The best investment I have made in a quarter of a century

Bells are ringing. Bells that signal the end of a chapter and the beginning of another. Bells that invoke a mix of feelings that usually do not go together. On one hand, there is excitement for what's coming next and pride of the things accomplished during this chapter. On the other hand, there is sadness that the adventure is coming to and with a hint of regret for the things that could have been better.

What is this chapter ? You might be asking. Well, it's called Rebootkamp. It is an intensive full-stack web development bootcamp. Or, at least that is what I thought the first time I heard about it. However, the truth of the matter is that coding is just one aspect of the program. And while I can talk about all the fancy technologies I have learned during the past few months, you can check my GitHub account to see the proof of that yourself. Instead, I want to take this opportunity to talk about the lessons that I learned that could also benefit those of you whom Technology is not necessarily their field of expertise.

Hard work pays off
Surprise, surprise xD You have probably heard this like a million times before. But if you are a procrastinator like myself, then this statement is stored somewhere in the back of your head and does not affect your day to day life. So all I am going to do is share how my perspective shifted in regards to this point recently. You see, when you put enough work into something, the confidence in your ability to do that grows proportionally. Why, exactly ? Simple. Because now you have proven to yourself that you can do it, whatever it is, sports, public speaking, software development, you name it.

Growth happens outside of your comfort zone
Your comfort zone, by definition, is the set of skills and abilities that you know about or practiced enough that you are, wait for it, comfortable with. Growth, on the other hand, by definition, is the process of acquiring new skills that you have not really had exposure to before. And that is exactly why you should get the heck out of your comfort zone if you want to grow professionally, physically or spiritually. And remember, "He who stops being better, stops being good" - Oliver Cornwell.

Sharing a goal makes the journey easier
The path of learning is no trivial one. It is bumpy, twisted and if you are not persistent enough, "it will beat to the ground and keep you there, permanently" - Rocky Balboa. And it will beat you at some point, and that does not make you a failure, staying down will. However, surrounding yourself with people who are on paths similar to yours will make it a lot easier to get back up and running. Sharing will make the burden easier to carry for you and the people around you.

Leaders are self-made
Emphasis on self. You do not become a leader by accident, nor by genetic predisposition. Being a leader, in my humble opinion, is having a true desire in the heart to lead people towards something good and having the set of skills necessary to effectively guide your tribe towards a better future. For "what is Life other than the collective stumble towards the city of God?" - Dr. Jordan B. Peterson. So, to develop the skills that will make you a leader, you have to make a conscious decision to learn them and take deliberate and consistent actions to implement that decision, which leads us to the next point.

Invest in yourself
Before going online looking for investment opportunities, consider investing in yourself, in educating yourself, in developing your soft skills, in discovering and understanding who you are. You can not add any value to the world unless you add it to yourself first. You can't stand for the weak if you are weak yourself, and that's just one example.

Resiliency will get where you want to go

Life will not go your way forever, no matter who you are. There will be times where the winds of life will blow so hard that it will snap you in halves or shatter you completely, if you are not flexible enough. Think about it, during harsh enough storms, the stiff trees, that might have roots deeply entrenched in the ground, will get either broken or completely uprooted. So remember, "Be like water, my friend." - Bruce Lee.