Transcription
I've been a software developer in 10 different companies, writing code on 10 different projects. And at no point during my 13-year career did someone sit down and say, "Hey, these are all the different ways you can engage in software development." Working a job is just one of them, but maybe you'd like to try out these other options.
So, what did I do? I did the default option, which I think most developers are doing, which is sleepwalking into a 9-to-five job, thinking that's the only option, and following the path that employers set out for us. Climbing the career ladder, getting a different job title, hopping between jobs and one day realizing that actually that's not giving you the sense of satisfaction and meaning in life that you're looking for.
Although the 9 to 5 development job might be the perfect option for some people, it's not for everybody. And when you realize that you might not want to do this for the rest of your life, you feel like there's something wrong with you because everybody else is doing the software development 9 to 5 pretending it's the ultimate way. It's the only way without really considering the alternatives, and there are a lot of alternatives.
So, I worked my 10 different jobs and I kept hopping from job to job thinking I was working for the wrong company or working on the wrong project and I was going to be able to find what I wanted on the next project. And even though I wasn't really able to express that at the time, what I was looking for was really a sense of more meaning in the work I was doing. I wanted to feel like what I was working on mattered. I also wanted more independence.
There's something about working a job that feels like you're at school. You've got a boss that's looking over you, telling you when to turn up, what work to do, and what time you can clock off. On the one hand, that means that you can get support from your colleagues. But on the other hand, it means that a lot of power is taken away from you. You're not taking full responsibility for your work and you're not getting all the benefits of what that might give you.
The fact is that a lot of your colleagues might not really care that much about what they're doing. They just see their work as a convenient way to pay the bills. And as long as they do their 9 to 5, their boss doesn't complain too much. They're happy with that. That means that if you're an A player surrounded by B players, it's a bit demoralizing because nobody's taking their work as seriously as you do. And suddenly you're in a situation where everybody's spending more time playing pingpong or table football than actually doing the work that is supposedly meant to be meaningful.
Well, I started waking up to this fact when I began reading some self-help books. And yes, self-help has a bad reputation, but it opened my mind to the other possibilities. One possibility was the fact that what we're currently doing, the activities we're engaged in, the job that we're currently working, it's just our current situation. But we all have so much more potential that we could unlock if we could just push ourselves slightly outside of our comfort zone, learn a few new skills, and take a few steps in a different direction.
Well, when I started following down this path, I realized that there were lots of different ways to do software development and most of the alternatives had been sitting under our nose the whole time. Basically using that thing called the internet to find our own customers, do work we care about, and have more control about how we work, when we work, and where we work. Because I think everybody wants more of a sense of freedom with their work.
And when I found out that actually you can make money by building a course about software development and selling it online or doing the same with an ebook or landing freelance clients or earning advertising revenue through YouTube and now even landing coaching clients to my former self working in that 9 to 5 development job. That would have been a huge surprise that that's even possible.
I'm making this video because I know there are a lot of developers that are working in a job. They are learning new skills and they're earning a paycheck, but it might not be the thing that ultimately brings them the sense of meaning that they're looking for. And rather than waiting until middle age, it might be better to ask yourself the to be honest quite difficult questions of what would be your ideal work, how your ideal workday would look, where that would be, what time that would be, and who you'd be working with. And if your current work situation doesn't fit that, then what alternatives might there be to turn that into reality?
And I by no means have all this figured out, but I have realized that there are a load of other ways to earn money from software development, all the ones I just mentioned. And I think if you're the ambitious type, it's really your duty to figure out how to do software development long-term or even think more higher level. How can you turn work into a long-term strategy that you're going to enjoy into your 40s, 50s, 60s, and beyond? And maybe whether that includes software development or not doesn't really matter. Maybe part of that process will involve changing your identity. So that software developer is just one hat that you wear out of many because you could also be a coach, you could also be a business owner, you can be a mentor, you can be so many other things that extend beyond just a developer.
Last thing I'll say is that whatever age you are, you still have so much potential. There are still so many skills that you can learn. And if you're feeling a bit uninspired with the work you're doing right now, maybe all it's going to take is a realization that there are other options out there, pointing yourself in a slightly new direction and taking some action towards that and learning from the experience.
So, I'm 42 years old now, and although technically that's middle-aged in terms of my impact and what I want to do in the world, I'm only just getting started. Maybe software development for you is just a stepping stone on the way to something greater. It's your duty to figure out what that greater cause is. And I'm really looking forward to seeing where that takes you. See you in the next one.