lessons from the Spanish countryside

Hello,

So after a few days of sunshine and delicious food, I am back in Berlin. And back to doing what I love the most!

Which is helping you become a better developer... And a better human!

Anyways.

As I was traveling through the wide Spanish countryside, I had tons of flashbacks. Childhood memories, uni, internships, first line of code, first programming job…

And you know what, it’s been a hell of a ride!

Looking back to how it all started, I couldn’t stop asking myself… How the hell did this happen?

I will not bore you with the details, but let’s say my family has quite humble beginnings.

Dad was a mechanic. Mom stayed at home to take care of me and my other 7 siblings. Yes, you’ve read that correctly, I come from a huge family.

No one in my family was an engineer. Let alone a programmer.

The closest thing to that was an uncle who used to repair broken televisions. And drink too much!

And to be honest, I didn’t even like computers that much.

I remember Bogdan messing up with the bios memory of our first PC when we were 14. But other than video games, we didn’t do much on that Pentium 4.

Why am I telling you all this?

Because I know many of you come from similar backgrounds. Most of the devs we work with don’t have formal education in computer science. They also don’t have relatives that code or friends in their social circle besides some co-workers.

And even if they do have a CS degree, those degrees didn’t thought them much about how to write great software.

So, I want you to know that it is possible.

You can write your own history. You are doing so every day you wake up. One step at a time. One step closer or one step further from your dreams.

It’s been almost a decade since the first line of code I wrote, and I have no magic bullet for you. Success is a lot of hard work!

Of course, there are patterns you see...

The first one, for example, is never giving up.

No matter how hard it gets. No matter how many failed interviews, negative feedback, jobs, or projects that don’t work out…

You have to keep on going.

Most people never make it because they quit way too soon.

You might wonder what too soon means?

Take it this way, you should think not in terms of days, weeks, or even months. You should think in terms of decades. Yes, decades!

Most people can’t do that. They stick to things for a while, then get distracted and quit.

The thing is, when you think of success in terms of decades, you commit in a much deeper way than most.

You hang in there when things don’t work out, even if it means months without any real victory! And then, when you expect it the least, good things happen!

I can go on for hours about this mindset, and maybe I will, on our YouTube channel!

Subscribe here <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC07G4rT6ZvDv0lokaVHKeQw?sub_confirmation=1> if you haven’t already!

The second thing is mentors.

Yes, that means family members, teachers, friends of friends, or even strangers that believe in you and see the potential you have even if you don’t see it for yourself.

If there is one thing I’ve been blessed with, it was many great people in my life that showed me the way.

Sometimes I was the one looking for them; other times, we just bumped into each other.

A piece of advice in a hard time that will keep you from quitting, point you in the right direction, or simply let you know that everything is going to be fine is more than priceless!

It can make or break your career.

If you are looking for mentors and a community of developers on the same path as you, then our Software Mastery Mentorship program might be for you!

You can apply to see if you qualify here <https://www.theseniordev.com/apply> (we’ve filled up all spots for February and putting together a waiting list for March)!

We will help you discover precisely the bottle-neck in your developer career. Is it direction, clarity, or specific technical gaps you’ve accumulated during the years? Whatever it is, we can and will help you out!

Apply for the waiting list now!

Take care, Dragos

p.S. A few days ago, I sent an “ask me anything email.” Many of you emailed me questions, and I couldn’t answer all of them. But I will. I picked them up, and I will answer them on video via our YouTube Channel. I don’t know exactly when I will do so, but the best way to ensure you don’t miss those videos is to subscribe here! <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC07G4rT6ZvDv0lokaVHKeQw?sub_confirmation=1> Cheers :)