Yiğit
Şahinoğlu

2005 · 12

Earning money is not easy, and being able to stand on your own feet is something truly valuable.

Elazığ

Born in 2005 in Elazığ, eastern Turkey, into a middle-class family. At 12 he went to work. Weekends and holidays: simit on the street. His father’s small shop. Apprentice. Mopping. He says he entered work early, before he knew what those years would become.

16

It was the first time I was running something that was truly my own.

Bicycles

He has loved bicycles since he was a child. At 16 he opened an Instagram account and sold parts for nearly two years. He rented a small bike shop in Elazığ. A small shop. The first thing that was truly his.

16–18

Your circumstances do not completely define you. What you do with those circumstances does.

Cleaning, then school

Beside the bikes, a cleaning company, about two years, from 16 to 18. Sometimes seven days a week. Tired days. Days he asked what he was doing. At 18 he left ordinary high school for open education, so the hours could go to work. He does not call that choice right or wrong. He only tells what it taught him.

18

Sometimes going back does not mean giving up. It means preparing yourself to try again.

A passport. Two days.

At 18 he wanted to see the world. He got a passport. First trip abroad, to Dubai. It did not go as he had pictured. Two days later he was back in Turkey. He is not ready to tell that part in public. The sentence he keeps is the one about turning back.

Pakistan

You came all the way to Pakistan — we can't let you leave without starring in a mango ad. So here I am in a loud jacket, posing like a model.

Pakistan’a geldin o kadar, seni mango reklamında oynatmadan göndermeyiz dediler ve böyle cıvıl cıvıl ceketler giydirip manken gibi pozlar veriyorum

Pakistan

His own caption, written on the photo. The jacket was the ad.

2025.09.14

No matter what happens, keep going.

Luang Prabang

14 September 2025, first arrival in Luang Prabang. He did not want to be only a person moving on. He opened a hostel and still runs it. At 21, far from home, a business in another culture. He sees it as the result of years of work. From a 12-year-old selling simit on the streets to a young man running his own business in another country.

21

In the end, destiny wins.

Destiny prevails.

The other side of the camera

He shares the road so it is not only his. Longer films. Real stories. Not where he went and what he ate. An Instagram account with many followers was closed. He did not stop. Followers are not the point. The stories are. He is an entrepreneur, a traveler, a YouTuber, 21, still learning. The story is not perfect. He has failed, been afraid, been lonely, cried. Many of the things that shaped him came from those days.