agency, being its only full-time employee. Learn to design, code, animate. Hire first part-time employee - a graphic designer. Sign first major clients. Launch first 2 start-ups: a music platform for new artists, and an online marketplace for hand-made jewelry. The ambitious international project started 2 years earlier ceases its operations. Get hired part-time by a fashion online media start-up as its marketing director. Keep working part-time for the IT company. 2008 Quit the fashion media. Start managing and co-producing a major national music band. Keep developing the advertising agency. Not creating banners, designs, and code myself anymore. Start an outdoor advertising product startup. Close down soon after. Quit the part-time job at the IT company. Launch a web-development service at the advertising agency. Close down both startups started a year ago. Join part-time as a the founding marketing manager and CMO of 3 other startups. Become the sales manager and later the sales and operations director of the online content platform I started freelancing for 4 years earlier. 2009 Start an online comic series, land major sponsorship and brand partnership deals. Launch a live entertainment and tourism startup. Land major media and brand partnerships. Face client bankruptcies at the advertising agency, amid the global financial crisis. Transform into a marketing product company. 2010 Land major sponsorship deals with the live event and artist management company. Produce international music acts. Expand the marketing agency to 2 other markets. Begin graduate studies with classes on weeknights and weekends. 2011 Produce the first international show at a major event venue, sell out. The online media - content platform gets acquired. I had a stake in it by then. Awarded master's in innovative business administration. 2012 Launch a major music festival. Land major sponsorships and brand partnerships. Raise funds. Book and promote artist tours. Partner with a major sports channel on live games. Keep developing the marketing and event companies. 2013 Produce several international shows. Land tour partnerships with major touring and talent agencies. Expand to 5 other markets. Fail the festival and lose public image. Close down the marketing agency. Keep losing image, go officially broke. Live in an office, then - car. Get my bank accounts and credit card frozen. Go through a second breakup in 2 years. 2014 Produce more international shows. Fight the image and financial turmoil. Freelance for business planning, marketing strategy. 2015 Produce more international shows. Close down the event company. Freelance for anything: - content writing, marketing strategy, event production, business planning. Get robbed and attacked, recover from serious injury. Fight physical consequences ever after. 2016 Freelance for anything. Enroll in non-degree studies at a top global business school. Perform #1 in the class. Start-up a beauty booking app with classmates. Connect with Silicon Valley VCs. Take-over a failed online content start-up, transform into a video production company. 2017 Expand freelance consulting operations. Start an AI company. Start-up a foodtech company. Transform the freelance into a market expansion consultancy, sign a global client. Accept my first university teaching part-time job. 2018 Start-up a water tap app. Structure and form a global team for the consulting company. Sign new consulting clients. Part-time head of a tech company's UK office. Take more non-degree programs at top universities. 2019 Sell the AI company's tech. Close the foodtech startup. Co-author an undergrad program. Teach part-time. Start mentoring at a top Silicon Valley accelerator. 2020 Start consulting VCs. Become an expert for EU innovation funding. Take more non-degree programs at top universities. Launch UK operations of the consultancy. 2021 Become the accelerator's judge. Transform the expansion agency into a startup-corporate partnership consultancy. Drop most of the intl. representations. Add more services to the video production company, transforming into a digital marketing content creator. Sign multiple long-term clients. 2022 Take more non-degree programs at top universities. Attempt to join a PhD program at a top university. Fail. Start investing. Co-found a video hardware start-up. Launch a UK office at a top science center. 2023 Multiply sales of the content company. Optimize heavily and adopt AI for development and operations. Structure all operations and ventures into a group. Acquire a stake in some clients. Start partnering with corporations to launch ventures. Launch the group's U.S. operations. Launch a micro publishing house. Release my book in Latvian. Sold in major bookstore chains. 2024 Attempt to join Ph.D programs at more top universities. Fail. The group launches 1 hardware and 1 software start-up. Cashcow's sales drop. More optimization and regrouping. 2025 so far The group is developing its first b2c start-up. Preparing to sell another its entity. Launch Tech Week in native Latvia. International book release set for later 2025. ...

As a business acquaintance once said, our professional lives are formed in a spiral. It is up to us whether the spiral will lead upward or downward, stay on the same level, and whether the circles of the spiral will change in size and length. Some parts of the journey are covered in my book, set to launch this fall. Not really an autobiography; rather, a friendly story of one's lessons along with relevant stories of companions, explained by applying the studies of scientists at top universities. If you are interested in the book, subscribe to my account and I will update.