[pastullo]

For me, it has been the ability to build websites. This is the very skill that changed my life for the better. Why? First of all it opened so many more job opportunities. I graduated in Economics and Management, just like tens of thousands of other kids. Very few of them though knew HTML, leave alone a full-stack web framework. Coding was an incredible asset that landed me great executive digital jobs all over the world and made my low grades much less important.

So from a career and safe job point of view it was great. But even more important is that somehow i am the go-to person when a friend of mine wants to build a brand new digital business, which today's always requires a website of some sort. Being able to bootstrap a digital business is an incredible way to increase my chances to reach financial independence.

Being able to build any kind of website has thus been the greatest advantage and has definitely shaped my life for the best.

All the time spent reading programming books, tutorials and debugging my early apps really has paid off. When i look back, i am amazed by how much each single hour i have invested into web development, has given back to me as financial return.

This however has shaped a bit negatively the way i relate to learning new skills. When i am comparing each potential new skill i have to invest time in, with the incredible returns i got from web development, i find tough to invest time in something difficult to monetize immediately. In the end i guess each skill you learn enrich you somehow.