Today was my last day at the job I have had for the past 7 years. This day has been a long time coming but not because anything was bad about the job but about a grand plan I have had for a long time.
This post is partly inspired by DeChamp's post 25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning.
In the beginning
I've been fascinated with computers from a young age. I remember in kindergarten there was a Windows 95 machine running some game and I was just drawn to it - maybe even hogged it a little from the other kids.
In early primary school, I was showing off my amazing skills by... changing the desktop background. You should have seen the amazement in the eyes of other students!
As my skills got better, I more clearly defined what I wanted to be when I grew up. I don't hold much sentimental value in work I did for school but there is one "what do you want to be when you grow up" type assignment that I'm glad my mum kept.
Keep in mind I was 11 when I wrote this and I couldn't spell to save my life.
Now, I don't have half of the degrees I talk about in that letter but the core of what I was meaning there hasn't changed. I do want to be a computer hardware developer, computer software developer and company founder/owner.
By the time I was in high school, I knew a bit of JavaScript and was learning PHP and C# from a friend of mine. Without this friend, I wouldn't be the programmer I am today and for that I am truly grateful to them.
Unhappy with the pace of progress in high school, I left it to begin a special course that got me into university earlier than I could have otherwise.
I got my degree and worked as an Apex/PHP/.NET/SysOps/whatever-the-company-needed-me-to-do for the next 7 years which brings us to today - my last day of work.
Starting something new
There is both a certain sense of freedom that comes with working for yourself but also with some amount of uncertainty for the future. One of the biggest uncertainties can be the flow of money coming in and depending what you try and make for yourself, you might have months of low-to-no income.
I'm personally branching out to make a SaaS product and while all my development time is "free as in beer", when you need to worry about legal costs or costs to third-party services, things get more complicated. You can be thousands of dollars out before you've made a single cent.
I may have been running a small business on the side for many years but all this I have ahead of me is still full of unknowns. I don't yet know whether my target audience will accept my product (though people I have talked to so far seem to like it). I don't know if I have made some terrible bug in the code base (bugs happen but you don't want some Day 1 fail scenario).
I may not be the best person to even execute my vision but I think if I try, that's best. To be in a position where you could do what you wanted but let that opportunity slip by may live with you forever.
While I have a lot riding on me being successful in my endeavour, sometimes you need to risk it to get the biscuit...
Latest comments (24)
Good luck James! I'm in a similar position right now (also worked for 7 years and trying to launch my business). I'm looking forward to the moment when I'll have the guts to quit my job.
Goodluck.
Don't worry about the day 1 bug. There will be 100 and it won't matter.
"You can be thousands of dollars out before you've made a single cent."
You don't need to be out of pocket at all. Getting started is so cheap today. AWS, Stripe. You're not paying large amounts unless the site is popular.
With the day 1 bug part, I mean more like if the entire thing collapses. 100% there will be bugs and they will affect a lot of people but let's hope nothing catastrophic on the first day!
With the out-of-pocket stuff, a lot of that is legal fees for things like trademarks, setting up the business structure, T&Cs/Privacy Policies, making sure I have the right sales tax in specific districts etc etc. Not everyone needs to do every one of these but I'm trying to get it all right from the get-go. 🙂
Bon Chance James!
Nope not on PH Makers, only just saw a link to it yesterday in their nav. Might look into it further 🙂
All the best buddy, I wish you success on your new journey.
Not wishing you luck, but success. That's what you get from your efforts. Keep it up!
Best of luck James! Thanks for sharing. It's ironic that I came across your heartwarming article as I'm about to start my Day 1 as a Developer hehe. It helped
Best of luck to you also then! 🙂
Got to say, this makes me feel extremely old, having started well before DOS and Windows 3.1, but also very happy to see other's follow their passion so thoroughly! Keep it up! I'm following and rooting for you!
Good luck..