It was a regular PNW summer morning. I was sitting with my head down, eyes closed, rubbing my hands together. The summer sun was slowly heating the air outside, but my room was still cold from the night. As I felt the palm warm up, I lifted my head and placed my palm on my face, gently rubbing my cheeks and eyes. Slowly taking in the heat. My brain was already running, thinking about what I had in store for the day.

Ding.

Ding. Ding.

I opened my eyes to the familiar sound of a Teams app notification on my work computer. I hadn’t even logged in to the computer for the day, and it was already beeping away.

Ding. Ding. Ding

I logged into the computer right away - I dread this very moment every fricking day!

I quickly opened the Teams app to check the slew of notifications.

Beep.

This was different. This time, it was on my phone, and I picked it up to check the notification. It was 9AM, and the notification was from the mail app. I guessed it would be another random newsletter I had subscribed to but was not opening or reading.

I saw who it was from, and I took a deep breath.

My thoughts wandered back to the 2011 - 2012 period - It had been a couple of years since I started working. I had started and failed at two startup ideas. Blogging and social media were still young and fresh. I used to blog occasionally, but nothing worth mentioning as I had nothing to share.

Around that time, I stumbled across this authors long “year-in-review” blog post. It was mid 2012, and the author was Nathan Barry. It was a well-written post. I found it fascinating and started consuming his other posts. I stumbled across this post where Nathan mentions Chris Coyier, founder of css-tricks.com, co-founder of codepen.io, and a well-known personality in the Web development space.

Quoting Nathan:

When Chris Coyier started CSS-Tricks.com he and I were about at the same level. I remember reading his tutorials and thinking “I already knew that”. Even though I didn’t learn much initially I was impressed by his ability to explain complex CSS concepts in an easy to understand tutorial. I started sharing his articles with friends who were learning CSS and asked me questions.

The difference between you and the popular author is the same as the difference between Chris and I back in 2007. He put the effort in to teach people whatever he could, while I continued building websites, not sharing what I learned. Rather than complaining about someone else’s success, I’ve been changing my methods over the last year. I now share and teach whatever I can and you should too.

– Nathan Barry in 89,697 Reasons to Teach Everything You Know .

At that point, I had been following Chris’s work for a while and was familiar with his content and the Kickstarter campaign. I shared Nathan’s sentiment.

I vouched to share and teach whatever I learned.

I failed.

At that exact moment, this realization and the ding of the Teams app brought me back to the real world.

I stared blankly at the slew of notifications on the Teams app.

Nathan Barry became an established author, speaker, and CEO of a successful software company.

After 12 years, I am still a software developer.

Don’t get me wrong. I have grown leaps and bounds personally and professionally. However, the development is not reflected in reaching my personal/professional goals. As mentioned, I started and failed two startup ventures, where I learned a lot. We applied most of the learnings to my wife’s headshots and branding photography business. But I am far from where I envisioned being in the same time frame.

Looking foward

Nathan doesn’t know I exist, but his journey resonates with me. I am so delighted to see his growth and evolution over the years, as it inspires me to strive for my own personal and professional growth.

Twelve years from now, I am determined to be in a different place—a happy place where I feel like I am in control of my career and where everyday work brings me joy.

As of this writing, June 25th, 2024, I am 1381 days from my 40th birthday. This would be a major milestone, and I want to make sure that I am making good progress on reaching my goals before this time.

This commitment to my personal and professional growth is what drives me forward.