When you put your mind to something, the world will eventually make way.

“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” — Mahatma Gandhi

It’s a cliche to say that all those sleepless nights, frustrations, insecurities, and disappointments were the very things that helped me stay up late working and make me jump out of bed in the morning over those first few years of working.

Knowing what I know now, it’s like looking at the top of the mountain view. At the start of the climb, none of it would make sense — we can’t see anything other than the trail. Some choose to settle with how far they’ve come, some choose to turn around, and a few of those who just keep on taking that next step, no matter how tiring, even when the top is still yet to be seen.

The reality is that the higher you climb, the bigger the world becomes. You have to outgrow a lot of things to see the best version of you.

The things we’ve been trying to avoid are the very things that help us push our limits. The changes and the difficult times are the transformations that will give us wings because, just like how the caterpillar thought it was the end of the world, right at the moment it was about to become a butterfly.

So, enjoy the space between where you are and where you’re going, because the journey is the reward.

I didn’t believe it at first. Looking back, I’m very thankful that I have experienced all those things. Knowing what I know now, if I had the choice between having it easy or carrying my water, I’d honestly choose the latter.

It’s made me appreciate every step I took, and I will do everything to protect all my hard work and my ambitions because they are mine. Not a single knockdown can take me away from this journey.

Do you want to become a developer? Then do everything you can and give everything you’ve got because no matter how far the finish line of becoming a self-taught developer is, it’s there waiting for you too.

“I want to think again of dangerous and noble things. I want to be light and frolicsome. I want to be improbable, beautiful, and afraid of nothing, as though I had wings.” — Mary Oliver.

The Dream

“I dream of traveling in my 30s, but I’d probably be replaced in this company even before I can taste that local food. I wanted to spend more time with the people and things that make me feel alive, but I can’t if I am stuck in this box. If I’m jobless, my parents are going to kill me. I need a job that will not take 50 years of my life just to enjoy the remaining 10, I need a job where I can do both — money and pleasure.”

Define your dream — your goal. Be very detailed about it so you can strategize and properly set up your timeline. Having a clear vision of the things that we want to achieve will help you to know exactly the right actions to take, at the right time — it will give you clarity.

Finally, those thoughts (above) ended after a colleague of mine told me about web development. He quit his job and took a 6-month, study-now-pay-later Bootcamp. I didn’t have the resources to do the same, so I created my timeline — the only thing I could afford at that time was time.

That’s when I became a machine for whom nothing else mattered than getting that first developer job. It took me 6 months to get a yes, and that was after living with five to six hours of sleep a night, sick days, rejections, insults, being laughed at, and being told “you’re crazy.”

You have to find your “why” — you’re going to need a lot of it.

One of the greatest things we can do for ourselves is to create that boundary between us and the rest of the world. When the mind is wide open, the destination becomes clear.

It’s Always Messy in the Middle

This is the chapter where most people skip just because they want to see the happy ending right away.

It is the deep bottom of the iceberg, the hidden chapter, the part that most success coaches don’t talk about when they’re selling themselves. This is the bit that most people avoid, and where most aspiring developers quit.

There is something wrong in this world, and you need to know both sides or you won’t survive.

Rejection After Rejection

The first few times, they hurt. But after a dozen rejections, I got over it. Then I thought, dealing with this isn’t actually about them — it’s about me, how I handle it, and how I accept it to change the course of everything.

Every time I received a call informing me that I didn’t get the job, instead of whining, complaining, and beating myself up, I looked for reasons why things weren’t working. I asked more questions, fixed everything that needed to be fixed, and changed my approach. To this day, I continue to develop and grow. Change happens all the time — we need to learn how to adapt.

Eventually, everything will align and start to make sense. Life is hard for a reason — it’s your choice how you see it. You can always turn around and leave, but how will you achieve anything if you are always scared and always give up?

When you put your mind to something, eventually the world will make way; you just have to stay a little longer and see how things unfold.

People will not believe anything you say unless you show them that it’s possible, I did it, I made it, my resume and job profiles were used to be rejected and ignored. Now, it’s on the search lists, and I’m always invited for interviews and projects. Cling on long enough and watch as your world turns around.

Higher Mountains Ahead

Life isn’t fair. Deal with it and get over it.

Just when I thought I had reached the top of the mountain, I saw how small it was.

Getting my first job was just a ticket to the real world. I worked harder than ever. I thought, “I am working with the giants now, I need to be more than who I am, so I can be just like them.”

“This part of my life, this little part, is called happiness.” — Chris Gardner.

Three months on, in my first job, I was again faced with another obstacle. I was given a new project, a Mobile Application using a licensed-based JavaScript framework. I thought, “Three months of real-life experience and they want me to transition into Mobile Development?” It was crazy, but I didn’t have any choice — I might as well embrace it.

It was just so hard — too much for me to handle. License-based technologies are a pain — they’re hard to learn since there are limited resources, you have to pay a lot to get proper training, and the only other choice is the documentation.

This was the most challenging part of my career as a self-taught developer. I was so close to giving up — just not showing up to work one day because I didn’t have anything to present; my code wasn’t working. But I did show up, my boss didn’t get mad at me, and all those things I was worried about didn’t even exist — it was all just me, overthinking. Imagine if I hadn’t shown up that day! Sometimes you have to allow yourself to suck at something, it’s OK!

There’s no such thing as a mistake — there are lessons that need to be learned. There’s no failure — there is life’s crazy way to make you stand taller. Life is going to shake you, it’s part of the process, don’t give up this time, and see how what you once thought was impossible becomes possible.

We’re all stuck in a box at some time in our lives. It is our responsibility to break free, to always be chasing the next big thing, our next goal.

Never Settle

We need to do a better job of convincing ourselves that we deserve more.

Convincing yourself to continue to study after you’ve achieved many of your goals is quite challenging. My friends kept telling me to loosen up, to relax.

I’ve spent most of my days for the last four years working and studying — it’s become a huge part of me.

I’ve had thousands of reasons to stop, and now I only have a few reasons to open up my laptop on weekends and holidays. But I’m too ambitious to settle and chill — I’ve got a lot more goals to achieve. So I end up with my laptop open again — if Elon Musk works 80–100 hours a week, even after all the success he has, who am I to complain?

As Steve Jobs said, “Stay hungry. Stay foolish”. We’re here to put a dent in the universe, or why be here?

Originally published on Medium, 4 Years as a Self-Taught Developer Today and It Just Gets Better and Better, by me :) Follow me on Medium 😄