Chapter 64 of the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu has a line that I’m particularly fond of that reads:

A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.

Lao Tzu

I’ve taken quite a few steps over the 12 or 13 years that I’ve been in coding. I started out penniless. Well, not really. I had to find a few quarters in the couch cushions in my parents house. It’s one of my favorite stories.

I was at a point where I had tried almost everything I could think of to make some kind of money so that I could start my life. You know, get a crummy apartment. Get a beat up car that will get you from point A to point B with only superficial parts of the car falling off in a clanging cacophony in a quiet neighborhood after coming off a 7 AM – 11PM shift. Ramen noodles for a few weeks. A lumpy mattress. Maybe, just maybe enough to turn on the AC in the height of summer.

I was about 22 years old. It’s kind of hard to remember when my journey started, but I had graduated college at 20 and I had been balancing crummy job after crummy job, never really able to hold anything down long enough to call it a career. I wasn’t taking care of my physical or mental health.

Finally, I decided, why don’t I get into computers and technology. After all, my little brother Eric was able to do amazing things with computers, so why couldn’t I? Anything he could do, I could do better!

So I picked up a book on PHP. The rest? I won’t say it was easy going, it was a wild rollercoaster ride: I spent years working 80 hours a week as a freelancer for years. It took 2-3 years until someone took me seriously enough to give me a fighting chance at a “real” job. I took his coding challenge and trial by fire interview process and knocked his socks off.

Now? I find myself wondering what’s next for me. Where am I going? What is my end goal? What will that be like? As I look back on the past 13 years, I’m impressed. I’ve grown so much.

I can’t verify that he actually did say this, but there’s a quote often attributed to Albert Einstein.

Everybody possesses some sort of genius. But if you judge a fish by his ability to climb a tree, he will spend his entire life thinking he is stupid.

– Probably Not Albert Einstein

Trust the path. Find your genius. Find what makes you tick. And run with it.