How I Built a 6-Figure Writing Business From Zero Experience (At The Age of 29)

I’ve quit my 9-5 job, travel the world full-time, and don’t have an annoying boss.

I remember making my first $1 from writing online.

My heart started to race. I refreshed the page and another 30 cents was added. Wild. I couldn’t stop thinking about it for the whole day.

My brain had rewired itself.

I started to question everything:

• If I could make $1, could I make $10, $100 or $1,000 per month?
• How can I improve my skills as a writer and entrepreneur?
• What are other people doing to do this full-time?

Six years later, I’ve turned grown this tiny writing business.

Writing online allowed me to:

• Build a six-figure lifestyle business.
• Travel and live in Southeast Asia full-time.
• Speak on international stages and meet Presidents.

Here’s everything I did over the last 1,800+ days to make it happen.

I got absolutely mad with where I was in life

My partner of 6+ years told me that she didn’t love me anymore.

She was frustrated at my lack of career progress, inaction to improve my mental health, and the decay of my physical health.

I felt shattered.

The worst bit? She started dating her ‘best friend’ after only 3 weeks.

Didn’t try to hide it. It was all over social media. I was embarrassed. She stabbed me in the heart, and twisted the knife deeper.

This was one of the most painful times of my life.

I spent the next few months crying every morning. I’d have random panic attacks throughout the day. My work got worse. My health got worse.

I was broken.

I felt like there was no way out.

But while staring into the ocean with a friend, I realized I had nothing to lose. I’d hit rock bottom. There was nothing that could happen to me that would make things worse.

After that day, I adopted a “f*ck it, let’s do it” mindset.

I got so frustrated with where I was. I wrote down everything I hated about my life. After that, I wrote down everything that I wanted. I concluded on 3 big goals I wanted to achieve in 2018:

1. Read 52 books in 52 weeks.
2. Write every day for 10 minutes.
3. Meditate every day for 15 minutes.

Looking back, these goals were oddly specific.

I just focused on these 3 things.

I had the dark energy needed to get me started. People tell you to ‘love yourself’ or that you ‘deserve what you get’. But that made no sense to me. I didn’t love myself or feel like I deserved anything.

My point? Use what you have.

If it’s anxiety, use it. If it’s fear, use it.

Don’t let self-care voodoo fool you into thinking you need a positive mindset to start or achieve anything. Alchemize whatever energy is available to you.

Get frustrated, and then get ready to change your life.

Your biggest problem? Starting too big.

I started writing online with 10-15 minutes per day.

I’d open my laptop. Tap away on my keyboard. And then stop. No more. No less. Some days, I’d sit for 10 minutes thinking. 5 mins writing.

Whatever happened happened.

For the first 3-6 months, I only focused on building the muscle of showing up. I didn’t care about any results. Numbers, stats, and views meant nothing to me.

As a naturally skinny kid, I took this same approach to the gym.

All I aimed for was:

• Creating a habit of showing up to the gym.
• Adding more weight every week.
• Learning something new.

That’s it. Over time, you get better and more skilled.

Whether it’s the gym or writing, have the humbleness to start small. Big leaps look and sound sexy. But they are unsustainable. Small, incremental, and easy build online empires.

Now, I can:

• Do a muscle-up at the gym.
• Write for 1-2 hours per day.
• Write an article in less than 45 minutes.
• Do a static handstand for 30+ seconds.
• Do all of this without burning out.

Think in decades. But act in days. That’s when you become dangerous.

Start small. Iterate quickly. Scale rapidly.

I waited too long to monetize.

While I made money writing, I didn’t have any other offer.

I had no other sources of income besides royalties from writing platforms. I thought I had to have a certain number of followers, get permission, and wait until I was ready to start monetizing my writing.

Wrong, wrong, and even more wrong.

There are no monetization gods. No one is coming to save you. You need to monetize yourself. Start from day one. And f*ck anyone who tells you that you don’t deserve to monetize.

Most writers stay broke because all they want to do is write.

But it’s hard to be broke when you also know:

• Sales.
• Marketing.
• Positioning.
• Public Speaking.
• Content creation.

Learn all these skills.

That means they are learnable.

And with the internet, you can learn them for free or low cost.

The best part? Writing complements all of them.

Stack them together, and you become a money-printing machine.

With these skills, you’re no longer ‘just a writer’.

That’s how you become a commodified ‘copywriter’ working for $9 an hour on Upwork. Earning less than a 16-year-old serving fries at McDonalds. No. You’re better than that.

With these skills, you’re a business consultant who knows how to write.

You don’t just write words. You create wealth with words.

You don’t just write emails. You nurture leads into customers.

You don’t just write long-form articles. You convert customers to clients.

If I could go back, I’d immediately start ghostwriting for someone.

I’d start for free. Work for 3-4 weeks. Prove my value. Get a testimonial. Ask for a referral. And then start to charge a small amount. I’d slowly work on increasing that rate.

Ghostwriting requires:

• Zero capital.
• Zero start-up costs.

But you get to learn quickly and build your network.

Monetize immediately (or die trying).

I’m not talented or special.

I’ve always thought of myself as painfully average.

I wasn’t the brightest kid growing up. I got below average in High School English. My university thought recommended I do additional English classes to make up from my low score. I didn’t even get the required score to get into my university.

Yet, I still beat people who had everything on paper.

A lot of my classmates had rich parents, elite private high school education, and all the tutors and resources available to them. Most of them didn’t even need a part-time job to pay for their expenses. The bank of Mommy and Daddy paid for everything.

When I was younger, I was resentful.

Why couldn’t my parents be rich? But I’m so glad they made me work for everything. I developed a work ethic and mindset that’s served me so well in life. Now, I look at being rich as a long-term disadvantage.

The one trait that makes me successful:

Relentless iteration.

This experience at University set me up well for business and writing online.

My first 100 articles are very, very bad.

Go and look at them. You’ll see what I mean. I cringe at the thought.

But I kept going. Quitting never seemed like an option.

I would:

• Read every single book on writing and storytelling.
• Rewrite my favorite author’s writing using my own experiences.
• Binge-watch and listen to any podcast or YouTube video on writing.

After a few years, I got better.

I’ve now got:

• 84,000 Medium followers.
• 1,700+ Substack subscribers.
• 5,000+ Kit email subscribers.

I’ve been invited to speak on international stages in Amsterdam:

And even got to have dinner at the President of Timor-Leste’s house:

Not bad for a kid who was below average.

Writing and entrepreneurship is a game of testing, experimentation, and iteration. You can never win business or writing. The aim of the game is to keep playing. Never stopping. And keep improving.

Stop using a lack of talent or specialness as an excuse.

You’ve got everything you need to be successful.

I left my home in Melbourne 180 days ago.

I hated the life I had created.

(again, I got frustrated with my life).

It sounds dramatic. But I woke up with dread. The sense that I was on the wrong path. Everyday got harder and harder. I tried to fool myself. But even that didn’t work.

I asked myself: If I continued what I was doing, where would I end up?

Yikes. That answer scared me.

At the time, I was working with a business partners that I thought I could learn from. They claimed to have ‘decades of experience’ and experts at technology or accounting. But that turned out to be a lie.

They could barely use project management software. Or maintain basic cash flow.

I felt like I was conned. I spent months agonizing over what I should do. The situation got toxic. One business partner got forced out. A few weeks later, I decided to leave and pursue my own one-person business again.

I bought a one-way ticket to Southeast Asia, and never looked back:

I don’t regret anything. That business experience taught me that the most important question you ask yourself is:

Who do you compare yourself to?

We all compare ourselves. It’s human nature.

There’s nothing wrong with it if it is used proactively.

We’ve all heard the saying you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Wrong. I used to believe that. You can’t always change who you spend time with. But you can change who you aspire to be.

Your reference group matters more.

I left Melbourne to get a new reference group. I can’t handle working with mediocre people. I wanted to meet people who were better than me. Smarter. And had built a business that I could learn from. Maybe even replicate.

It sounds cliche, but I found these people in Bali (judge away).

The growth I experienced was unreal. Everyday felt like I was on a steep learning curve. I felt like the dumbest one in the room. I was constantly asking questions and absorbing everything I observed.

If you’ve stopped growing. Change your environment.

Doesn’t have to be a new country. But change something.

Nothing changes if nothing changes.

Don’t be worried about failure.

Instead,

• Fear being average.
• Fear being mediocre.
• Fear being stuck in the middle.

Being like ‘everyone else’ is a terrible reality.

Failure is inevitable.

Regret is also inevitable.

But only one will get you closer to your goals.

The worst decision you can make is none at all.

Do something today.

👉 Learn how to WEAPONIZE your writing to make more money, build a magnetic personal brand, and grow an online audience that loves your every word.

I’ve created a FREE email course to help you turn your words into dollars:

Start HERE → https://michaellim.kit.com/180e45e86d