Ex Facebook Employee Reveals How He Made $ 1 Million In A Year

Patrick Shyu, a YouTuber who previously worked as a tech lead at Google and software engineer at Facebook, uploaded a video discussing his income after leaving the giant companies.

Shyu, whose channel TechLead has more than 500,000 subscribers, said in the video while others prance around in their business suits, driving Jaguars and acting self important, he made a million just by sitting in his toolshed, sipping coffee.

Shyu was able to generate such a huge amount from two primary sources—YouTube, which Shyu considers his main job and Facebook, which is his “side hustle gig.”  By making YouTube videos, Shyu made over $ 240,000 from ad revenues over a period of 12 months and another $ 260,000 from affiliate sponsorships. While at Facebook, Shyu made a total of $ 500,000 from base pay, bonus and equity, before getting fired.  After adding both the incomes, the total comes to a million dollars a year, Shyu explained in the video.

Even though making a million may sound easy, Patrick Shyu discussed how difficult it is in reality.  Shyu had to work 80 hours a week continuously. This included working from 8 A.M., to midnight every day, including Sundays.  While Shyu urged people not to follow his footsteps, he did acknowledge how beneficial it is to have a second job to boost one’s income.

Patrick Shyu admitted he was able to make more money as a YouTuber than he did working at Google and Facebook.  However, there is a downside to earning such a large amount as one does not have enough time to enjoy the money they are earning.  In Patrick Shyu’s words, he had to sacrifice gaming, movies and spending time with family in order to earn the million dollars. 

Earlier, Patrick came into the limelight when he uploaded a video titled Day in the Life of a Facebook Software Engineer.  In the video, Shyu explained the reason behind him getting fired from Facebook was his YouTube channel.  He further explained the Human Resources at Facebook did not like his YouTube channel, resulting in him being fired.  In the same video, Shyu also ridiculed the work culture at the Company.

Even with the disadvantage, Shyu put more emphasis on how important establishing a business is.  He concluded the video with the statement that there is always a fear of being replaced when working under someone.  However, working on your own business gives you the freedom of generating as much revenue as you want on your own conditions.