How I became a Developer

14 Sep 2024

It was 2020, the pandemic hit, and I was 19 years old, bored, and looking for ways to make money online. Naturally, I Googled “how to make money online.” And boom! The internet threw a ton of ideas at me: SMMA, Copywriting, affiliate marketing—you name it. But most of them? Just people trying to sell their expensive courses. Yeah, no thanks.

I tried SMMA (Social Media Marketing) first and learned Facebook ads, but then reality hit me—I didn’t have the money to actually run ads. So, I moved on to blogging and affiliate marketing, but guess what? You need money for hosting and domains too. Who knew trying to make money required money?

Then, I found Copywriting. I figured, “Hey, maybe this is the one!” But there was one small problem. I. Sucked. At. Writing. Still, I gave it a shot. I even read this blog that said handwriting sales letters would help me get better. Spoiler alert: it didn’t. I read some the books about marketing and persuasion, but I couldn’t get into it. It didn’t click to me. So, I moved on again.

Then, I stumbled on a YouTube video saying web developers make good money. That caught my attention. I started following along with tutorials on YouTube, but the moment I’d finish one, I’d forget everything. I felt lost, and almost gave up because I couldn’t learn a thing.

But then, I found The Odin Project Curriculum. And this was different. It didn’t hold your hand. I had to actually do things on my own, and yes, fail a lot. But I learned that failure wasn’t bad—it was part of the process. Every time I fixed an error, I felt like I’d just beaten a boss in a video game. That dopamine hit kept me going.

Eventually, I built my first website using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. My first project? Replicating the Google Search page from scratch. It was a challenge, but a fun one. Then, I got to the Ruby on Rails section, and when I wrote my first line of Ruby code, I was like, “Wait, this is so simple?” I instantly fell in love with how elegant the language was.

From there, I built web apps using Ruby on Rails, learned how to Google like a pro, and even figured out how to ask questions without sounding completely clueless.

Moral of the story? Just build stuff. Don’t know how to do it? Start small and Google it. Get stuck? Ask for help. Keep repeating this, and boom! Next thing you know, you’re a developer.

And that’s how I became a developer. Not a bad way to spend a pandemic, huh?

What’s next on my journey?

I’m thinking about making SaaS products or startups as a solo dev in the next few months. Right now, I’m collecting and searching for ideas. Most of them are dumb, but a few have some potential. I have no idea how to market or sell things, but honestly? It’s the same as learning to code—I’ll figure it out along the way.

I expect a lot of the products I make will flop, and that’s okay. If I keep going, eventually, I’ll have at least one that works, makes me money, and hopefully, I won’t have to stress about cash anymore. I just need to make sure I don’t procrastinate and give up… though let’s be real, I’ll probably procrastinate. Haha.