I was completely broke, alone, and scared. I had no home, just places to stay. And I was undoubtedly lost. I had a part time job to help pay for food, gas, and my cell phone. Other than that, I didn’t have anything else. I knew something had to change, and at that time my life collided with Cody Wray who was the VP of Technology for Lending . com and CS. He offered me a job based off of some hobby programming I had done, but I was scared to death of not being good enough to someone again. In fact, I called and emailed him 5 times before I started asking him “Are you SURE I’m the right guy for the job? There isn’t someone better?”

You see my entire life I had been conditioned that I wasn’t good enough. And at this point in my life, I couldn’t handle another failure. I was at rock bottom.

The few friends and family that I still had were all telling me the same thing, “This is a mistake. Stay in school, get your degree. You’ll hit a ceiling this way, you’ll regret this. Everyone else in school will be better than you. They’ll become more successful than you.”

But I knew something had to change. So I did it anyway, and in that moment realized I was fully on my own. In the strangest of ways, having nothing, nobody expecting anything from you, and being 100% on your own is the most freeing thing in the world. But it’s scary as hell. But in that moment I realized I was the only author of my story, nobody else. It’s when my common saying “Let’s do this” was born from.

I did the only thing I knew to do. I went to work. I worked full time, and then every night after work I just read computer science books & did hobby programming to get better. Then someone else noticed my skills and I ended up working two full time jobs for about 2 years. My first job 8a-5p and then my second job 6p-2a. The work that I did in those years for those two jobs would catapult me into a new world of opportunities. And more importantly built some life long friends that I am still in business with today, 15 years later: (i.e. Cody Wray & Greg Mathews)Do the work. Write your story.

Always bet on yourself.
Let’s do this.