I thought I was cursed after 4 years of Yahoo without making money — Then one bold decision changed everything

I started doing Yahoo in 2020, convinced that this was finally going to be my way out.

But by 2022, I had not cashed out even $1.

What made it worse was watching people around me succeed at something I was struggling with. 

One of my friends had started doing the same thing and, by 2022, had already bought an iPhone 12. He looked fresh, spent money and enjoyed the kind of life I wanted. I would look at him and wonder what he knew that I didn't.

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Eventually, I started thinking maybe I was the problem. I started looking for answers in places that made no sense. 

I thought maybe I wasn’t lucky because I was not adding juju. So in 2022, I added juju and kept pushing. I believed that if I stuck with it long enough, something would eventually change.

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Still, nothing happened.

At some point, I even borrowed money to do what we called “soap”, hoping (and maybe convinced) that this would finally be the breakthrough. After all that stress, the only money I managed to cash out was $100.

That $100 felt like a huge deal to me because it was the first real money I had made from it. I used it to buy an iPhone 6, thinking it was the beginning of better things.

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I was happy because at least I had something to show for all the effort. I did not know that it would be the last money I would cash out that way for a very long time.

That was when things really started getting to me. Things became increasingly difficult

My friends were balling, making money, buying better phones and moving ahead, while I felt like I was standing in the same spot and trapped in it. Everything made me feel like I was failing at life.

The more I compared myself to them, the worse I felt. I became depressed and lonely.

I started smoking because I wanted something that would help me forget what was going on in my life, even if only for a little while. But when the smoke cleared, nothing had changed. I still had the same problems, the same frustrations and the same feeling that everyone else was moving forward without me.

So I kept going back. 

I kept doing Yahoo and hoping that maybe the next attempt would be the one that changed everything.

It never did.

After years of trying and failing, I started looking for other explanations. Maybe there was a family curse. 

Maybe I was simply not destined to make it in life. Maybe some people were simply meant to struggle while others were meant to make it. When you keep putting your effort into something, and nothing seems to come from it, it becomes easy to turn failure into something bigger than it really is.

By August 2024, I had had enough. I gave up and got a 9-5 job.

At the time, I did not see that decision as some major turning point. I had simply become tired of chasing something that was not working for me. But stepping away gave me the chance to think differently about what I actually wanted and what I could build for myself.

I needed a reset. And I started thinking differently about what changing my life actually meant.

Maybe it was not about finding one magical way to make money. Maybe I needed to ask myself what I was actually good at, what people were willing to pay for and what I could realistically build over time.

There are so many ways people can make a living that we routinely overlook because they do not look glamorous enough. 

A tailor, barber, phone repairer, electrician, carpenter or tiler may not have the flashy lifestyle that gets posted online, but a valuable skill can become a serious source of income when you know your craft and know your market. 

These underrated handiworks are potential sources of income.

The same applies to digital work. You can learn a skill, build a portfolio, freelance, create content, grow an audience or use a job as a stepping stone while figuring out your next move.

The important thing is having a direction. I did not understand that before. I was chasing money without really having a plan for the life I wanted.

Then, towards the end of 2025, I decided to take my X account seriously.

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This time, I approached it differently. I stopped looking for one big break and started focusing on building something that could grow over time. I became more intentional about the account, stayed consistent, grew my audience and eventually got monetised.

And today, I can honestly say that I have gone further than almost all the friends I started Yahoo with back then.

Looking back, the strangest part is that for years I thought I was unlucky. I thought something was wrong with me. I thought maybe I was cursed because everybody around me seemed to be making it while I wasn't.

But nothing was wrong with my life. I was simply on the wrong path and refused to accept it for a long time.

I wish I had understood earlier that changing your life does not always mean working harder at the thing that is not working. Sometimes it means stepping back, taking stock of your strengths, looking at what the market actually needs and learning something that gives you another option.

A career plan doesn't have to mean knowing exactly where you will be in 10 years. It can simply mean knowing what you want next, the skill you need to get there and the steps you are willing to take. 

It also means being honest enough to change the plan when reality tells you that something is not working.

If you are currently stuck in a job, business, hustle or career that is draining you, perhaps the real question is not, “How do I force this to work?” It might be, “What else can I become good at?”

For me, that meant leaving Yahoo, getting a 9-5 and eventually taking my online presence seriously.

It took me years to understand this, but failure is not always a sign that your life is going nowhere. Sometimes, it is simply a sign that you need a new direction.

I want your wildest story. The kind that makes people say, “There’s no way this actually happened.” A bizarre experience, an unbelievable coincidence, family drama, a strange encounter, a near miss, a secret, heartbreak, a scam, or anything completely unhinged.

I want the chaotic, unbelievable, and unfathomable ones. Send me an email here: gloria.adesanya@pulse.ng.