I left one of the largest telephone companies in the world because I wanted to work at a startup (didn’t have a job yet). The startup I ended up working for: PayPal.

Leaving PayPal was a tough decision, one that I sometimes regret (I still believe that the company is one of those world-changing products). PayPal will most certainly outgrow eBay at some point in time, largely because payments & moving money can be applied to lots of things that aren’t ecommerce specific.

defy rules. thumb nose at big corporate. eat burritos with any cash windfall. popularity first.

defy rules. thumb nose at big corporate customers. eat burritos with any cash windfall. popularity first.

Soon after it dawned on me that I could get ahead by putting my CS skills to use and ‘boting’ my character (writing a program that played for me). After many hours of research and experimentation, I had a basic program that played my character for me. After several weeks, my character has collected gobs of fantasy currency and I realized that I could sell it at a tidy profit.

Soon after I dropped out of school, bought 11 more computers, and setup a server farm in my apartment that played FFXI 24 hours a day. Overtime, I improved my system, making it entirely automated, and only had to make sure that the computers stayed turned on (that I didn’t blow a fuse).

I made enough money ,before the market collapsed, to carry me for the next two years. During that time I learned web-technologies and established myself in the community.

Several take-aways from this experience are:
* I actually can do anything I put my mind to.
* I am a better programmer than I ever gave myself credit for
* I CAN make money doing something I like

I think thats why I should win the book. Corporate America tells you what you want, should want, wanted, and will want.

I dont want what corporate america wants for me.

I want what I want. This book is the first step to learning how to get what I want.