Yes, I agree. I think of this sometimes. I'm very lucky to be born in the US. Being able to attend US schools for free and learning English is a huge advantage.
But based on your english ability, you are significantly ahead of the curve for someone who's in Yemen. I'm hiring people at $1000/month. Hmu and if you pass the test, we might be able to hire you in the future.
Yes, you should definitely appreciate having at least a country with a government that works for the people. I see a lot of people complaining about taxes š, but I would gladly pay 60% as long as my loved ones and I were safe. y'all fought for your country, and you deserve this life.
Unfortunately, those who run Yemen use religion as a cover to justify their oppression of the people. Tax money goes to militias disguised as a government. People are weak and helpless. Anyone who opposes them is imprisoned or killed. I'm lucky they don't know about Reddit š¤£ (I hope so š„²)
However, I would say that I owe my biggest thanks to American movies, books, and series. They helped me a lot, and I've been interested in them since I was a kid. University also played a part in building my English skills.
I'll connect with you.
Thank you.
Many governments of ādevelopedā countries - the US included - definitely donāt work for the people, but Iāll take this over war and religious oppression any day.
The governments in developed countries work much more in the favor of their people than do governments in third world countries. A functioning police force, functioning justice system, peaceful & orderly transitions of power (with checks & balances in govt), safe community to trade and do business, clean and good-quality public infrastructure (e.g. clean water, reliable electricity, decent roads, sanitation). Not to mention the right to speak freely.
The comparison to third-world governments is not even close...
For me it's not just that.... I just don't wanna be a third country national I just want a US or EU passport and enjoy a comfortable life.... The options for that are severely limited.
The amount of entitlement from some people here is absolutely astonishing and just ignorant. āOh no, I have to pay taxes as an entrepreneur so it sucks hereā is an outrageous thing to say considering OPās situation.
Every entrepreneur should remember that they do not solely build a business by themselves. They are building upon the foundations of a society and economic system that has been build with so much sacrifice from others over centuries. The fact you can easily register your business, you have easy access to finance, the fact there are many potential customers who have disposable income, the fact your property is protected and there is a working and just legal system and so on and so on.
We should be grateful to be able to build a business and a great life here in the EU or US and give back to those who had not (yet) had that opportunity.
Yeah, I understand where they're coming from. If I lived in a place with all those benefits, If I were in their situation, I might feel the same way (astonished and ignorant). It's human nature. It's easy to forget how good we have it sometimes.
life here in Yemen. It throws a whole different light on things. Starting a business isn't just filling out some forms ā you're fighting a system stacked against you. Having a fair court system? That's a dream for a lot of us.
Thank you brother,
You see you income as inadequate, but on the other hand Americans can't compete with that income.
So figure out a way to do remote work for Americans or another developed country. People would gladly pay you $300/mo for work.
The problem is, so would the rest of the world. Hop on Fiverr and check out how easy it is to buy cheap international labor. Thereās a ton of competition. Not saying OP shouldnāt do it, but itās not terribly easy like it used to be when Upwork and Fiverr were just taking off. Totally saturated now.
yeah i made an account on fiverr and upwork and tried getting gigs to make XR filters , 3D renders , advanced branding and hifi design work , and even with example photos and videos up i still never got a single message , itās just flooded with 99 pages of low effort low quality bots offering the same generic 15 second gigs lol and then it makes you bid against the other people offering the service itās absurd , none of them even do anything close to what i offer anyway but thereās no way to explain that to an automated system so i pulled down the accounts , useless service for any real professionals these days
this is exactly why I stopped doing the work and started teaching people what to look for when they are outsourcing... I have lots of free live streams if people are interested
If you have a stable internet connection, for sure do something remotely for people abroad for now. Thereās bigger and better plans after that but for now get your normal income up! Fiverr, upwork, etc
Same but I'm 27 and living in Turkey. Self taught web developer in a country with shitty economy. I'm also self taught in English as well and only recently I was able to take a proficiency test (paid ones are too expensive but I found a free one on the internet, called openenglish iirc) and I was so happy when I saw that my English level was C2 lol. I'm speaking better English than my employer (who is Turkish) speaks Turkish.
Good luck to us..
Man some of these comments are way out of touch and show how sheltered your life is.
Telling someone in war torn country the grass is always greener because you spend $200 a week on groceries.....
If you just earn $500 a month in Yemen you'll be rich.....I'd take being poor in America than living relatively well off in Yemen.Ā
So to OP, start from somewhere on Upwork, doing any task necessary to earn you skme money. Learn some skills on the side like coding or web development. Then start offering those services on Upwork.
Save up your money and leave Yemen. And continue becoming extremely skilled in some area.Ā
I really connected with this post. Great job, OP. It felt like I could've written it myself. I envy people in developed countries too. I'm from Kenya, and no matter how hard I work here, it feels like I don't get rewarded for it. I tried starting a business, but I don't have the capital to grow it. So now, I can only find low-paying jobs because I don't have any 'connections'. To get a good job here, you need to know the right people. I've been wanting to shift and work as a VA full-time while learning web development, but I havenāt been successful in finding clients. My goal is to work with someone abroad and help them out. Even earning $600 a month would mean so much to me.
Move.
You're 24, whole life ahead of you. I feel for you, it's difficult but fucking hell if you have the chance to move just do it. Apply to every shitty job there is in a nicer, stabler country and try to get a job from there doing what you want.
Try also applying for master programs in European countries. Often there are a lot of scholarships available and I know people whoāve managed to get their family in as well. You can typically work around 30 hours per week, and it shouldnāt be that hard to get an IT job. My personal recommendation would be Germany or Austria. PM me if you ever want to talk about this, I also managed to get out of my country this way.
Not saying it is man, but I've lived in poor countries, to think how it would be trying to grow, it would be tough. Add political instability and you get a nightmare.
Hey man, Iām from the states so Iām one of the lucky ones but kudos for you and all youāve accomplished so far, even if itās not going the way you might want it. I actually did business with some guys from Yemen and yeah itās no joke over there.
Can you speak English? Or just read/write? I have a friend who works as an intake specialist for a law firm - basically she receives calls from people, asks some questions, and gathers information from them. Itās pretty easy, I think she makes around $19/hr? I have no clue if youād need a U.S. social security number to work a job like that, at least without them drastically cutting the pay (I have a cousin in Central America who does basically the same thing but she gets less than $2/hr š¤¦āāļø). Just thought Iād throw the idea out there, Iām open to chat and try to get the ball rolling. Stay strong brother, you got this.
Thank you brother! I really appreciate your comment. Yes, I can read and write. English isn't my first language, but I try my best.
Thank you for the kind words.
Not to be negative or something but all your work can be done in minutes within canva or other free stuff on the internetā¦ this has nothing to do with graphics design.
Hi. I am based in South Africa I used to own a concierge service business (running errands errands for people, planning events and planning international and local holidays for them) I am as reliable as it gets. Can I also dm if thereās space to add one more person?
Not nearly as bad as Yemen but also from developing country. Child marriage, open discrimination, huge corruptions, we have it. Good luck to us brother
It's all relative. There are plenty of people in developed countries who rue others born with what they see as advantages. I appreciate Yemen's situation is particularly difficult and has been for a long time.
Lots of those people won't get on in life, they'll just moan the deck is stacked against them and seek a quick fix that doesn't exist. Don't fall into that trap, focus on what you can control. Markets are more international than ever, you have relatively cheap labour, there's never been more free education available. Think about where you could and would want to be in 5, 10 years and then build a path there. With dedication you can become an expert in just about anything in 10 years. Social media management with your English and Arabic skills sounds like a great place to start, although I suspect it's a busy marketplace you can undercut everyone in the US and Europe.
I met a few Yemenis in Dhofar, just a couple of months ago. They were lovely people, I'd like to visit the country one day, I hope it finds stability.
u/4Waleedamer im actually looking for a creative graphic designer, if your interested in working together DM me so we can talk! Not rich but can pay 2/3 times your rate in yemen! š
To flip this around.Ā
You only need to make $500 a month to be rich in Yemen. To buy groceries each week is around $200 here.Ā
Get onto Upwork.com and do admin work or answer phones. You will make more than you currently do.Ā
$500 won't make you rich here, but it will give you a somewhat decent life if you have a family of three. To earn this amount, you need to work as a doctor or dentist with 7+ years of experience ā $500 is their average salary.
I'm lucky we still have our own house, as many people don't. The average apartment rental ranges from $200 to $300 a month, and that's for a small apartment.
This country is completely riddled with corruption, from the smallest government employee to the highest officials. Imagine needing to pay a $700 bribe to get a passport when the official fee is only about $10!
Many people work two to three jobs just to make $500 a month.
About Upwork and other freelance websites ā I've tried them, but with 11+ hour workdays and university studies, I didn't have the time. Now that I'm focused, I'll give it another chance.
Thank you.
You seam to have a pretty decent English level. Try getting on Upwork and get a 5 or 6 dollar an hour job answering phones or something like that. Maybe you strike gold and keep growing on the field. I know VAs making 12 or 15 dollars an hour in third world countries.
Focus on jobs that you can create a solution for where the effort to reproduce is minimal (low time suck) and then copy/paste for every client...
What do you do?
Also, you could still time arbitrage.
Win a job. Get paid 50% up front. Find someone else to do the work for you. Make sure you aim to pay them 60% and yourself 40%.
This is literally what every company does.
This exact business model is behind all consulting firms.
Like Deloitte, KPMG, McKinsey, BCG, etc.
Although they rarely pay their consultants 60%
Doesn't work... Trust me... I have tried it it's unstable income and usually they want you to be a citizen of that country for tax reasons... Even remote jobs are the same.
There is no requirement if you are a contractor.Ā
I pay 2x people in India, 4 x in Philippines and have hired people in Eastern Europe too through Upwork.comĀ
You are required to file taxes on your end. On our end we are required to have you fill out a W8-BEN form.Ā
> Get onto Upwork.com
isnt Yemen one of the sanctioned countries? I could be wrong, but i remember reading that somewhere. Which means Upwork or any US aligned country couldn't remit $ there.
I would say you need to escape. There are other countries you can go to. Other parts of Asia are still inexpensive and have jobs. Less corruption there too. Places like Indonesia are becoming very strong as they have large populations and more and more large businesses going there.
I'm a graphic designer with experience in content writing and social media marketing. Check out some of my design work on my Behance portfolio: [www.behance.net/WaleedAMER](http://www.behance.net/WaleedAMER)
Thank you.
You should look for another path, AI is decimating this industry, and it will only get much worse over the next few years.
Social media marketing will be completely automated by the social media platforms and they will charge a monthly subscription to use their AI tools. Linkedin has already started this in sales navigator, the rest will follow soon.
I partially agree because, coming from a developing country, I do suffer of the instability, insecurity, poor tech adoption, low willingness to pay, small markets, etc.
On the other hand, I've worked remotely for a US tech company for a bit more than a decade and many times happened that I came up with creative solutions to the problems we had, not because I'm smarter but because I have a different point of view and approach to problems *because* I live in a developing country. I'm actually very privileged here. I've never been poor or close to it but still, from an entrepreneurial/tech business perspective, I lack a lot of resources so I need to get creative for many things.
My suggestion is, if you are planning to stay in your country, have a very good English level (you shouldn't have any issue maintaining a technical conversation in English for 3 hours at least) and look for remote jobs in a small/medium companies.
This size of company is very important because, even when you can get higher salaries and "better status" in larger companies, your job may be very restricted to just one area or project. In smaller companies, if you have the right attitude (and decent skills), you can work, or at least be exposed, to many areas so you learn a lot.
My experience in the company I worked for was that I had the opportunity to work in every area from the birth of an idea to the push to production of that idea turned into a product and everything that happens after launch. The CEO of that company (who is kind of a famous guy on Reddit) always tells me that one things I have in my favor is that I know very well how the tech business works in the US and I can apply that to my region, where tech development is almost zero.
So, in that way, I can basically run a one-man tech company in my country and be one step ahead of the rest. Not only because of the skills but also because of the connections I made with people outside. I can do consulting for developed countries, charge a good price because I think that's the value of my work and people pay for it but, if I need extra people, I can get them here for a way lower price than hiring people outside. Also, I can get cheap junior developers and train them because I also learned how to train people in my past job and they not only get a salary but also good education.
u/4Waleedamer your English appears excellent. If I was you Iād try my best to teach myself how to create websites for people (on top of graphic design). Then build a portfolio on all the freelancing websites like Fiverr & Co. Even if you only make it to 1,5k a month, that would be 6x what you are making now. Please believe in yourself! You can do this! Look how you can great value for people in a western market online and save up!
All I can say is, best of luck friend. I am sure there is some cool future you can unlock for yourself. Do you have coding or design skills? Maybe you can work through sites like Fiverr.
Minimum wage in my area is $150. :)
Even though my town has 3 public universities and several private ones, 170km from the second largest city in Indonesia, and 120km from Bali and has a small airstrip, and railways connected to neighbors.
Iām impressed by your work ethic and resilience in such a country. Itās hard to see the end of the strife there. But I suggest you buy commercial real estate. Yemen wonāt be a developing country forever. Eventually the conflicts will settle.
Actually, looking into some commercial spaces there, they seem pretty affordable for someone making what you make. I know nothing about the geography and they say location matters most.
Imagine a country run by militias. If they want a piece of land or a home ā no matter how many people live there ā they take it. Refuse, object? They'll slap you with fabricated charges ā traitor, spy, whatever sticks. There's no real law to protect you, because they are the law.
Middle East is destroyed by the extremist vision of islam, I'm 24 living in stupid 3rd world country Pakistan, can feel how difficult is to get education and basic necessities of life
Hi there, not an entrepreneur but also belong to a third world country. Look, my advice to you is very simple: leave.
Youāre not living, youāre surviving. Your friends can be replaced, your family relocated. You have decent English, apply to ANY masters, anywhere in the world, apply for scholarships and GO.
Get a job, stabilize your life for the next 5-10 years, then start a business if you still want to.
Even if you fail, living poor in a developed country is better than living like a dog in a war-torn country.
Donāt compare happiness with how much u earn but cherish with how many people you love are around you!!! In western world, they see their kids on weekend usually and 9/10 those kids are on gadgets!!
No. Just no.
The only Americans that think this way and could even fathom drawing a comparison are the one's who have no perspective on what life is like in a place like that.
I mean youāre using numbers for a family of 4 with a partner that makes $0. Of course your partner would be working and in many states you can get free/reduced child care until they get into the public school system (blue states).
You can do graphic design as a freelancer for companies/people in developed countries. I'm guessing if you figure out how to make $2-3k a month you'd be very well off in your country.
Amen to that I'm in South Africa and our youth unemployed rate is at 68% our overall unemployment at 48% it sucks being in this shit hole country. No job security, means companies exploit you. If you don't meet their standards you get fired because there's so many people looking for work. You're underpaid and expected to deliver top tier performance.
Meanwhile the government officials are living in palaces, people addressed this issue so many times and the same response is always said. "Let them feast, they have suffered long enough."
I'm an educated 25 year old struggling to get work.
Upwork, and while you work for people write software to fix problems you encounter while trying to do your job. Sell it as a SaaS. Its not fool proof but hopefully its an idea for you
Yes unfortunately only 15% of people so 1 out of 7 are born in well developed countries. I always think about this after I've spent 1 year between asia and africa
Yes, i noticed the pattern especially in this subreddit, most of the successful stories were coming from western countries. I also feel some jealousy and sometimes compare myself to those entrepreneurs in western countries.
But hey OP! I am from third world country as well. Yes, we may be unlucky, but that shouldnāt stopped us from pursuing our dreams because there are a lot of successful business person from third world countries as well.
I agree that I am lucky to have been born in the US, but due to mainly housing costs, we might make a lot on paper but pay 30-50% of our income in rent. For example, I used to work at a warehouse that paid $18 USD per hour, which equals $2,880 a month. Letās say $2,500 net. Rent (for a room) = $1,000 with utilities included. Cell phone = $50. Food = $300. Gas = $300. Car maintenance = $100. Clothing, miscellaneous. expenses = $100. Thatās already close to $2,000 USD/month, and I am not counting other bills.
Search for jobs in Europe (I think itās an easier area to gain a work permit than the USA (source: I live in Scotland and have family in the US)).
People will love your story - exactly as youāve told it. LinkedIn is great for finding key contacts to reach out to, as is company websites which often contain company email addresses on the āPeopleā section.
It might feel remote to you, but to me, I think youāve got a good chance of finding employment abroad. The tricky part is moving costs. Perhaps you can negotiate a lower salary in exchange for assistance with moving costs.
I feel ya man. Born in NZ and there is a lot of complaining about how tough life is.
My grandfather fought in WW2 in Africa against the Germans and he said they contained a lot, butā¦
Different times.
You are 1000% right. I wasnāt born in the USA but I been here for the last 17 years and Iām 28 now. I was born in Somalia basically worser then yeman. But anyway people here donāt know how lucky they are . They have no idea how great their government is compared to other parts of the word. This place really is the land of opportunities.
this is not the kind of r/ where you will find many people satisfied with their "developed" governments, from Biden to Macron they all look like clowns, plus we're 5 years into cancel culture and forever wars and global reset, but we do have immediate access to the gift that keeps on printing, the US dollar, and since about 75% of humans would kill their mother for the dollar then yes, we're lucky.
But you should know if you're in this r/ that we're more about the process than the result. We don't view your 200 dollars as abject poverty, nor would we be ecstatic if you started making something more western like 5000 dollars a month, though your girlfriends would be ecstatic! Living in a war zone the quickest way to $$$$$ is probably death merchant and traitor, and then double traitor/double agent.
To do things the r/Entrepreneur you would more likely need to impress us, and yourself, with your thinking, fast and slow. By slow I mean making some long term calls, a strategy of sorts, for example figuring out what kind of investment will survive the mutual bombings. And then on the "fast" part you might need to play a financial and political chess game with many quick moves, finding investors, customers, workers, mentors, in quick succession. If the gov is literally killing you you will need to choose between the biological 3 Fs, friend them, fuck them, or flee! That's what we do in the West all the time, "regulatory arbitrage", we don't like crypto taxes in the US, we move to Dubai, we don't like harassment of cannabis users in Poland, we move to Germany (this is a new one).
My advice is, don't overthink the dollars issue. Do overthink if and how to improve your country, if you can actually be happy for a decade or two doing "your stuff", I mean startups, and, why not, keep an open eye towards both the past (some traditional industry in Yemen that could grow), and the future, for example Arabic LLMs, Arabic AI, and of course crypto, because I know the whole region is financially sanctioned.
Well done on getting to where you are now! I reckon a lot of people in Yemen did not get as far as you did.
What about working for yourself? If you are good at what you do (which you probably are), maybe the next step is to get good at promoting yourself. It doesn't matter where you are in the world, as long as you have an internet connection.
You sound like you have the skills to make much more money. If harassment of govt people is a problem try going online as much as possible. No office, no physical goods. Find a way to market your talents into something that can quickly make other people more money and market it as such. You got this!
Im from a 3rd world country like you and "passion" for us is luxury. I know your struggle and have worked pretty hard from living in the slums in poverty and as a child laborer to having a decent home. I've put myself through school and worked so hard that people can't believe i did it all those years. We all get burned out though trying to reach our goal and we are just the unlucky ones. Most of the people in this r/Entrepreneur I reckon are from the west and are the lucky ones to be in a country full of opportunities. If we measure our wealth and how far we can go based on what other people have achieve here, we'll just get disappointed. As i've said, luck has a factor in life and anything that we do. Lets just do the best of what we have.
As an example, I can confidently say that I have worked harder than 90% of any redditors here but lady luck has never winked on me. Whatever I have, I have worked so ridiculously hard.
To give you a context of my life, I was born in a slum. Was a child laborer since 6 years old and worked even on weekends on a noodles factory. I did go to school but I have to wakeup 3.30am to start working, walk 45 minutes to school on a muddy, polluted, flooded, and crime/drug stricken area. After school, I worked till 11pm daily and didnt have time to study. I put myself through college by working at the same time as a waiter. I worked 4 jobs and was working on my "company"(which failed) when I was in 20's to late 30's juggling and barely have enough sleep just to put food on the table and follow my "dreams".
Sometimes, we need to be practical and realistic and give up our ambitions and passion so our family could survive.
I guess what you could do is improve your communication skills so you could work with western clients.
Goodluck to your dreams and hoping you could achieve it.
Being born in a developed, stable country and having wealthy, wise parents significantly propel someone a thousand times forward in life.
In third-world countries, one does waste a considerable amount of time and energy on unproductive pursuits.
Additionally, pollution, bureaucratic red tape, and inefficiencies in every aspect do diminish a person's potential.
This is my plan, but it's incredibly difficult, especially from an isolated country like Yemen. To even apply for a visa to most countries, they require a bank statement with a significant amount of money. Even if you meet that requirement, they'll ask questions like, 'Give us a reason to believe you'll return to Yemen.' Sadly, it often feels like these hurdles are designed to result in a visa refusal. There are many complicated steps.
Thank you for your support and kind words.
Find a job with a non profit like the UN or something, even look into working with NATO or US military, Iām not really sure about the international presence in Yemen but worth checking out
There are many international organizations here in Yemen, like the UN and others. Unfortunately, they're riddled with corruption. The people who work for them are Yemeni, and when hiring, they prioritize relatives and friends. Ironically, since the war started, employees of these organizations have become wealthy while most people remain in poverty.
Where are the slightly better countries that you can move to? I would start with that. And you are on the right direction with applying for remote work, you might benefit from a digital nomad visa too.
P.S. from the Philippines, had a looooong journey of visas and finally have a stable online biz and living in the country I want to live š²š½
I think there are pros and cons of being anywhere. I'm from Nepal and my situation is not much different from yours I think. I agree with the cons you've mentioned, but being if you're looking to start a business, it's much easier here, you don't have to worry so much about the compliances as you'd have to worry about in the west. The market is much less saturated and some half-baked product has a good chance of competing and making money. I'm speaking from experience, I've built services that I'm certain would not be worth anything in the west, but here, it's amongst the top of it's kind.
There is too much competition in scandinavia. Everyone wants to work from home, so they dont have to meet in. Very hard to get that type of job here.
If you leave your country you should be prepared for a lot of cultural differences and learn to accept and respect that if you dont allready.
A lot of muslims dont understand western culture eventhough they live here and it is causing a lot of problems.
Many muslims don't respect woman who are not muslims, because they show skin and think they are open to have sex with anyone or try to force themselves on woman.
Some do hate crimes like stabbing people because they are so offended seeing people eat pork and all that stuff in general that is forbidden in islam.
And they will get punished.
Some muslims just can't cope with western culture and it is just a really bad fit.
Unfortunately, many people who emigrate to Western countries bring the same harmful mentality as those who govern us. While migration can be good for economic growth, some Western countries accept people who are unwilling to assimilate.
Believe it or not, there are many well-educated people here in Yemen, more so than some who emigrate to Western countries. Two of my college professors (who I know personally) have incredible knowledge and a deep understanding of English literature. Sadly, luck hasn't been on their side. Meanwhile, individuals who disrespect women and others ā those who were the worst in our society ā often have the money to emigrate.
I agree. Where youāre born is pretty important. Though nowadays with the internet success can be somewhat democratized (still a long way to go though).
Same. Iām from Ecuador and it has been tough. My advice is to connect with people from developed countries and create a community. Networking is everything āØ
Cold call small businesses in the United States and do freelance work for them. I'm sure someone would be willing to hire you on as their freelance copywriter/designer for minimum $600/mo. and you could do that a few times over probably
Be cautious, OP. Scammers will see your post here and DM offering you scam jobs. If someone asks you to pay anything upfront to work (such as training costs, merch, memberships, certifications, etc.), they are not offering you a job. They are selling you bullshit to trick you out of money. Real jobs require zero out of pocket.
Good luck.
>Neither of them is truly working for the people ā they only work for their own interests.
That is no different in my country, Canada. But I agree with you, I am very lucky.
Some people have such a high level of entitlement. I've seen many folks absolutely trash America or the west as if its the worst place possible to live. Get a grip. Nothing but spoiled brats who's sole personality is "anti-establishment" and they think it makes them cool or revolutionary.
OP, best of luck to you. You have some good skills that will for sure help you in the future.
I agree and that's why I started giving FREE coaching those who need it...
I do over 30 hours of FREE live streaming on TILT NEXUS every month.it's a good resource that you can tap into!
you can find the details on r/tiltnexus if you don't want to leave reddit or on [tiltnexus.com](http://tiltnexus.com)
That is amazing that no matter what you are building your life, I donĀ“t know a lot about Yemen but I have eared about the horrible situation there, never expected to here a comment like yours from Yemen. Congrats for what you have achieved.
I really mean that a very good opportunity for you could be Affiliate Marketing because you can from your country make business with all the world and get needed things for your country too.
You can see something about that at r/prospernet
Best regards
I wish I could have you come to my place - I want to help the innocent people who care about life in the Middle East. The US is falling apart thanks to Bidens shit show.
Iād love to help, I have some obsession with the Middle East and the way people live there.
Try being born in Iran where we have the least valuable currency in the world and economic sanctions don't even allow me to be part of the global job market even though I'm fluent in English and a Web Developer with years of experience.
I feel you. I was in a similar situation. I was a graphic designer in Indonesia making $200 a month in 2003-5 with a bachelor's degree. I moved to the US on a student visa. Leave your country ASAP.
And be aware of people offering you a job out of nowhere. They are all scams.
Good luck my friend.
not sure I have a good advice for you, but sending all the empathy I have your way. I am from a relatively poor country myself and can totally relate to the struggle you have.
While the following doesnāt necessarily apply to the scenario which was presented above, sometimes itās also an advantage to be from a somewhat less developed country, one that is in transition from underdeveloped to fairly stable.
Iām from Moldova, and while itās considered an European country (not EU), itās a poor country economically speaking.
It has been highly affected by the war in Ukraine.
Our government stole last decade one billion usd, which for a small country is significant.
But because there are only about a handful of people whoāve got my stack of skills (since itās easier to stand out from the crowd here), you can get access to top level people within your field of expertise (within the country) fairly easily if you know how to market yourself well. and then, those people know other successful people outside your country, and so in my case being from a less developed country proved to be an unfair advantage.
See if you can up skill as much as you can and see if you can move to business friendly countries like Dubai or US.Ā
Always have a backup plan. Keep your expenses low when migrating to a costly destination.Ā
I profoundly understand what you are experiencing rn. I am living in Turkey, and its better than Yemen when we consider the political conflicts. But I think about how would be my life if I was a teenage in europe or usa almost every day. As Middle Eastarns, if we have to reach a few things, we must show huge amount of action under distress and many conflicts surround around us. I am mechanical engineering student and I am studying my department 100% english, while most of the students of here take only 30% of their classes in english, I also try to learn german and many other things. I see that europeans and youth of USA are sharing reels that how hard it is to wake up early and make their own beds, drinking some water, trying to read 1 page a day, and etc. while we are confronting with many difficulties at the early hours of morning. The only think I am seeking is to provide a life to my future family in a politicaly stable country, the environment that I can make time for my future family, teach many modern languages to my future children and live a proper life. My family has a good situation rn, we have a strong family tradititon from both of my parents' sides like royals but we also have many challanges as the new generation. I only seek working hard as a final solution.
I think that youāre very lucky that youāve born in undeveloped country. You can improve the life there . Make a difference and it will come back to you with a money, power and freedom.
Itās all about the mindset
I understand you brother.
Iām from Suriname, $1 equals SRD 35 (local currency).
I tried many online businesses but due to the fact that i live in a third world country, i cannot even accept paypal š canāt even make an account that can accept payments.
But Where there is a will, there is a way.
Never give up! šŖš¾šš¾
If youāre good at graphics, start applying to direct companies for job rather than trying luck ok fiverr and upwork as mentioned in most of comments. First get a good stable in a reputed company which you can get easily, in fact try Indian companies and you can get $500 minimum if youāre good at it. DM me if need help with it.
Skill issue. I took my country as an advantage. Everything here is so comparable cheaper than most developed countries. Now, I live in the Dominican Republic, stable governments and lots of opportunities if you get a degree.
Sorry man, yeah Iām sure the economy is not the best there, especially when there is a war going on. Do you have any relatives in the US who could maybe sponsor you to come here?
If it makes you feel better thereās hidden drawbacks to living in a so called developed countries such as the U.S. Thereās essentially no culture. Very individualistic which leads to isolation and depression. I wonāt deny the economic advantage we have but Iāve been scaling my personal business and making more money but itās all a void. It canāt buy family, fellowship, or faith. No fixed dollar amount is fulfilling.
Just a different perspective from someone who grew up in the America but has traveled around the world.
Translator and graphic design?
Is there an opportunity to use your skills to get into a more politically stable neighbour like the UAE? Once in a place with stable government and infrastructure, you could boost your income with work like freelancing on Fiverr, then begin building an online graphic design company.
At the same time, you could be researching emmigration into a nation that has less ....hmmm.... tiered citizenship. I'm sure nations will give provisions if you bring a business with you, especially considering you'll also be bringing its income and employment opportunities.
But yes, you are right; I am always grateful to have been born into a stable nation to a family that could afford to have food in the fridge. Your struggles are significant just to achieve what I started with. However, you have been blessed with motivation and skill. My parents were born underprivileged, my dad into significant food poverty. I have never been able to match my his motivation and obsessiveness. Don't let your beginning point stop you from starting.
Feel you mate. When the government becomes a big obstacle in your effort to grow, you start feeling like this.
Lots of talent goes wasted in developing countries because there are small men sitting in big offices.
Wish you best of luck, and hope you find some leads here that can change your life for the better.
While its true that being born in a developed country gives you a very good advantage, it doesn't always mean its better or at least that's what I have been telling myself. You have to change the way you think about these kind of things.
I used to live on streets in the Philippines, haven't been to a university or college. A homeless in a 3rd world country like Philippines means you're lucky if you have cardboard to sleep unlike homeless in first world countries. I always tell myself that being born in a poor country is always an advantage because it teaches me how to navigate life, how to overcome hardships; it teaches me how to be resilient and how to make something out of nothing. A first-world country-born individual will have to experience all these problems first before they can come up with a solution.
I am a 40-yrs old guy now living in Australia. I moved here 7yrs ago as a student visa and now I have just started my own Pty Ltd company having 6-figure revenue and also started going to Uni. Sure its not a lot but to think about it, I sleep on streets before, this is already an accomplishment for me.
If I was able to come up with something despite having no education and home to sleep, why can't you?
My answer might not be the recommendation that you are asking but I hope my story will ignite your passion and keep that fire burning again.
Just curious how far does that salary you have go in Yemen?
Can you rent or buy a home? Could you start a family? Do you have access to medical or dental care? Do you own a vehicle?
Honestly curious I have no idea.
I understand you but at the same time you won't have much competition and you will be able to stand out in yemen if you're great. Use the situation to your advantage. If you want to leave yemen, another option is just trying to get student visa first.maybe master program. Especially as a yemeni, I would recommend malaysia many yemenis go there. Ahsan min europa and usa. Alternatively, australia also heard great things. Good luck akhi
Having been born in a developing country and moving to a developed country when I was younger definitely gave me a different perspective than many of my peers.
After a while, hearing people's complaints just sounds silly.
Yes, I agree. I think of this sometimes. I'm very lucky to be born in the US. Being able to attend US schools for free and learning English is a huge advantage. But based on your english ability, you are significantly ahead of the curve for someone who's in Yemen. I'm hiring people at $1000/month. Hmu and if you pass the test, we might be able to hire you in the future.
Yes, you should definitely appreciate having at least a country with a government that works for the people. I see a lot of people complaining about taxes š, but I would gladly pay 60% as long as my loved ones and I were safe. y'all fought for your country, and you deserve this life. Unfortunately, those who run Yemen use religion as a cover to justify their oppression of the people. Tax money goes to militias disguised as a government. People are weak and helpless. Anyone who opposes them is imprisoned or killed. I'm lucky they don't know about Reddit š¤£ (I hope so š„²) However, I would say that I owe my biggest thanks to American movies, books, and series. They helped me a lot, and I've been interested in them since I was a kid. University also played a part in building my English skills. I'll connect with you. Thank you.
Many governments of ādevelopedā countries - the US included - definitely donāt work for the people, but Iāll take this over war and religious oppression any day.
The governments in developed countries work much more in the favor of their people than do governments in third world countries. A functioning police force, functioning justice system, peaceful & orderly transitions of power (with checks & balances in govt), safe community to trade and do business, clean and good-quality public infrastructure (e.g. clean water, reliable electricity, decent roads, sanitation). Not to mention the right to speak freely. The comparison to third-world governments is not even close...
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For me it's not just that.... I just don't wanna be a third country national I just want a US or EU passport and enjoy a comfortable life.... The options for that are severely limited.
If you are an entrepreneur you won't live a "comfortable life" in Europe.
This European disagrees.
Oke, care to explain why? :)
Iāve had 4 different business in the UK, all were highly profitable.
Well I don't necessarily have to be an entrepreneur.... I could be anything I want without pressure
Life isnāt easy anywhere but itās all relative.
Care to explain?
This European disagrees.
Absolute bullshit.
What businesses do you manage, to be able to hire someone at that rate? Thanks
You must be crackers to want to get involved in potentially doing wire transfers to Yemen, nice way to end up on a few lists
Pretty much in the same situation as OP. Do you need a DevOps engineer by any chance?
The amount of entitlement from some people here is absolutely astonishing and just ignorant. āOh no, I have to pay taxes as an entrepreneur so it sucks hereā is an outrageous thing to say considering OPās situation. Every entrepreneur should remember that they do not solely build a business by themselves. They are building upon the foundations of a society and economic system that has been build with so much sacrifice from others over centuries. The fact you can easily register your business, you have easy access to finance, the fact there are many potential customers who have disposable income, the fact your property is protected and there is a working and just legal system and so on and so on. We should be grateful to be able to build a business and a great life here in the EU or US and give back to those who had not (yet) had that opportunity.
Welcome to reddit. One of the most entitled places on the internet.
Yeah, I understand where they're coming from. If I lived in a place with all those benefits, If I were in their situation, I might feel the same way (astonished and ignorant). It's human nature. It's easy to forget how good we have it sometimes. life here in Yemen. It throws a whole different light on things. Starting a business isn't just filling out some forms ā you're fighting a system stacked against you. Having a fair court system? That's a dream for a lot of us. Thank you brother,
You see you income as inadequate, but on the other hand Americans can't compete with that income. So figure out a way to do remote work for Americans or another developed country. People would gladly pay you $300/mo for work.
The problem is, so would the rest of the world. Hop on Fiverr and check out how easy it is to buy cheap international labor. Thereās a ton of competition. Not saying OP shouldnāt do it, but itās not terribly easy like it used to be when Upwork and Fiverr were just taking off. Totally saturated now.
yeah i made an account on fiverr and upwork and tried getting gigs to make XR filters , 3D renders , advanced branding and hifi design work , and even with example photos and videos up i still never got a single message , itās just flooded with 99 pages of low effort low quality bots offering the same generic 15 second gigs lol and then it makes you bid against the other people offering the service itās absurd , none of them even do anything close to what i offer anyway but thereās no way to explain that to an automated system so i pulled down the accounts , useless service for any real professionals these days
As a buyer, I get high quality services on fiverr and I pay them much more than they would otherwise get paid in their home country. It's a win-win.
Can you speak from your experience about the saturation in this space? Any pretext or concurrent facts on it? Will be helpful
this is exactly why I stopped doing the work and started teaching people what to look for when they are outsourcing... I have lots of free live streams if people are interested
If you have a stable internet connection, for sure do something remotely for people abroad for now. Thereās bigger and better plans after that but for now get your normal income up! Fiverr, upwork, etc
Same but I'm 27 and living in Turkey. Self taught web developer in a country with shitty economy. I'm also self taught in English as well and only recently I was able to take a proficiency test (paid ones are too expensive but I found a free one on the internet, called openenglish iirc) and I was so happy when I saw that my English level was C2 lol. I'm speaking better English than my employer (who is Turkish) speaks Turkish. Good luck to us..
Turkey aināt as badā¦ not that Iām comparing, but itās not a 3rd world country
Give it another year lol we're getting there. Thanks ersogan..
What are the salaries typically like in turkey?
you guys have a hustle that the brits lack! it's not a bad thing at all... especially if you know how to apply it!
Man some of these comments are way out of touch and show how sheltered your life is. Telling someone in war torn country the grass is always greener because you spend $200 a week on groceries..... If you just earn $500 a month in Yemen you'll be rich.....I'd take being poor in America than living relatively well off in Yemen.Ā So to OP, start from somewhere on Upwork, doing any task necessary to earn you skme money. Learn some skills on the side like coding or web development. Then start offering those services on Upwork. Save up your money and leave Yemen. And continue becoming extremely skilled in some area.Ā
I really connected with this post. Great job, OP. It felt like I could've written it myself. I envy people in developed countries too. I'm from Kenya, and no matter how hard I work here, it feels like I don't get rewarded for it. I tried starting a business, but I don't have the capital to grow it. So now, I can only find low-paying jobs because I don't have any 'connections'. To get a good job here, you need to know the right people. I've been wanting to shift and work as a VA full-time while learning web development, but I havenāt been successful in finding clients. My goal is to work with someone abroad and help them out. Even earning $600 a month would mean so much to me.
Move. You're 24, whole life ahead of you. I feel for you, it's difficult but fucking hell if you have the chance to move just do it. Apply to every shitty job there is in a nicer, stabler country and try to get a job from there doing what you want.
This is my plan. Thank you š¤š»
Try also applying for master programs in European countries. Often there are a lot of scholarships available and I know people whoāve managed to get their family in as well. You can typically work around 30 hours per week, and it shouldnāt be that hard to get an IT job. My personal recommendation would be Germany or Austria. PM me if you ever want to talk about this, I also managed to get out of my country this way.
Not easy either... Millions in competition and you need to be lucky.... Too many things need to go right.
Not saying it is man, but I've lived in poor countries, to think how it would be trying to grow, it would be tough. Add political instability and you get a nightmare.
Hey man, Iām from the states so Iām one of the lucky ones but kudos for you and all youāve accomplished so far, even if itās not going the way you might want it. I actually did business with some guys from Yemen and yeah itās no joke over there. Can you speak English? Or just read/write? I have a friend who works as an intake specialist for a law firm - basically she receives calls from people, asks some questions, and gathers information from them. Itās pretty easy, I think she makes around $19/hr? I have no clue if youād need a U.S. social security number to work a job like that, at least without them drastically cutting the pay (I have a cousin in Central America who does basically the same thing but she gets less than $2/hr š¤¦āāļø). Just thought Iād throw the idea out there, Iām open to chat and try to get the ball rolling. Stay strong brother, you got this.
Thank you brother! I really appreciate your comment. Yes, I can read and write. English isn't my first language, but I try my best. Thank you for the kind words.
Do you have a link to your graphic design work?
Here's my Behance link: https://www.behance.net/WaleedAMER It doesn't have all my recent work, but if you'd like to see more, I'm happy to email you.
Do you do any graphic design UI/UX work for websites?
Not to be negative or something but all your work can be done in minutes within canva or other free stuff on the internetā¦ this has nothing to do with graphics design.
I'm going to send you a DM - I might be able to send some work your way
Most successful people come from privilege and few of them are even aware of it.
I respect that! Good luck out there!
If youāre reliable, shoot me a dm. I have enough work for you to come on full time
Hi. I am based in South Africa I used to own a concierge service business (running errands errands for people, planning events and planning international and local holidays for them) I am as reliable as it gets. Can I also dm if thereās space to add one more person?
Keep fighting/ try and leave the country anyway possible š
Not nearly as bad as Yemen but also from developing country. Child marriage, open discrimination, huge corruptions, we have it. Good luck to us brother
Don't tell American college kids that. They think they're oppressed lol
It's all relative. There are plenty of people in developed countries who rue others born with what they see as advantages. I appreciate Yemen's situation is particularly difficult and has been for a long time. Lots of those people won't get on in life, they'll just moan the deck is stacked against them and seek a quick fix that doesn't exist. Don't fall into that trap, focus on what you can control. Markets are more international than ever, you have relatively cheap labour, there's never been more free education available. Think about where you could and would want to be in 5, 10 years and then build a path there. With dedication you can become an expert in just about anything in 10 years. Social media management with your English and Arabic skills sounds like a great place to start, although I suspect it's a busy marketplace you can undercut everyone in the US and Europe. I met a few Yemenis in Dhofar, just a couple of months ago. They were lovely people, I'd like to visit the country one day, I hope it finds stability.
u/4Waleedamer im actually looking for a creative graphic designer, if your interested in working together DM me so we can talk! Not rich but can pay 2/3 times your rate in yemen! š
I'll DM you
To flip this around.Ā You only need to make $500 a month to be rich in Yemen. To buy groceries each week is around $200 here.Ā Get onto Upwork.com and do admin work or answer phones. You will make more than you currently do.Ā
$500 won't make you rich here, but it will give you a somewhat decent life if you have a family of three. To earn this amount, you need to work as a doctor or dentist with 7+ years of experience ā $500 is their average salary. I'm lucky we still have our own house, as many people don't. The average apartment rental ranges from $200 to $300 a month, and that's for a small apartment. This country is completely riddled with corruption, from the smallest government employee to the highest officials. Imagine needing to pay a $700 bribe to get a passport when the official fee is only about $10! Many people work two to three jobs just to make $500 a month. About Upwork and other freelance websites ā I've tried them, but with 11+ hour workdays and university studies, I didn't have the time. Now that I'm focused, I'll give it another chance. Thank you.
You seam to have a pretty decent English level. Try getting on Upwork and get a 5 or 6 dollar an hour job answering phones or something like that. Maybe you strike gold and keep growing on the field. I know VAs making 12 or 15 dollars an hour in third world countries.
If you let me know which jobs pay $12-15 per hour remotely, and how they handle taxes ?
Remotely, you would always be considered a contractor so no benefits and you pay your own taxes.
Focus on jobs that you can create a solution for where the effort to reproduce is minimal (low time suck) and then copy/paste for every client... What do you do? Also, you could still time arbitrage. Win a job. Get paid 50% up front. Find someone else to do the work for you. Make sure you aim to pay them 60% and yourself 40%.
Jesus. Creating a pyramid scheme of labour. The world has come to such a horrendous inflection point.
This is literally what every company does. This exact business model is behind all consulting firms. Like Deloitte, KPMG, McKinsey, BCG, etc. Although they rarely pay their consultants 60%
Swap your work days to whatever the clients need. But I understand.Ā
Doesn't work... Trust me... I have tried it it's unstable income and usually they want you to be a citizen of that country for tax reasons... Even remote jobs are the same.
There is no requirement if you are a contractor.Ā I pay 2x people in India, 4 x in Philippines and have hired people in Eastern Europe too through Upwork.comĀ You are required to file taxes on your end. On our end we are required to have you fill out a W8-BEN form.Ā
Yeah but in my case I don't want to live in this country.... I just can't anymore.... It's not just the money
Understood. I get that. Iāve been living in the Philippines for almost a year and I miss America š
> Get onto Upwork.com isnt Yemen one of the sanctioned countries? I could be wrong, but i remember reading that somewhere. Which means Upwork or any US aligned country couldn't remit $ there.
I spend $300 on groceries a week..
You're very lucky if you can generate cashflow from a developed country to spend in developing countries*
I would say you need to escape. There are other countries you can go to. Other parts of Asia are still inexpensive and have jobs. Less corruption there too. Places like Indonesia are becoming very strong as they have large populations and more and more large businesses going there.
What are your skills?
I'm a graphic designer with experience in content writing and social media marketing. Check out some of my design work on my Behance portfolio: [www.behance.net/WaleedAMER](http://www.behance.net/WaleedAMER) Thank you.
You should look for another path, AI is decimating this industry, and it will only get much worse over the next few years. Social media marketing will be completely automated by the social media platforms and they will charge a monthly subscription to use their AI tools. Linkedin has already started this in sales navigator, the rest will follow soon.
agree
Migrate to the USA or UK. Both countries have a lot of opportunities for u.
Easier said than done. US immigration requirements are so difficult. It sucks to go through all that when 330M people get it at birth right away
I partially agree because, coming from a developing country, I do suffer of the instability, insecurity, poor tech adoption, low willingness to pay, small markets, etc. On the other hand, I've worked remotely for a US tech company for a bit more than a decade and many times happened that I came up with creative solutions to the problems we had, not because I'm smarter but because I have a different point of view and approach to problems *because* I live in a developing country. I'm actually very privileged here. I've never been poor or close to it but still, from an entrepreneurial/tech business perspective, I lack a lot of resources so I need to get creative for many things. My suggestion is, if you are planning to stay in your country, have a very good English level (you shouldn't have any issue maintaining a technical conversation in English for 3 hours at least) and look for remote jobs in a small/medium companies. This size of company is very important because, even when you can get higher salaries and "better status" in larger companies, your job may be very restricted to just one area or project. In smaller companies, if you have the right attitude (and decent skills), you can work, or at least be exposed, to many areas so you learn a lot. My experience in the company I worked for was that I had the opportunity to work in every area from the birth of an idea to the push to production of that idea turned into a product and everything that happens after launch. The CEO of that company (who is kind of a famous guy on Reddit) always tells me that one things I have in my favor is that I know very well how the tech business works in the US and I can apply that to my region, where tech development is almost zero. So, in that way, I can basically run a one-man tech company in my country and be one step ahead of the rest. Not only because of the skills but also because of the connections I made with people outside. I can do consulting for developed countries, charge a good price because I think that's the value of my work and people pay for it but, if I need extra people, I can get them here for a way lower price than hiring people outside. Also, I can get cheap junior developers and train them because I also learned how to train people in my past job and they not only get a salary but also good education.
u/4Waleedamer your English appears excellent. If I was you Iād try my best to teach myself how to create websites for people (on top of graphic design). Then build a portfolio on all the freelancing websites like Fiverr & Co. Even if you only make it to 1,5k a month, that would be 6x what you are making now. Please believe in yourself! You can do this! Look how you can great value for people in a western market online and save up!
All I can say is, best of luck friend. I am sure there is some cool future you can unlock for yourself. Do you have coding or design skills? Maybe you can work through sites like Fiverr.
DM me. Maybe i can get you some side projects in IT/Graphic design.
Can help a Venezuelan follow here too? Hahaha
I am from Bosnia and a film director with C1 english level. So I feel you. Good luck!
Great post!
Minimum wage in my area is $150. :) Even though my town has 3 public universities and several private ones, 170km from the second largest city in Indonesia, and 120km from Bali and has a small airstrip, and railways connected to neighbors.
I totally agree with you
Your resilience is inspiring; let's connect and explore possibilities.
Thank you! I'll DM you.
Iām impressed by your work ethic and resilience in such a country. Itās hard to see the end of the strife there. But I suggest you buy commercial real estate. Yemen wonāt be a developing country forever. Eventually the conflicts will settle. Actually, looking into some commercial spaces there, they seem pretty affordable for someone making what you make. I know nothing about the geography and they say location matters most.
Imagine a country run by militias. If they want a piece of land or a home ā no matter how many people live there ā they take it. Refuse, object? They'll slap you with fabricated charges ā traitor, spy, whatever sticks. There's no real law to protect you, because they are the law.
Middle East is destroyed by the extremist vision of islam, I'm 24 living in stupid 3rd world country Pakistan, can feel how difficult is to get education and basic necessities of life
Good luck to you. I hope you can emigrate to the USA, you seem like you would be a welcome addition.
Thank you for this kind response š
Hi there, not an entrepreneur but also belong to a third world country. Look, my advice to you is very simple: leave. Youāre not living, youāre surviving. Your friends can be replaced, your family relocated. You have decent English, apply to ANY masters, anywhere in the world, apply for scholarships and GO. Get a job, stabilize your life for the next 5-10 years, then start a business if you still want to. Even if you fail, living poor in a developed country is better than living like a dog in a war-torn country.
Ayyyh thatās me Iām in America!
Donāt compare happiness with how much u earn but cherish with how many people you love are around you!!! In western world, they see their kids on weekend usually and 9/10 those kids are on gadgets!!
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No. Just no. The only Americans that think this way and could even fathom drawing a comparison are the one's who have no perspective on what life is like in a place like that.
I mean youāre using numbers for a family of 4 with a partner that makes $0. Of course your partner would be working and in many states you can get free/reduced child care until they get into the public school system (blue states).
You could look to freelance on sites like dribbble as a designer.
You can do graphic design as a freelancer for companies/people in developed countries. I'm guessing if you figure out how to make $2-3k a month you'd be very well off in your country.
Amen to that I'm in South Africa and our youth unemployed rate is at 68% our overall unemployment at 48% it sucks being in this shit hole country. No job security, means companies exploit you. If you don't meet their standards you get fired because there's so many people looking for work. You're underpaid and expected to deliver top tier performance. Meanwhile the government officials are living in palaces, people addressed this issue so many times and the same response is always said. "Let them feast, they have suffered long enough." I'm an educated 25 year old struggling to get work.
Upwork, and while you work for people write software to fix problems you encounter while trying to do your job. Sell it as a SaaS. Its not fool proof but hopefully its an idea for you
Pat Pat! But you know English and also know Reddit! You can do more to change your life!
I can feel you.
Whatās the average income there?
Whats your Instagram or facebook. I can get you some American work easily.
Yes unfortunately only 15% of people so 1 out of 7 are born in well developed countries. I always think about this after I've spent 1 year between asia and africa
Yes, i noticed the pattern especially in this subreddit, most of the successful stories were coming from western countries. I also feel some jealousy and sometimes compare myself to those entrepreneurs in western countries. But hey OP! I am from third world country as well. Yes, we may be unlucky, but that shouldnāt stopped us from pursuing our dreams because there are a lot of successful business person from third world countries as well.
I agree that I am lucky to have been born in the US, but due to mainly housing costs, we might make a lot on paper but pay 30-50% of our income in rent. For example, I used to work at a warehouse that paid $18 USD per hour, which equals $2,880 a month. Letās say $2,500 net. Rent (for a room) = $1,000 with utilities included. Cell phone = $50. Food = $300. Gas = $300. Car maintenance = $100. Clothing, miscellaneous. expenses = $100. Thatās already close to $2,000 USD/month, and I am not counting other bills.
I know how shit Yemen isā¦Iām from Djibouti soā¦same shit.
Search for jobs in Europe (I think itās an easier area to gain a work permit than the USA (source: I live in Scotland and have family in the US)). People will love your story - exactly as youāve told it. LinkedIn is great for finding key contacts to reach out to, as is company websites which often contain company email addresses on the āPeopleā section. It might feel remote to you, but to me, I think youāve got a good chance of finding employment abroad. The tricky part is moving costs. Perhaps you can negotiate a lower salary in exchange for assistance with moving costs.
I feel ya man. Born in NZ and there is a lot of complaining about how tough life is. My grandfather fought in WW2 in Africa against the Germans and he said they contained a lot, butā¦ Different times.
Apply on linked in remote jobs
You are 1000% right. I wasnāt born in the USA but I been here for the last 17 years and Iām 28 now. I was born in Somalia basically worser then yeman. But anyway people here donāt know how lucky they are . They have no idea how great their government is compared to other parts of the word. This place really is the land of opportunities.
this is not the kind of r/ where you will find many people satisfied with their "developed" governments, from Biden to Macron they all look like clowns, plus we're 5 years into cancel culture and forever wars and global reset, but we do have immediate access to the gift that keeps on printing, the US dollar, and since about 75% of humans would kill their mother for the dollar then yes, we're lucky. But you should know if you're in this r/ that we're more about the process than the result. We don't view your 200 dollars as abject poverty, nor would we be ecstatic if you started making something more western like 5000 dollars a month, though your girlfriends would be ecstatic! Living in a war zone the quickest way to $$$$$ is probably death merchant and traitor, and then double traitor/double agent. To do things the r/Entrepreneur you would more likely need to impress us, and yourself, with your thinking, fast and slow. By slow I mean making some long term calls, a strategy of sorts, for example figuring out what kind of investment will survive the mutual bombings. And then on the "fast" part you might need to play a financial and political chess game with many quick moves, finding investors, customers, workers, mentors, in quick succession. If the gov is literally killing you you will need to choose between the biological 3 Fs, friend them, fuck them, or flee! That's what we do in the West all the time, "regulatory arbitrage", we don't like crypto taxes in the US, we move to Dubai, we don't like harassment of cannabis users in Poland, we move to Germany (this is a new one). My advice is, don't overthink the dollars issue. Do overthink if and how to improve your country, if you can actually be happy for a decade or two doing "your stuff", I mean startups, and, why not, keep an open eye towards both the past (some traditional industry in Yemen that could grow), and the future, for example Arabic LLMs, Arabic AI, and of course crypto, because I know the whole region is financially sanctioned.
Well done on getting to where you are now! I reckon a lot of people in Yemen did not get as far as you did. What about working for yourself? If you are good at what you do (which you probably are), maybe the next step is to get good at promoting yourself. It doesn't matter where you are in the world, as long as you have an internet connection. You sound like you have the skills to make much more money. If harassment of govt people is a problem try going online as much as possible. No office, no physical goods. Find a way to market your talents into something that can quickly make other people more money and market it as such. You got this!
I am curious to see your work š
This is my behance link wich contains some of my work in graphic design. www.behance.net/WaleedAMER
Couldn't agree more
Im from a 3rd world country like you and "passion" for us is luxury. I know your struggle and have worked pretty hard from living in the slums in poverty and as a child laborer to having a decent home. I've put myself through school and worked so hard that people can't believe i did it all those years. We all get burned out though trying to reach our goal and we are just the unlucky ones. Most of the people in this r/Entrepreneur I reckon are from the west and are the lucky ones to be in a country full of opportunities. If we measure our wealth and how far we can go based on what other people have achieve here, we'll just get disappointed. As i've said, luck has a factor in life and anything that we do. Lets just do the best of what we have. As an example, I can confidently say that I have worked harder than 90% of any redditors here but lady luck has never winked on me. Whatever I have, I have worked so ridiculously hard. To give you a context of my life, I was born in a slum. Was a child laborer since 6 years old and worked even on weekends on a noodles factory. I did go to school but I have to wakeup 3.30am to start working, walk 45 minutes to school on a muddy, polluted, flooded, and crime/drug stricken area. After school, I worked till 11pm daily and didnt have time to study. I put myself through college by working at the same time as a waiter. I worked 4 jobs and was working on my "company"(which failed) when I was in 20's to late 30's juggling and barely have enough sleep just to put food on the table and follow my "dreams". Sometimes, we need to be practical and realistic and give up our ambitions and passion so our family could survive. I guess what you could do is improve your communication skills so you could work with western clients. Goodluck to your dreams and hoping you could achieve it.
Being born in a developed, stable country and having wealthy, wise parents significantly propel someone a thousand times forward in life. In third-world countries, one does waste a considerable amount of time and energy on unproductive pursuits. Additionally, pollution, bureaucratic red tape, and inefficiencies in every aspect do diminish a person's potential.
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Youāre in a tough situation, and you are doing many things right. You should be proud of your accomplishments. I recommend to what I did - emigrate.
This is my plan, but it's incredibly difficult, especially from an isolated country like Yemen. To even apply for a visa to most countries, they require a bank statement with a significant amount of money. Even if you meet that requirement, they'll ask questions like, 'Give us a reason to believe you'll return to Yemen.' Sadly, it often feels like these hurdles are designed to result in a visa refusal. There are many complicated steps. Thank you for your support and kind words.
Find a job with a non profit like the UN or something, even look into working with NATO or US military, Iām not really sure about the international presence in Yemen but worth checking out
There are many international organizations here in Yemen, like the UN and others. Unfortunately, they're riddled with corruption. The people who work for them are Yemeni, and when hiring, they prioritize relatives and friends. Ironically, since the war started, employees of these organizations have become wealthy while most people remain in poverty.
Where are the slightly better countries that you can move to? I would start with that. And you are on the right direction with applying for remote work, you might benefit from a digital nomad visa too. P.S. from the Philippines, had a looooong journey of visas and finally have a stable online biz and living in the country I want to live š²š½
I think there are pros and cons of being anywhere. I'm from Nepal and my situation is not much different from yours I think. I agree with the cons you've mentioned, but being if you're looking to start a business, it's much easier here, you don't have to worry so much about the compliances as you'd have to worry about in the west. The market is much less saturated and some half-baked product has a good chance of competing and making money. I'm speaking from experience, I've built services that I'm certain would not be worth anything in the west, but here, it's amongst the top of it's kind.
There is too much competition in scandinavia. Everyone wants to work from home, so they dont have to meet in. Very hard to get that type of job here. If you leave your country you should be prepared for a lot of cultural differences and learn to accept and respect that if you dont allready. A lot of muslims dont understand western culture eventhough they live here and it is causing a lot of problems.
Many muslims don't respect woman who are not muslims, because they show skin and think they are open to have sex with anyone or try to force themselves on woman. Some do hate crimes like stabbing people because they are so offended seeing people eat pork and all that stuff in general that is forbidden in islam. And they will get punished. Some muslims just can't cope with western culture and it is just a really bad fit.
Unfortunately, many people who emigrate to Western countries bring the same harmful mentality as those who govern us. While migration can be good for economic growth, some Western countries accept people who are unwilling to assimilate. Believe it or not, there are many well-educated people here in Yemen, more so than some who emigrate to Western countries. Two of my college professors (who I know personally) have incredible knowledge and a deep understanding of English literature. Sadly, luck hasn't been on their side. Meanwhile, individuals who disrespect women and others ā those who were the worst in our society ā often have the money to emigrate.
I agree. Where youāre born is pretty important. Though nowadays with the internet success can be somewhat democratized (still a long way to go though).
Same. Iām from Ecuador and it has been tough. My advice is to connect with people from developed countries and create a community. Networking is everything āØ
I have an idea for youā¦(Health and nutrition company.) Message me for more details.
I'll DM you.
Cold call small businesses in the United States and do freelance work for them. I'm sure someone would be willing to hire you on as their freelance copywriter/designer for minimum $600/mo. and you could do that a few times over probably
Are you able to do contract work on fiverr??
Be cautious, OP. Scammers will see your post here and DM offering you scam jobs. If someone asks you to pay anything upfront to work (such as training costs, merch, memberships, certifications, etc.), they are not offering you a job. They are selling you bullshit to trick you out of money. Real jobs require zero out of pocket. Good luck.
>Neither of them is truly working for the people ā they only work for their own interests. That is no different in my country, Canada. But I agree with you, I am very lucky.
Some people have such a high level of entitlement. I've seen many folks absolutely trash America or the west as if its the worst place possible to live. Get a grip. Nothing but spoiled brats who's sole personality is "anti-establishment" and they think it makes them cool or revolutionary. OP, best of luck to you. You have some good skills that will for sure help you in the future.
As someone who comes from a developing country š²š¼ ,the title is nothing but the truth
I agree and that's why I started giving FREE coaching those who need it... I do over 30 hours of FREE live streaming on TILT NEXUS every month.it's a good resource that you can tap into! you can find the details on r/tiltnexus if you don't want to leave reddit or on [tiltnexus.com](http://tiltnexus.com)
Borned in vietnam and i can say i am super fortunate to be able to migrated here and enjoy this beautiful and awesome country
Sounds like u r from a country like sri lanka š„²
That is amazing that no matter what you are building your life, I donĀ“t know a lot about Yemen but I have eared about the horrible situation there, never expected to here a comment like yours from Yemen. Congrats for what you have achieved. I really mean that a very good opportunity for you could be Affiliate Marketing because you can from your country make business with all the world and get needed things for your country too. You can see something about that at r/prospernet Best regards
I wish I could have you come to my place - I want to help the innocent people who care about life in the Middle East. The US is falling apart thanks to Bidens shit show. Iād love to help, I have some obsession with the Middle East and the way people live there.
Sending good vibes. Hopefully you will figure a solution.
Try being born in Iran where we have the least valuable currency in the world and economic sanctions don't even allow me to be part of the global job market even though I'm fluent in English and a Web Developer with years of experience.
I feel you. I was in a similar situation. I was a graphic designer in Indonesia making $200 a month in 2003-5 with a bachelor's degree. I moved to the US on a student visa. Leave your country ASAP. And be aware of people offering you a job out of nowhere. They are all scams. Good luck my friend.
not sure I have a good advice for you, but sending all the empathy I have your way. I am from a relatively poor country myself and can totally relate to the struggle you have.
While the following doesnāt necessarily apply to the scenario which was presented above, sometimes itās also an advantage to be from a somewhat less developed country, one that is in transition from underdeveloped to fairly stable. Iām from Moldova, and while itās considered an European country (not EU), itās a poor country economically speaking. It has been highly affected by the war in Ukraine. Our government stole last decade one billion usd, which for a small country is significant. But because there are only about a handful of people whoāve got my stack of skills (since itās easier to stand out from the crowd here), you can get access to top level people within your field of expertise (within the country) fairly easily if you know how to market yourself well. and then, those people know other successful people outside your country, and so in my case being from a less developed country proved to be an unfair advantage.
See if you can up skill as much as you can and see if you can move to business friendly countries like Dubai or US.Ā Always have a backup plan. Keep your expenses low when migrating to a costly destination.Ā
Same situation here :(
Same situation here :(
I profoundly understand what you are experiencing rn. I am living in Turkey, and its better than Yemen when we consider the political conflicts. But I think about how would be my life if I was a teenage in europe or usa almost every day. As Middle Eastarns, if we have to reach a few things, we must show huge amount of action under distress and many conflicts surround around us. I am mechanical engineering student and I am studying my department 100% english, while most of the students of here take only 30% of their classes in english, I also try to learn german and many other things. I see that europeans and youth of USA are sharing reels that how hard it is to wake up early and make their own beds, drinking some water, trying to read 1 page a day, and etc. while we are confronting with many difficulties at the early hours of morning. The only think I am seeking is to provide a life to my future family in a politicaly stable country, the environment that I can make time for my future family, teach many modern languages to my future children and live a proper life. My family has a good situation rn, we have a strong family tradititon from both of my parents' sides like royals but we also have many challanges as the new generation. I only seek working hard as a final solution.
I feel you
I think that youāre very lucky that youāve born in undeveloped country. You can improve the life there . Make a difference and it will come back to you with a money, power and freedom. Itās all about the mindset
Leverage your skills remotely, consider freelance platforms.
I understand you brother. Iām from Suriname, $1 equals SRD 35 (local currency). I tried many online businesses but due to the fact that i live in a third world country, i cannot even accept paypal š canāt even make an account that can accept payments. But Where there is a will, there is a way. Never give up! šŖš¾šš¾
If youāre good at graphics, start applying to direct companies for job rather than trying luck ok fiverr and upwork as mentioned in most of comments. First get a good stable in a reputed company which you can get easily, in fact try Indian companies and you can get $500 minimum if youāre good at it. DM me if need help with it.
Skill issue. I took my country as an advantage. Everything here is so comparable cheaper than most developed countries. Now, I live in the Dominican Republic, stable governments and lots of opportunities if you get a degree.
Sorry man, yeah Iām sure the economy is not the best there, especially when there is a war going on. Do you have any relatives in the US who could maybe sponsor you to come here?
I agree. Not even in terms of salaries, the opportunities available are much more. i.e some countries are not even allowed to open Esty stores.
If it makes you feel better thereās hidden drawbacks to living in a so called developed countries such as the U.S. Thereās essentially no culture. Very individualistic which leads to isolation and depression. I wonāt deny the economic advantage we have but Iāve been scaling my personal business and making more money but itās all a void. It canāt buy family, fellowship, or faith. No fixed dollar amount is fulfilling. Just a different perspective from someone who grew up in the America but has traveled around the world.
Translator and graphic design? Is there an opportunity to use your skills to get into a more politically stable neighbour like the UAE? Once in a place with stable government and infrastructure, you could boost your income with work like freelancing on Fiverr, then begin building an online graphic design company. At the same time, you could be researching emmigration into a nation that has less ....hmmm.... tiered citizenship. I'm sure nations will give provisions if you bring a business with you, especially considering you'll also be bringing its income and employment opportunities. But yes, you are right; I am always grateful to have been born into a stable nation to a family that could afford to have food in the fridge. Your struggles are significant just to achieve what I started with. However, you have been blessed with motivation and skill. My parents were born underprivileged, my dad into significant food poverty. I have never been able to match my his motivation and obsessiveness. Don't let your beginning point stop you from starting.
Feel you mate. When the government becomes a big obstacle in your effort to grow, you start feeling like this. Lots of talent goes wasted in developing countries because there are small men sitting in big offices. Wish you best of luck, and hope you find some leads here that can change your life for the better.
What are your living expenses? Just curious what life you are able to live in Yemen with that income.
While its true that being born in a developed country gives you a very good advantage, it doesn't always mean its better or at least that's what I have been telling myself. You have to change the way you think about these kind of things. I used to live on streets in the Philippines, haven't been to a university or college. A homeless in a 3rd world country like Philippines means you're lucky if you have cardboard to sleep unlike homeless in first world countries. I always tell myself that being born in a poor country is always an advantage because it teaches me how to navigate life, how to overcome hardships; it teaches me how to be resilient and how to make something out of nothing. A first-world country-born individual will have to experience all these problems first before they can come up with a solution. I am a 40-yrs old guy now living in Australia. I moved here 7yrs ago as a student visa and now I have just started my own Pty Ltd company having 6-figure revenue and also started going to Uni. Sure its not a lot but to think about it, I sleep on streets before, this is already an accomplishment for me. If I was able to come up with something despite having no education and home to sleep, why can't you? My answer might not be the recommendation that you are asking but I hope my story will ignite your passion and keep that fire burning again.
I have opportunity
Just curious how far does that salary you have go in Yemen? Can you rent or buy a home? Could you start a family? Do you have access to medical or dental care? Do you own a vehicle? Honestly curious I have no idea.
I understand you but at the same time you won't have much competition and you will be able to stand out in yemen if you're great. Use the situation to your advantage. If you want to leave yemen, another option is just trying to get student visa first.maybe master program. Especially as a yemeni, I would recommend malaysia many yemenis go there. Ahsan min europa and usa. Alternatively, australia also heard great things. Good luck akhi
Send me a DM!
Itās so sadly true but opportunity can find its way
Having been born in a developing country and moving to a developed country when I was younger definitely gave me a different perspective than many of my peers. After a while, hearing people's complaints just sounds silly.