I am sure each of us, has a story. A story, that is inspiring. A story of rejection, failure, hardwork, misery and above all succeeding against the odds. The story of believing. The story of perseverance. We all grumble and acknowledge how unfair life is, how unfair the company's system is, that we work for. But looking back, we will always amaze ourself how much is there to look forward to. My story: I grew up in a remote villege. My father was alcoholic and mother was the bread earner. We lived in a mud house. Family income $20 a month ( not in the US), US equivalent would be $1200 a month family income today. We barely had enough to eat three meals. My mother worked upto 18 hours a day, including household chores. Me and my siblings wore torn clothes and first shoe I ever wore was when I was 17. Didn't have school bag. A single note book made from recycled paper. Slept on the floor. Didn't have running water, stood in a line everyday to fetch water from the common supply tank. Suffered scores of dieseases like malaria, typhoid etc. Coke was a luxury we couldn't afford. Ate roti with jaggery for breakfast, most mornings. Went to a school with no doors or windows, forget electricity and sports facilities. Many of the people I went to school with grewup to become road side vendors, some became mechanics and a couple started tiny shops. Travelled on the floor of buses and trains. Visited a city first at age 20. People I went to college with were from respectable middle class and upper middle class families. They wore jeans, graphic tees and sports shoes. I wore cheap cotton pants (more like pajamas) and recycled shirt. With a wornout sandal. But, thanks to my mother, we always believed in hardwork. Held our heads high and fought hard in the battle of life. To me life is like a coffee, its dark, it smells bad and must suffer heat. But keep working on it, pushing through that phase of brewing and you would be amazed how rewarding it could be. Today, I am working for one of the top companies and have access to luxury vacations. I have potential to become as successful as I am willing to work hard for. I travel business class on airplanes. I have access to worldclass health care and I am very thankful for everything. When I am dejected, I look back and I always get something to look forward to. This is my story. My tiny inspiration. Whats your story?
Great story... I will read this every time I feel life is not not fair to me
+1million!!
watched Game of Thrones and wanted to be an excellent programmer like Arthur Dayne in swordsmanship. Still trying, moving forward little by little every day.
Remember what we say to the god of death?
I say something similar to the god of leetcode most evenings..
My paternal grandparents wanted grandsons. They hated my mother and us. They told my mother to leave the house when my elder sister was born. After 2 years of living separately, my dad moved to another city ( the culture gap between the two cities is tremendous) to be with my mother and sister - they had language troubles (since the language used in the other city was a new language for them) and also had compatibility issues - When I was young they’d fight alot and discuss divorce almost all the time ; they were amazing parents individually but not otherwise. My paternal grandparents hated us like hell. Meanwhile I was very fat for most of my life - was fat shamed for most of my life (by my sister as well), I was very studious and serious when I was a kid ( People used to make fun of me and they used to look at me as if I’m an alien). Time went by , I had fewer friends and life was pretty much miserable. My parents got over all their differences and I got really close to them. They motivated me to study further and encouraged me in every possible way. They had been saving money for 15-20 years (ever since I was in first grade) to fund my studies abroad. I came to US for my masters, made alot of friends (people who’ll mean alot to me no matter where they are), moved to a new city after graduation where I barely know anyone. I work for a good company and spend most of my weekends alone cultivating new hobbies and talking to family/friends. I am in a really happy space now - for many years of my life I had this feeling of being “worthless”, now I have a sense of satisfaction. 🙂
Great story. Thank you for sharing and keeping it real.
Luckily I am from the US but my parents are not. While attending college, I worked full time and lived in my car. I graduated without owing anything, but I did not get a STEM degree. I wasn’t even aware about software engineering or programming. I ended up working for a biotech company after college. The pay wasn’t good at all but I kept working my way up and eventually was making somewhat ok money but my resume was pretty good now. While working at the biotech company, I did a part time web development boot camp. I learned advanced css html and basic JS. I lived 1 hour from my job so I would drive 1 hour to work which was close to Sacramento, then after work rush to a BART station to make it to the boot camp in SF. Because I lived far from work and from the boot camp, sometimes I’d have to sleep in my car due to exhaustion and living so far. At this time I also became a father, and unfortunately the lady didn’t support me. I did all this to better my sons future. After finishing the boot camp, I got a call from my current employer. It wasn’t for a programming or web development job but I took it anyway because the pay was better and I wanted to work in a new environment. I’m thinking about quitting and doing the app academy boot camp full times. You don’t pay until you get a job. I’m also studying online and reading CS books. I’m currently looking for a junior developer job and I’m willing to take the huge pay cut that will come from it. Also open to a product manager associate product manager job. All I do is work, study, and read so I can one day get my foot in the door. I’m determined. I know I don’t have the traditional schooling of a SWE but the determination I have will not fail me or my son. I’ll reach my goal, hopefully sooner than later.
Very inspiring. I don't consider myself successful yet. Hopefully I can be as proud as you someday. In my view, success is relative. If you start with a lot of hardship and with limited access to high level mentors the odds of great success is very low. I didn't start as "low" as you do (low == limited resources) but it wasn't that much either (middle class in India). Kudos to you for overcoming the great odds. A particular note: your English is impressive for someone who didn't have a shoe till the age of 17.
Thank you. I wasn't able to instroduce myself in English until I was in 2nd year of my college. I studied in a local language school. As you said success is relative. And I believe we all here are successful, is this the end? No. We have been more and we will be more.
Yes, that is a good perspective that we can learn from you.
Grew up in a small City in India where having food twice a day was a luxury. Could not buy new clothes in festivals. My father worked extremely hard to educate me and my two siblings. My mother and father kept saying one thing , we could only give you education. You have to figure out your way from here. Came to US with few hundred dollars in my pocket and worked hard for last 15 years. There was a time when I did not have money to go to interview after my MS because I thought grocery is more important than onsite interview (I should have taken that interview btw) I have a house in Bay, have a beautiful wife and child. I am supporting parents throughout and they are living a very good life now. There is a lot to add to this story. In short , I came from a family background where crossing of city boundaries for a job opportunity in self was a huge deal. I managed to become engineer and staying here in US
Awesome stories by everyone, it’s hard to believe how you all have reached so far in your life. It’s very motivating. I also hail from not very good background and since I have been working most of my money is going in supporting my family and that frustrates me a lot sometimes and I feel so bad on my background but reading all the stories I know I am not alone.
Right there with you. I've always been there for my family and rather often it feels burdensome, but I can't not do it. I suppose it's lucky that we all have good careers that enable us to be there for those we care about.
@Corpcult Good to see there are lot of people like us, otherwise being so young I always have a thought seeing other kids that why didn’t I have that type of background. I have a lot of other problems growing up but I think atleast I am lucky to have this job to provide for my parents and sibling and I think that is satisfying more than anything and also the fact that I am self made.
When I was 12, my older brother was diagnosed with bipolar. At the time, there was still a lot of stigma around it. He would sometimes get violent and blame me for his condition, because he was the good one who studied hard and earned accolades and I was the screw up who didn’t but was still lovable. I believed him. My parents tried to help, but they had their hands full so I ended up on my own, convinced that I had ruined his life. I didn’t speak to any of them for the next 10 years. It’s stupid but I thought if I could just go one day without screwing up, he’d magically be fine. Because of this I tried really hard at everything I could think of and did more things than I ever would’ve in the traditional system. I have achieved some things and I am proud of them. But sometimes I wish he would get better so I could go back to being the lovable nobody again. I’m sorry, this isn’t as heartwarming as I wanted it to be. My fathers story is though. Born dirt poor, worked hard all his life, supported his siblings and parents and himself and his children, always encouraged us to work hard and try our best and gave up everything for our education. Smiled through even the worst of it. Be like him.
This is very inspiring. Thank you so much for sharing yours as well you father's story. Hardship is not always about lack of resources. I can only imagine the psychological pain you dealt with. And you pushed yourself hard to overcome that. I had a friend who was from a rich family. He had addictions. He had to work very hard to get over that and do something meaningful. He is doing well now. Has a lovely family. I find his story inspiring as well. Its all about finding light in the tunnel. Thanks.
Life is life, we all have scars but we are all full of love also
I feel ashamed of you and you work at Google.
Google's a big company. But not as big as his penis.