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- Redefining Success
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We often define success in the tech industry by major milestones. You know the ones: landing the job, shipping the product, or achieving a senior title. These goals are essential. They are the destination points, the necessary prizes that give our ambition structure and reward.
The danger isn't in aiming for these goals, but in using them as the only metric for progress. I did this, of course. I thought that I was a loser because I couldn’t find my footing in tech after a couple of years. But that wasn’t the case. When we tie our self-worth entirely to external milestones, we set a trap: if the current moment doesn't align perfectly with that distant, ultimate goal, we perceive ourselves as failures. This leads to burnout and self-doubt long before the finish line.
The truth is, the most important success you achieve happens daily, not annually.
If the senior title is the destination, then resilience is the fuel that gets you there. Your true measure of progress isn't how fast you grasp a new concept or how complex the math is; it’s your ability to remain resolute.
Can you commit to coding every day, even when a bug consumes your entire afternoon?
Can you display the patience to restart a project you deleted in frustration?
Setbacks, confusing concepts, the insurmountable bugs, and the moments of quitting are not deviations from the path; they are the path itself. Every time you hit a wall, feel the frustration mount, and then choose to come back and open the code editor anyway, you are cementing yourself in the process and in the journey.
The ability to shake off setbacks is the clearest indicator of long-term viability in any field. It's the moment you realize that the most important thing you built today wasn't a feature, but the habit of not giving up. By redefining success, you ensure that you are winning every single day.
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