-why you should keep coding-

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You decided to start programming? You are doing it on the side? You have another profession and job? You have a family and no time left? This is for you. Just a reminder on what is necessary.

📄 Table of contents

I started a year ago

Exactly 1 year ago I decided to quit my job and started to learn to code. I knew that it was right. I never looked back. The start was easy. A lot of motivation and endless ideas. So far it was a great experience just to realize what it means to pursue a dream on the side. Studying, working and just being exposed to all the great things this world has to offer makes it freakin' hard. What I've learned so far:

Be prepared to give up a lot of things

"Sacrifice who you are for what you will become" - Eric Thomas

Boy I had no idea what that meant. But I sure do now. Read it again. Ask yourself what it means for your life.

I can tell you what it meant for me: It sure is a lonely road. When you are working 20 or 40 hours a week. Still studying, having a relationship, a family or contributing regularly to a community, you will have "no time". You are exhausted and want to relax. Your body wants everything except doing what's necessary to achieve your goal. You have certain habits. And those keep you from getting your goal.

Ask yourself: When you come home after an 8 hour day, are you sitting down and start working on that dream of yours? No? Why not? Is it a thing or just an excuse? Most of the time it's an excuse.

"Success is a very, very lonely road. Very few people are willing to make the sacrifices and take the pain to be successful. It’s an uphill battle and along that road, you’re not going to see too many friends. You’re going to see your shadow most often. You gotta trust in the heart of hearts – inside that what you’re doing, what you believe in is a worthy cause and a winnable fight. See, the thing is for many people – they’ve tried the same path that you’re on and they failed. As you walk this journey you’re going to see carcasses of people that walked this place. People that didn’t quite have it… And that should inspire you because you got further than that person and that person. But you’re not looking to get further than them, you’re looking to finish." -Greg Plitt

Be prepared to disappoint friends and family. Because you don't have the time to go out for another drink. You don't have time to go to another birthday party. You have a dream. You have a goal. And for that it's necessary to take cuts. And it's amazing what happens afterwards. They start doubting you. As soon as you start to focus on yourself you're losing their support. Many times I was enchanted when that happened. It doesn't bothered me a bit, since my dream is bigger than their crying, but it was mesmerizing to see it happen each time.

Get comfortable being a disappointment

That's especially important for family. All of them have their own vision for you. Mostly very conservative. Maybe you're excelling in a certain field. Maybe you are already successful. Maybe you lose everywhere. Maybe everything you touch turns to shit. Doesn't matter. Be sure that your new dream and change of the status quo will bother people.

"Late Nights, Early Mornings. Lots Of Associates, Very Few Friends. You Will Be Misunderstood Constantly. You Will Be Single Unless You're Lucky Enough To Find Someone Who Understands Your Lifestyle. People Will Want You To Do Good But Never Better Than Them And For That Reason You Will Do A Lot Of Things Alone." - The Cost Of Ambition

This goes even more for coding. You WILL spend a lot of time in front of your computer. Doesn't matter how many classes you take, hackathons or pair programming you do. Coding is learnt where it's done - on your seat in front of a display doing a lot of think in your own head.

So get comfortable being alone.

Start loving the pain of failure and fatigue

This is true for nearly any endeavor in life, but goes very well for coding. OMG I freaking love it when I'm sitting hours for 10 lines of code and when I'm finished everything breaks.

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The ultimate factor: WORK

However you define "work", without explaining you know what I mean. For me it's doing the things that bring you one step closer to your goal.

There is one person that preaches work and that's Gary Vaynerchuk. Here is a great motivational video, which I for sure watched more than 100 times.

What does work mean? Work is NOT doing something 9to5. It is NOT doing what everyone does on a daily basis. Work starts when the normal things are done. The work starts when you come home from your job. The work starts on the weekend. There is no weekend. But there is work. Work starts when you don't feel like it. What's work in programming? Work is coming home and firing up your PC to get shit done. Writing code every day. Learning things about programming every day. Progressing on curricula, reading more books on that topic, contributing to open source. Do it - all day every day. That's work. And not just for a week. Not for a month. Not for a year. Do it as long as it takes to reach your goal. When your goal is to be the best, then there will never be "good enough".

Too tired? Too exhausted? Not in the mood? Start working!

Why you should keep going anyway

I want to answer this question with some quotes from Steve Jobs:

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and you're life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money. That's a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again.

For me it reflects so much in programming: Nearly everything today is largely influenced by programmed machines.

A great talk, really great TEDX talk is from Justin Richards, where he talks not about coding but creating:

Conclusion

Was this a little bit more provocative? Yes? It should. Because wherever you are. Whether it's on your phone in a tram or your laptop in a library or your computer at home. Most of you will read it and go on with everything you do. Maybe you smile because you were slightly entertained. 80% will act like that and guess what? You won't achieve your dream because you don't take action. But some of you do. Some of you might start mapping out there future of greatness. Or better, continue to work their ass of to achieve everything they want in life. Stop wishing and start doing.

Act

"Momma said, you could be anything in this world You could be anything in this world But of all things in this life you could pick to be You sure look like a hater or a bitch to me" - G-Eazy

If you gained something from this article let me know with a comment or heart. Make sure to follow for more :)

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