My friend dreams of becoming a streamer. That’s not about money or popularity. He just wants to create content — his, special content — so that someone enjoys it.
I always wanted to blog. I think I have this inner desire of sharing my thoughts and findings with people. I want to create personal projects, learn new technologies, but I feel that if I don’t share it, don’t document it — then it’s senseless. The words from Jonathan Livingston Seagull: “Our purpose for living is to find that perfection and show it forth” resonate with me. I thought about it a lot. And this time I decided to act.
But before we start…
I, like many of you, was interested in computers from a very young age. Created the first website at 10 and also got paid for it. A couple of years later I won the School and then the City IT Competition. I liked computers and stuff, but in spite of this, I never wanted to be a developer. That’s why I studied management at the University, started an ecommerce store (even had my first sales), and owned the fast food bar for 14 months. While I was in business, I got myself into debt and was paying it for the next three years. Long story short :)
During these life periods, I always ran from software development but continued to look back. Closing the bar was one of the hardest moments in my life. I told everyone I know that I have big plans to make it a chain, had huge dreams about it. Somebody might call it youthful maximalism.
One day I was sitting there, waiting for clients, and understood better and better that I can’t afford to continue the business. I had a Zugzwang*. My debt was already huge and each month I run a bar the debt will grow and make it worse. I had to admit defeat.
Was it easy? Definitely not. But one thing was even harder — answer the question "What’s next?". Smart people tell you to focus on your strengths to find out what to do with your life. I was 22 back then, what are my strengths? Tough one. The same people say you are the best at what you love doing. Well, it was a better place to start, and here’s why.
By this time I better knew what I like to do and what I don’t. Definitely, I love building systems. When a lot of small pieces work together and create desired output…it feels amazing! Even when I ran a bar I spent a lot more time creating financial models, marketing system, and employee instructions than anything else. Also, I was creating a nice website for my bar. Did the business need it? Nope. These thoughts were crafting my answer…
Software development seemed like a perfect path for me: I love systems, I love to create, I enjoy computers, and enjoy learning stuff. Most of my friends were developers or worked in IT. But why didn’t I walk this path after school, when everybody told me so?
Surprisingly, it was an easy one, and the answer immediately popped up in my head. Ready? Because I did not want to be a fat lonely four-eyes nerd with a boring life. Can you believe it? Somebody told me that bullsh*t and it made a huge impact on my life. Damn psychology!
Nevertheless, I don’t blame anyone. It’s not like I listened to this voice and ended up in prison. I’m happy that I ran the fast food bar. It cost me a lot, but the experience I got was worth it. Also, knees heal faster when you're young.
There’re three main reasons:
What’s next, you might ask? Well, for the beginning I want to solve one single problem that I was thinking about from the time I created my second React component...
Stay tuned.
Last updated 20.02.2023