It’s crazy how things have changed for me in 2 years. For the better. In mid-2008, I was questioning my future. I needed some change, but didn’t really know what to do, and how to ‘activate’ the change. A lot has happened since then.
Back in July 2008, I was doing web development, working for a single client. It was okay, and while it could be much better, I wasn’t comfortable with web development itself. I’ve studied desktop application programming and felt web programming wasn’t as easy to structure, organize and debug. At the end of August, I fucked up big time. I had written some bad code on a client’s site, and instead of deleting files in a single folder, it ended up deleting everything on the server. Being not professional at that time (I’m a little better now), I didn’t have a good backup. Data was lost, time was lost, but most importantly, my client lost trust in me. I lost confidence in myself too.
I stopped working for that client and worked on smaller contracts, while trying to find a new road to put my wheels on. In November 2008, after talking for several weeks with 2 friends who were also looking for new adventures, we decided to team up and create our company. Our goal was to make iPhone apps. I was excited to learn something new, and leave web development. The early days at the company were stressful as I struggled with administrative stuff. I finally started coding on the iPhone in February 2009.
Things were doing great for a couple of months. I started to attend tech events in Montreal, and met people as passionate as me about technology. That was the first time since I left school that I was able to share my interest for computers with people that were geekier than me. I started using Twitter a lot more as well, following more and more interesting people. I was in a great learning and eye-opening phase.
But then again, it was not all good. In May 2009, I began to feel my associates weren’t bringing as much in the company as I did. Despite telling them several times what I felt, nothing happened, and in July, I decided it was time again for a change. That change went much faster and thanks to the networking I had done the months before, I had a couple options. I announced my friends that I was leaving the company to go back working as a freelance, and I immediately started working with WhereCloud. It went so well that I’m now a full-time employee, loving my job, my coworkers and the whole situation.
Those last 2 years were like a roller-coaster, as life is in general. I skipped some painful parts from this story, like financial issues and betrayals, but you get the idea.
-
The thing is, if you want to succeed in life, you have to make tough decisions, and take some risks. You should trust your instinct as much as you can, and if you feel something is wrong in your life, do something to fix it. It’s never easy to leave a certain comfort. and taking some chances can put you down, but we always bounce back, stronger. Don’t be afraid to shake things when times are bad, because it will always get better.
No success will happen if you do nothing.
