I started programming in tenth grade. I started with a year-long Visual Basic class, then a year long AP Java class. During my senior year of high school, I worked for the National Security Agency (the FBI is who you hear breathing on the other end of the line, and the CIA is the one that topples foreign governments hostile to the USA. We’re the good guys).
One day my manager came up to me and described a fairly complex project he wanted done in Perl.
“But I don’t know Perl.”
“That’s okay. Here’s six books. (He dropped them on my desk) The rest of the O’Reilly books are on the intranet. Take as long as you need.”
3 months later, I had completed the project.
I went to Rochester Institute of Technology to study Computer Science because I really enjoyed programming. I loved problem solving, I loved being able to type some characters, then see something happen. And if I changed a few characters? I could make something completely different happen. It’s like being an architect, but you don’t have to wait years for someone else to build your skyscraper for you. But after a year or so, I realized something.
I wasn’t a particularly stellar developer.
I certainly wasn’t bad – I had a good work ethic, a good attitude, and I really enjoyed programming. I got assignments done in class and I finished a few side projects. But I was solidly in the middle of the pack. And that’s when I realized I had a decision to make.
Did I want to be a mediocre developer, or did I want to be an awesome something else?
I decided I wanted to be an awesome something else.
I started learning about business, marketing, organization, and leadership by actually DOING it through the awesome Rochester parkour community I developed in Rochester. At some point I realized I have a very unique skillset – I understand technology and I can code, but I also understand business, marketing, and how to get shit done.
I walk that line between “tech guy” and “business guy.” And that is something I am awesome at.
