When I first started teaching my little brother to code…
He was a timid little fraidy cat.
(And, not the cute “supermodel in a cat costume” kind, either. Honestly, his “shy little kitty cat” routine was more of the “Michael Moore in a tube top” kind. Gross and a bit disturbing. Just sayin’.)
Always worried he was getting this or that wrong. Having me check everything he did. And, every time I’d push him to write something HIS way… he’d say, “I’ll try”. Which made me madder than a Hillary Clinton supporter on election day.
Finally, one day, I went off on him and snapped:
“Don’t say you’ll try. Just f!@#ing DO it!”
It was just like that scene in Star Wars where Luke say he’ll “give it a try” and Yoda snaps back at him:
“No. Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try.”
(RIP Carrie Fisher, btw.)
Since, I’ve seen this with so many developers.
Always so worried… they’re doing things the “right way” (as if there’s one right way to do something), or terrified some jackweed coder will see their code and blast them for it, or the funniest one… that clients will read their code and think they suck. Bahaha. Uh, no.
Of course, that stuff doesn’t happen.
Or, if it does… it doesn’t matter.
And, what actually stops them…
Is the fear.
The hesitation.
(He who hesitates… ma– nevermind.)
It keeps you from applying for that job… or taking that client.
And, before you know it.. you’ve been learning how to code for a year and you have no job, no clients, no experience and no confidence in what you can or can’t do. It’s like you just wasted the last year.
And, you start to wonder if you’re cut out for this.
You start to doubt.
You worry all the naysayers in your life are right.
You can’t get them out of your head.
And, if you let it go on long enough… you’ll quit. You’ll give up on this coding thing and go back to doing a regular job. One you hate… most likely. And, you’ll go back disillusioned, depressed and believing you’re not good enough.
It’ll affect your love life.
Your kids will sense it.
It’ll infest every aspect of your life.
And, if you never attack it head on… there’s a good chance you’ll look back 50 years from now, full of regret and disappointment and wonder what the hell happened. How did you get here? What went wrong?
And, it all starts with a choice.
To do or do not.
Powerful lesson there if you have eyes to see.
Anyway, if you want to do… check out this web developer bootcamp. 94% of its students go on to get full-time developer jobs. And most are complete beginners when they start.
And instead of forking over 10 or 20 G’s… it’s 75% off right now.
