Help Yourself and Teach Others

When I first started my journey into tech, I was in it for myself. I thought that in order to be the best version of myself I just needed to study and build projects and if I focused enough on those aspects, I could break into tech.

But I found out it wasn’t enough.

A least for me.

My confidence in myself was shaky while I was learning but you know what started to build it as I continued?

First, I answered question on StackOverFlow. I searched for the easier questions to see if I could answer them and I could. It boosted my confidence in myself and finally cemented the fact that I was going to be okay. That what I was doing was working.

Secondly, I begin going back and forth with the posters to delve deeper into their problem. This is where I uncovered the secret to really speeding up the process of gaining confidence and skill.

And it took over 8 hours.

With that poster, I stayed with them for that long to solve that problem. I had no idea what I was doing and neither did they. We went through so many solutions and we even ended up discussing SQL for some reason even though the initial problem had something to do with CSS.

It was exhilarating to go back and forth with another person about the pros and cons of each solution. To discuss freely what could happen and what should happen. We made mistakes and were wrong quite often.

But that day I learned that even though my journey was my own, I could help even if I had no earthy idea how to solve the problem. I could use my experience to help and teach others because even though I was a beginner, my day 42 is still going to be further along than someone who is on day 15.

It is important to know that someone will always be a step behind and even if you are just beginning your journey you can still help. It will make you uncomfortable and make you anxious but one the other side of those emotions is:

Confidence.

So answer those questions, help that person, mention a solution and I promise you, you will only grow and so does your community!