So let me tell you a story. It's mine, but honestly, it might be yours too.
When I was a kid, I used to draw cars and bikes all day. Like, REALLY draw them. Every detail. The curves, the engines, the wheels. I'd sit there for hours just sketching, and I thought to myself, "Yeah, this is it. I'm going to be a car designer." That was the plan. That was my passion. Or so I thought.
Then 9th class happened.
I don't know what got into me, but suddenly I was obsessed with the army. I'd watch these videos of Para Commandos and think, "Forget cars, man. I want to do THIS." Me and my best friend, we got serious about it. We trained for 4 months straight. Physical training, studying, the whole deal. We were ready for NDA. We were PUMPED.
And then... we didn't get selected. Neither of us.
That hurt. But we didn't give up completely. We figured, okay, let's do BTech. At least then we'll have a shot at CDS or technical entry later. We chose Cyber Security as our specialization. Made sense, right? Technical degree, still a path to the army if we wanted it.
But here's where things get weird.
I'm sitting there in this Cyber Security program, and I'm thinking, "If I'm learning this stuff anyway, why not actually TRY this field?" So I decided to pick up coding. First language? Java. And I picked Java for the dumbest reason possible - I didn't know how to set up VSCode, Python, or C++. But Java? Java just... worked. First try. So I went with it.
I dove into Java. Learned data structures and algorithms. Did all the problems. And honestly? I didn't enjoy it. At all. But I kept going because, you know, that's what you're supposed to do, right?
Then I tried web development. That was a bit better. Then app development - and oh man, I thought THIS was it. This was my calling. I could see myself building apps, creating cool stuff. I was so excited.
Until I tried to open Android Studio on my 4GB Dell Inspiron laptop.
The laptop literally couldn't handle it. It was like watching a car trying to fly. Just... no. Dream over.
So I moved on to computer networks. And you know what? I actually enjoyed this one. Learning about Wireshark, tcpdump, tracing packets, monitoring network traffic - it was interesting. I was learning real stuff that made sense.
Then I discovered binary pentesting. I read this book called "Hacker: The Art of Exploitation" and my mind was blown. Stack, heap, buffer overflow, format string vulnerabilities, shellcode - all this deep technical stuff that most people never touch. I was hooked.
And that led me to web pentesting. THIS, I thought, was my passion. Finally. I'd found it.
I went deep. Like, REALLY deep. I was reading books non-stop - I must have read 60+ books during this whole journey. Everything from hacking to web security to penetration testing. I learned Burp Suite, PortSwigger Academy, HackTheBox, Caido, subfinder, amass, and probably 500 other tools. GitHub became my second home because I was git cloning new tools every single day. I got so familiar with Git that I could probably do it in my sleep.
I even started building my own tools. I dropped JavaScript and went all in on Python and Bash for scripting. I became really good at it. Like, damn good. I could automate anything, build anything. I felt powerful.
Then came bug bounty hunting.
I loved the idea. No degree required, no certification needed - just find bugs in real systems and get paid. It was perfect. Or so I thought.
I spent 6 to 7 months grinding. And I mean GRINDING. I found 50+ bugs. Fifty bugs. You know how many were accepted? One. Just one. A rate limit bypass in Yatra.com.
They paid me $50.
Fifty dollars for half a year of work.
I burned out. Completely. I was exhausted, frustrated, and questioning everything. But during that burnout, I had this idea. What if there was one platform where every hacker could share resources, tools, ideas, strategies - everything in one place? A single platform for the entire community.
I didn't know backend development, but I thought, "Why not give it a shot?" I called my friend who knew frontend, and I told him I'd handle the backend. So I learned backend development. I read books about Node.js, design patterns, data structures - all of it. And I actually built the application.
Then I did something bold. I reached out to some of the biggest names in hacking - Samcurry, Nahamsec, Gareth Heyes - probably messaged around 500 hackers in total. I wanted to know if this idea could work.
Out of 500, one person replied. Gareth Heyes.
He said, "It's impossible to get all hackers to contribute to one single platform."
And that was it. The dream died right there.
But here's the thing - while building that backend, I noticed something. Something I couldn't ignore.
I LOVED building authentication and authorization systems. Not the entire backend. Just auth. The flows, the security models, the system design, all those tiny intricate details that most people don't even think about. I could spend hours designing auth flows and not even notice the time passing. My friend, the one doing frontend? He didn't get it. He couldn't understand why I was so obsessed with these details.
But I did. I saw it all clearly.
And that's when it hit me.
You know how in nature, every animal has ONE thing they're great at? A lion has its teeth. An eagle has its claws. An elephant has its trunk. A peacock has its tail. Nobody has everything. Each creature has one unique strength.
Even if you look at gods - Shiva is the destroyer, Brahma is the creator, Vishnu is the preserver. Each one has their role. Their ONE thing.
Bruce Lee said something that stuck with me: "I don't fear the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks. I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times."
And I realized - I'd been trying to practice 10,000 kicks this whole time.
Look at my journey: Car designer → Army → Java → DSA → Web Development → App Development → Networks → Binary Pentesting → Web Pentesting → Bug Bounty → Backend Development → Authentication & Authorization.
I kept compressing. Narrowing down. Moving toward something, not away from things. And I didn't even realize it until that moment.
But here's where the real battle started - the battle between my mind and my heart.
My mind kept telling me: "Bro, focus on DSA. Learn the full backend stack. Be practical. Get any job. Everyone says you need to know everything."
But my heart was saying: "You light up when you work on auth. That's your signal."
And I kept thinking about Arjun from the Mahabharata. You know that story, right? Where Dronacharya asks all his students what they see when aiming at a bird on a tree. Everyone describes the whole scene - the bird, the tree, the branches, the sky.
But Arjun? Arjun says, "I see only the eye of the bird."
That's when I made my decision.
Authentication and Authorization is my bird's eye. That's my one thing. I don't need to be a full-stack developer. I don't need to master DevOps, or frontend frameworks, or database administration. I need to go so deep into this ONE thing that when people think about auth, they think of me.
So that's what I'm doing now. I'm practicing authentication and authorization every single day. I'm aiming for IAM roles, AuthN/AuthZ specialist positions. Is it risky? Maybe. Is it conventional? Not at all. But here's what I know for sure:
The world doesn't need another developer who knows a little bit of everything. The world needs people who go DEEP. Who become THE person for one specific thing.
And that's the earth fact nobody tells you - nobody masters everything. Nobody CAN master everything. And that's not a weakness. That's actually your freedom. Freedom to say "this is my thing" and ignore all the noise telling you to learn more, do more, be more.
So if you're reading this and you're jumping between technologies, feeling scattered, wondering if you should add "just one more skill" to your resume... stop for a second.
Ask yourself: What do you keep coming back to? What makes you lose track of time? What do your friends not understand but you see with complete clarity?
That's your signal. That's your one thing.
Go practice that one kick 10,000 times.
Trust me, it's worth it.
What's your one thing? I'd genuinely love to hear about it in the comments.
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