| In 2012, somebody stole half of my life savings. I was halfway through college (I was an econ major) and had hired somebody to build a website for me. Immediately upon paying them half of the invoice, they fell off the face of the earth and never shipped a line of code. I was left cash-less and code-less. I decided to teach myself how to program so that I'd never need to be that dependent on somebody. I watched hours upon hours of YouTube, audited a handful of CS courses at my university (UVA), and, after about a year, I had become a decent iOS developer. As school neared an end, a mutual friend pitched me on a startup idea he was working on. I agreed to build the MVP, joined him as CTO, and our startup went on to have a $50M+ exit a few years after I graduated. Hugely impactful decision. I'd probably working some finance job I hate if I hadn't made that decision. |