Giving back — The first in a series

I’ve been very fortunate in my life. I was born in a first world country, into a family with means, and was taught at an early age to value hard work and education. However, even with these amazing gifts, which were mostly bestowed upon me at birth, the successes I’ve enjoyed in life were not guaranteed.

Instead, at numerous points along the way, there were people who took a keen interest in my life, and helped guide me. They taught me about responsibility, efficiency, effective communication, and other things that I never learned in my “formal” education. In many cases, I have no idea why these people cared so deeply, gave so willingly, or were interested in helping so much.

While recently considering the impact that many of these strangers (now friends) have made on my life, I realized that it’s time to pay it forward — time to give back.

This entry kicks off a series of posts designed to give back. My goal is to share some of the wisdom that’s been imparted upon me over the years, as well as a few things I’ve picked up on my own (though I make no claims that they’re at all novel). In doing so, the hope is that in some small way I’ll be able to impact your life and career, as so many have done for me.

I have no idea how many people will read this series, but even if nobody shows up, the exercise of writing these down will help me organize my thoughts, hopefully make me a better mentor, and will be something I can leave for my children.

A few notes on logistics before we get started:

• My goal is to publish at least once every week (either on Thursday or Friday)
• My hope is to keep each post short — requiring no more than 5 minutes to consume
• I’m not sure how many of these I’ll complete, hence the open ended title above
• I’m a software developer, so naturally many of the career examples will focus around software development. That being said, I’m confident that the bulk of what I’m writing will be equally applicable to all careers.

We’ll begin for real next week. See you then!

Edit: This series has stalled for the time being due to other life pressures. I’m hoping to pick it back up sometime in 2021.