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Since I was 18 years old, my dream was working for companies outside Brazil.

As a Professional Illustrator.

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I had to take a very hard decision for someone my age at the time:

Choose between my dream and the security of an in-demand area.

At that time, I chose the latter option, after all, people already said that there would be a huge demand for programmers, and not enough programmers.

They were right.

Besides, I was scared about adult life, as every teenager always is, and I did not have the support necessary to embark into a basically unknown journey through the wild environment of illustration.

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But I didn’t give up easily. Actually, I did, but I was having major depressive symptoms because of that, which lead me to a break point.

In 2014, I decided to pursue both careers – finish my degree and also build a Portfolio to work with art. I quit all the games I was playing, to which I was addicted, cold-turkey, and started working on perfecting my drawing and painting skills like it would cost my life if I failed.

Because of that, in 2017, after I finished UNI, I started looking for a job that would allow me to have free time to finally pursue my dream.

That’s how I ended up Teaching Languages, although at that time my grammar was questionable.

But guess what? Some months later, I was invited by a teacher from UNI to join his Startup, as a Unity Programmer, and I thought that was actually pretty cool.

It goes without saying but Programming and Drawing are pretty much the same. Creating ideas, bring them onto the world and, of course, understanding what the hell your client truly needs.

Rarely what he asks for.

I continued teaching English until the Startup blew up and then, hard-pressed by money and physical problems, I decided to pursue the Developer Career Full-time.

The year was 2019, and I applied for a Ruby on Rails position without knowing any Ruby, and passed even though I studied for the Test in the Weekend. You can ask around and my friends will confirm that story.

That may sound amazing, but I had already worked Part time as a Programmer and, for seasoned professionals, picking a New Programming Language is pretty straightforward.

I did not mention that before but… my first contact with Programming was when I was 13.

And later, in 2020, I finally got my “first” remote job.

But months later, I had some problems with the Management Team.

I was a “Senior Developer” officially, and I was doing some seriously good work, but I was humiliated during a performance review reunion.

My “points” (the company use a points system to reward bonuses) weren’t “enough”. I had under-performed even in comparison with people from Customer Success.

If you’re a programmer, being undervalued at work is something so common that you might have gotten some Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptons right now.

Okay, maybe that applies to other areas as well. But programmers are usually more affected due to being so prone to Introversion and not knowing how to fight for themselves.

(Ironically, I am basically a Programmer Therapist nowadays)

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But I didn’t let things slide. I took my frustration as fuel and simply sent my resume to companies outside Brazil. Getting revolted sometimes is useful to generate positive change.

It took me only two applications to land a job. I already knew one of the companies I attempted to join, Nebulab, for which I had actually applied in 2020 through StackOverflow.

The other? TopTal, one of the biggest Outsourcing Companies in the world – although I flunked the test big time due to nervousness.

And that’s how, two weeks after being humiliated, I was signing my very first Contract in English, opening a Brazilian Company (for tax reasons) and simply scared out of my mind.

I worked for Nebulab for 2 years and three months, starting as a Mid-Level Developer and ending up as a Principal Developer, leading a team of 13+ professionals.

This is the “story”.

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Why is this titled “My Destiny”?

Because more than one decade later, creating Art is precisely what I am doing. I mean, I already said that it’s the same as Programming, but let me have my moment of triumph against the insecure 2012 version of myself.

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Sometimes this art takes form of a perfectly crafted Lesson that looks more like Theater and an RPG Session.

Sometimes it’s an Article or Video that I post in the Internet.

It seems that I am trying to sell a product sometimes, but that’s not the case at all. I have basically retired from working my ass off my entire life and saving everything I could.

It’s all invested in the Stock Market now, appreciating as I write these lines. Working as a Software Engineer did give me a high salary, which increased my savings considerably!

(but I burned a lot of it in 2023 due to mental health problems)

But more often than not, the Art takes the form of Art.

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The lesson?

There are many, but I would say the main one is to never give up without a fight.

Even if you have to take a different path for a while, make sure you’re always heading towards your Real Dreams.

Had I not tried to be a Professional Illustrator, I wouldn’t have had peace of mind going into the Software Career and, completely buntly? Would probably be dead.

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Thanks for reading, and I will spare you of Calls to Action this time 🙂

This article is not about selling anything.