My Best Investment To Date

I was alone in my rented flat in London. It was pouring down. Ten minutes later, the sun came out. Typical London weather, I murmured.

It was a Sunday. I had canceled a day out with my friends. I wasn’t feeling it. I wanted to straighten up my mind. Alone.

Tomorrow, I have to go to the office. The thought was draining me. I didn’t want to. It was all the way in Harrow, more than 35 minutes from my flat. I had to change 2 tubes and fight with people in the morning rush just to squeeze myself into the train. The thought itself exhausted me.

All this hassle wasn’t worth it. My mind kept on repeating. My job as IT Support was paying me peanuts. Despite my MBA, the pandemic forced me into IT. With no other option, I started my career in the world of computers.

All my potential was going in vain. I did not feel challenged. Just picking up calls and lodging tickets day after day. I had been a top scorer in my class yet I was working for less than £9 an hour. It felt so unfair.

The feeling consumed me. I had to do something about it. I had to find something that would excite me to go to work every day.

I had no prior experience in IT. But I was already six months into my current job, so I figured the wiser decision was to upskill in the same field itself.

I started browsing.

So many options and the possibilities seemed limitless. With no foundation in IT, I struggled with what to choose. I only had a few hours to spend during weekdays for upskilling.

By the time I reached home, it was always past 6 PM. Then after household chores, my instant feeling is to just lie somewhere. This was what I had been doing for the last six months.

But things had to change. I allocated a realistic one hour per day to learn a new skill.

Then one day I came across a website called “Udemy”.

As usual, there were lots of options. With no one to guide me, I checked the best-selling courses under IT. That’s when a Python Bootcamp course came under my radar.

It had massive ratings and preview videos seemed promising. Then I checked the price.

My heart sank: £69!

No way could I spend that much money on a course I wasn’t even sure I’d like. There was no guarantee of a job placement either. Also, it was entirely online, what if it’s a total waste?

Above all, the reality was that I couldn’t afford £69 for an online course.

I lost all my hope. I started looking for alternatives but none had this starry ratings and hype. Most were even pricier, costing over £100.

I shared my struggles with a trusted colleague of mine. He knew I was not satisfied at work.

He chuckled and said, “I can get you this course for £5”.

I didn’t believe him. Even during a sale, I have heard the price falls to around £15, no less than that.

I gave him my email and that evening, we sat together to make this happen.

And voilà!

I got the course for £4!! I was over the moon.

I had to know how he did it. I thought he might have had some special coupons or any hidden tricks.

Actually, my colleague is British-Indian and it turned out he had an account on Udemy India. He purchased the course in Indian Rupees and at that time they had some insane offers going on. He got the course for just £4 and sent it to my account as a gift.

A whopping £65 less than the original price! Just wow, right?

Even though it was a gift, I later repaid him.

I never knew such massive price differences existed between countries. It almost felt illegal to know this.

I couldn’t thank my colleague enough. He was definitely a savior in my tough time.

I finished the course, and six months later, I landed a Python Developer job with a £40,000 salary per annum.

This was four years ago and to this day, no investment has ever given me such life-changing returns.

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