On 20 October 2010, at 10:46, Chris Barin registered on 99designs. Three weeks later he won his first contest. The prize was $1,247.

He had begged his parents for a computer for three years before they bought one. He grew up in Romania after communism, in a family where money was tight, with no design school, no contacts, and a monitor that didn't display colour properly.

He entered close to 400 contests. He won 49. A win rate of about 13 percent, and 13 percent was enough.

This is the whole story, including the parts that don't flatter him. Freelancing became an Android app company whose products passed 120 million downloads, until Google Play changed the rules and it collapsed. Teaching became a career. A healthy-food startup became a EUR 250,000 hole he is still climbing out of.

You will hear:

• Why a 13 percent win rate is a workable business model

• What speed, repetition and consistency actually cost

• His back, and what ignoring it took from him

• Building a team, and letting go of someone you like

• What happens when your income sits on a platform you don't control

• Where the money went

There is no formula here and he doesn't pretend otherwise. It is one person's account of turning a single skill into a living, told with the numbers attached and the losses left in.

Written and narrated by the author.