Currently I see enough people create reasons to run away from anything, often out of laziness or not to believe in yourself. Excuses not to study more, do not be a better professional or not take their mistakes and be a better person. Well, I’ll share my story and I sincerely hope that you start to believe more in yourself.

BTW: You can read the original article in portuguese on Medium.

There are 2 years ago, I was 17 and loved develop. Then leaves for college and work in Petrobras. At the time I lived in Itaboraí and went daily to the center of Rio de Janeiro. A distance of something like 50km, depending on the traffic the trip could consume up to 3 to 5 hours.

Spent a month in Petrobras, but eventually ended up leaving and going to look for another job. Then came an opportunity for another great company. I was then doing the interview, remember that in addition to nervousness, I had no confidence in my knowledge. The result was inevitable, did not get the job.

But I remember that when I got off the building where he had done the interview. I was excited. I decided I would become a good developer, whatever effort it was.

Anyone who has worked and went to college at the same time, know how exhausting it is routine. Added with the tiresome back home. In the end I was exhausted. But I was still motivated. Was consumed by a giant enthusiasm.

No matter how I studied, my code was never perfect, never going to be good enough to show to others. I still do not believe me. I felt bad.

Over time, a friend of mine noticed my lack of confidence and courage. See how I was making excuses for not doing the things I wanted. Then he came told me something that changed my life:

“The only one who can stop your dreams is yourself”

Then I realized, I needed to expose myself and learn more and more.

Showed the things I created and gathered feedback. I spoke with many arguing about everything.

Forkava all projects that I thought I could help and sent a pull request, even though they often were not accepted.

I started to fail a lot (and I stumbled too much). But in parallel, was learning how to do things the right way.

In two months failing and getting feedback, I learned more than studying alone in one year.

Everyone has their value. The speaker or the maintainer of the project that you follow are no different than you. The only difference between you and them is that instead of they give any reason or excuse for not studying, developing ….

They do and enable to make mistakes.