2./ Unfortunately, things were not going well. There were massive expectations, but we were too short staffed to hit those deadlines. I remember I would get home at 3 a.m., and I was expected to be in the office at 8 a.m. for sprint, deliverables, security, or planning meetings.

3./ On the third week of June, my boss called me and asked to have a conference call with the whole team and asked that only she could speak for this call, then went on to basically tell the whole team that we were "trash and had done nothing significant".

4./ When the call ended, I pushed the code I was working on and closed my laptop. I knew this was over, I grew up in a verbally toxic environment, and I couldn't accept that shit at work. I had worked so hard, but I know being thrown under the bus when I see it.

5./ I took the rest of the week off, I had not even taken any off time for last year, so I had accumulated up to 30 days. I came back next Monday and informed my boss that I was gonn quit as I wanted her to be able to find someone "who actually did something," unlike me.

6./ I remember when I told my family that I was quitting and nobody was having any of it. They could not understand why I would leave a 300k+ salary and position, and I was cut off. I had smoked too much banga, they said. Most work friends also cut me off.

7./ Before I could even settle on my joblessness, I broke my collar bone playing football, and my girlfriend also left me 😅😅😅. Maina, let me tell you, it was all downhill, race to the bottom, free fall. Einstein would have studied that fall.

8./ Sitted on that chair while recovering, I reminded myself that I had 12 years of programming experience (and a ninja 🥷) and had actually built good code that was in use out there. I was gonna go big and built my own startup, and with one hand, I wrote my first Rust code.

9./ Over the next three years, I lived on my savings and didn't want or even have the energy to be employed. I would take a few short contract jobs here and there, but I continued building SAAS and IoT with rust for my startup.

10./ Things were still shit esp losing my brother, which really broke me. But every time I fell, I took it like a challenge, to believe in myself more, to rise above the ashes. The dream I had 6 years ago, to be a Rust expert and to build my own company, is my reality today.

Morals of the thread: things take time, believe in yourself, sacrifice is important, and don't EVER let someone put you down. You are the only one who can stop or make your dreams and greatness come true. For me, I have dreams of going fully opensource and I am halfway there.