“But I've managed to do OK.”
You're a professional photographer. You're talking to someone who's not a photographer about your job. You've told them how difficult being a photographer is because of competition from the Internet and other photographers. But you are successful anyway. You say this.
But I've managed to do OK.
Want Video and Sound? Follow us on YouTube
manage to (do something)
To "manage to" do something is to successfully do something, even though it was difficult. A few examples:
Aaron managed to get us front-row tickets to see The Rolling Stones. Can you believe it!?
I was a horrible student. I just barely managed to pass 11th grade.
do (well / OK)
To "do well" means to get a good result. People usually use this phrase to talk about how much money someone has made:
Their software design firm has done extremely well over the last 5 years.
You can also say that something "did OK":
We did OK in the first quarter, but I think that our second quarter growth will be really great.
Use "did OK" when the results are only gotten slightly good, or if something was really successful but you want to downplay it.