GM! what is a pivotal moment that changed the trajectory of your life?
When I joined FFA (Future Farmers of America). I learned my networking and professional skills there.
Discovering Joel Spolsky and Paul Graham’s blogs. Introduced me to tech startups, led me to quitting academia to start my first startup.
gm, Two: 1) When I left Switzerland to go work in Poland alone. 2) When I left my career in banking to pursue the creation of my science-fiction world.
When I said to myself, "If there is a God, I'm willing to know"
7/7/2007 when I put a pair of sunglasses on my dog… *Who immediately jumped straight up and broke my nose *Which required 3 surgeries over 6+ months *During which the start-up company I worked for right out of law school couldn’t pay its bills *Eventually filing for bankruptcy
Google Summer of Code: in 2011, moved out to SF from Texas for a 3-month internship. Have been on the West Coast ever since.
When I acknowledged my limitations and accepted mercy and grace
I actually just posted my answer on a HN question by sheer coincidence.
Almost ODed in late junior year of high school Saw how my group of “friends” handled it. Dropped my entire social circle the day I recovered and kicked off a personal journey leading to military college where I learned how much more effective my rebel streak can be if I focus
Three related: 1. Taught myself to code. 2. Quit grant-funded research. 3. YC
moving to the US for my masters. it was a decision that just happened by chance but in hindsight was a very important changing point...
Moved to CA for grad school, which helped me get to a SV job, then to my first startup job & exit. Been learning ever since.
going viral for the first time https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2013/08/ryan-gosling-internet/amp
2016: Realizing I could actually leverage my Cultural Anthropology degree, and combine it with my love of digital design (been designing since I was 7 or 8) to create products as a career 🙌 …and proving my parents wrong, being the black sheep of the family without a PhD
In 2014 during my undergrad, I hopped on a bus from Toronto to Boston (solo) and attended HackMIT. I build a distributed kickstarter dApp on Ethereum, and won a Coinbase-sponsored award. This led to working at Coinbase, and the rest is history :)
Left a cushy job at a prestigious hedge fund to go play with Ethereum at ConsenSys.
Listening to the Tim Ferriss podcast where he hosted Nick Szabo and Naval Ravikant in early/mid-2017 on btc/eth
When made it and then became an NFT OG and started whitelisting people
Using the perspective tool on GIMP to put a logo on van haha I now have a bachelors of design with honours and just launched the waitlist for my new design studio!
Early testflight invite to clubhouse - Before then, didn't really know much about startups, was gonna intern at oil company supply chain. After, met ambitious founders/builders, convos that made me realize what I wanted to pursue, even met my cofounders in my eventual startup.
Discovering punk rock and DIY through a Minor Threat record at age 13
I went through a spiritual awakening process back in 2018. That completely changed my life. Wrote about it in my mirror post: https://mirror.xyz/ccisdreaming.eth/JVy0vU5Fqthifinpdfjdyf_7WcsbsCgoslzidAbH8Ic
I would say I still haven’t had a pivotal moment. The things who look almost like it would be my end of high school paper I wrote about crypto and his impact on the world with my 2 other friends. Since 2017 crypto is in my life
Broke my foot playing soccer when I was 15. Didn’t walk for 6 months. Got stuck in the library at school. Was into video games. A friend introduces me to online forums (phpbb, vbulletin) + warez scene. Then Google launched adsense. Been creating on the internet ever since.
1999: Get an email from Cornell accepting me off waitlist 2010: Get a call from PG accepting me to YC 2016: DM Derrick to start Spin
retired from football in college and was confronted with the reality that I had no self-identity outside of sports learned pretty quickly to de-couple who I am from what I do helps a lot with the imposter syndrome that comes with working towards ambitious life goals :)
Getting into YC Was working on a startup in Florida (grew up there). Got the acceptance call and then moved to CA a few weeks later. 99.999% confident the startup would have failed if I stayed in FL.
in 2014, i quit my job and flew out to SF to jump into the startup world - didn’t know anything. didn’t know anyone there. been “in the arena” ever since 🔥
1. took a decision to travel India, it’s helping me to understand my true potential and to understand Indian market for startup’s. 2. Seeking Discomfort : taking random challenges to overcome my fears
Interviewed at YC back in 2012. Didnt get in, but allowed me to get a glimpse of the world outside of the 4 walls of where I worked for 8 yrs (Goldman Sachs). Since then, worked at a startup, AMZN, 2x founder, and now something new!
Learning to write code and build stuff. Happened at the age of 10.
hitting growth spurt earlier than peers. had advantage in youth sports, leading to more opportunities in high school sports, getting me into a college that I probably wouldn't have (if based purely on academic credentials at the time) whole milk > 1%
I was 20 yrs old — went on a 6 week long summer school program to Greece because (1) it seemed super fun way to study classics which was way outside my normal focus areas (2) got financial aid that subsidized everything but flight tickets Met the woman who’s now my wife
at 19 i was a fashion intern, and had a fetch quest to deliver something to marissa mayer. she was having a private showing of the entire Oscar de la rental collection and buying anything she wanted off the models. I quit fashion and got serious about coding + creating.
Seeing inside Stripe in 2012 Meeting Vitalik in 2014
One of my dearest friends dying in a plane crash. Planned to move to Singapore to work in tech, but when he died, I decided to stay and save the company we were running. Still sometimes regret that I haven't got into tech then, but got a sink-or-swim CEO experience as a 26 yo.
Seven years into my career I received the following advice. "Ask yourself what scares you those most, then go do that thing." Those words shaped almost every major decision since then...from taking new jobs, to international relocations, to having kids, to whatever is next.
quit a cushy tech sales job at the height of the pandemic to cofound a startup. it didn't reach escape velocity, we weren't accepted into any major accelerators but learnt much more in 10 months than i would have in 5 years on prev trajectory.
Walking away from a cushy high paying job 15 years ago to start my own business.
Not sure I have had my big pivotal moment but have had many smaller defining moments (travelling, changing careers, relationships, losses). The best is yet to come @perl I want to save this thread!
I wasn’t gonna respond to this because I don’t need the attention really, but my 24 year old brother died when I was 18 years old, my senior year of high school in 2006. My life has been entirely different than I ever expected since then..
Learned about startups and dropped out of medical school. Moved from hometown a year ago
I messaged or cold emailed hundreds of founders on Twitter to find a part time job to save up for grad school and leave Pakistan. One of them ended up offering a job and sponsor to Toronto. Got rejected from all grad schools. Life works in mysterious ways.
my friends introduced me to body suspension 17 years ago, and nothing has been the same.
Probably moving to America in 2008. There were many great people along the way that catalyzed my growth. Meeting Niall Ferguson in 2011 or Elon Musk in 2013 come to mind.