Well, even though you already have posted something, a late introduction doesn't hurt anyway. Or so I hear. If you like the first lines/years of life, you might want to read to the end. Hope you enjoy and please feedback and ask questions if you have any :). Thanks!
Laurentiu Vintila is the name.. making money ain't my game :D Yeah.. lame, I know, but couldn't resist. So let's get serious. Born in 87, in Romania.. I can clearly remember people shouting in the street the celebration after the death of communist dictator Ceausescu (note I was only almost 3 years old). I became most aware about things around me at age 5, after my first rejection from a 5,5 year old girl.. Until that moment the world was run by the bossy, all-knowing and sometimes scary adults and all I thought is that children just play and behave and that we don't do much than just "be there".. I could go on about how I questioned why we need to do or not do things, but I'll just sum that the basic understanding was behaving = love, misbehaving = no love or scolding and that there was a small sentiment of fear of not reaching expectations.
Let's fast forward a bit. 1st grade, second day of school, I get my first mark: -F . I cried like the baby that I was. Apparently we were supposed to bring notebooks and apparently I was the only one without one. I thought the adults take care of that!! Needless to say my first impression of school was "-F" and I despised learning for the most part. Arts and crafts was nice and also gym class. Got toys confiscated numerous times. I made little friends, met many bullies, probably in part because I was a skinny kid, usually got only passing grades and I believed most teachers just didn't like me. Close to flunking Math in 7th grade I made an almost perfect score next semester thanks to my dad's supervision (Thanks Dad!!!). For somewhat of a failure, I knew that if I put my mind to it I can reach my goals. My confidence was fueled by small wins, by my father and cartoon heroes (DBZ anyone?). At that time I would feel that my "malevolent" teachers did not deserve to see proof of what I can do and my aversiveness to "self-proving" stuck with me even until today. Things started improving at a snail rate after my success in Math and by the end of high-school I was second top of my class and at my second girlfriend (bit of an airhead this one). Then came University! Nice & intelligent people, no bullies, no surprise tests, could leave at almost any time from classes, evaluation once.. WHERE WAS THIS ALL MY LIFE? I deeply enjoyed the experience, the teachers and was pretty involved in most of the classes. On breaks I would just sleep with my head on the desk, stroll through the university and buy sandwiches and fruit yogurt. I broke up with my second girlfriend, but little did I know that I was being watched by someone, for some time, judgingly of my sleep habit in the classroom. I was considered pretty lax and tired by this person and my overall character was evaluated as "intriguing". I was tired indeed. Starting from my first year, I was involved in a students NGO, which affected my school attendance a bit, but although fun and diverse it was also pretty business-like and somewhat demanding of time and perseverance. But I've learned a lot, from public speaking to project management, leadership and so on, I became part of the leading board of the local subsidiary, and was the only person that has attended 4 of the 5 departments. Enough bragging now.. Obviously it was a morale boost, making me a big optimist, and that only helped lure in my passive observer, which later became my wife. I could say that this girl is the only one that I felt really cared and supported me.. besides my parents of course. So everything just fine and dandy from here? No. Isn't life mostly like that.. My NGO career hit some bumps: the financial crisis, moving headquarters.. I was responsible of finances & legal and I was underperforming under the stressed environment, struggling not to ragequit, let alone perform my duties at the best of my abilities. Made sense to back out, but there were people there that I cared about and things did not look like they would go well if I did. I pushed forward and even tried running for the head of the leadership board, when what I wanted was to breathe. In the first round, I was short of one vote, but in the second.. I've felt a change of questions towards "proving yourself". The rest is probably obvious: I renounced actually competing, gave half-hearten answers, went on a spiral for months on what was it all for and became adamant on my aversiveness. If I were to prove anything you were either my enemy or proved yourself worthy.
A few years later.. I finish my masters, move together with my girlfriend and I have no job. Similarly at that time, a lot of people didn't. It was still in the middle of the financial crisis. My degree in economics was of no use, most of that sector doing layoffs and I wasn't going to prove myself for employers that showed little to no respect.
There was a small story that I read and that is relevant here. There once was an apprentice monk that thought he had no potential. Everybody said so. So he went to his teacher for permission to pack up and leave. His teacher then requested of him to try and sell a small jewel stone for no less than 2 gold at the market. After long hours he came back saying that the stone was considered worthless and no one would offer more than a few silver. The teacher smiled and asked him to go to the jeweler and see how much he would get, but do not sell no matter the price. After careful inspection the jeweler offers 40 gold. The apprentice was shocked, but said he would not sell. The jeweler thought he was a good bargainer and offered 50 gold. Again he could not sell and the jeweler then finally said that 60 is all that he can raise and give him in such a short amount of time if he is willing to sell. Obviously the apprentice was astounded but had to return the jewel. His teacher smiled again upon hearing his story and told him that not all people can properly evaluate something and sometimes it takes a very knowing person to do that. "The same applies to you. I see great potential, as in this stone" he said, and those words stuck and guided the apprentice to see his dreams fulfilled.
This was the same path that I had chosen. I had a great liking into games (guess what I was doing when not learning for school all those years) so I decided I would start learning to program and create my own games. My girlfriend and parents supported and encouraged me to enroll into a new University that teaches programming with reduced attendance. I would go every weekend, but I did not learn to program there. I did get some info and was expected to get a degree at least, but I taught myself. Two years in I decided to marry my wonderful girlfriend, that she and my parents have been pretty patient with me and that it was time to try and make something of myself, even though I didn't had too much to show for. I started the smallest scale of a "company" as an "authorized contractor" and, by luck, it seems employers have found ME. I've met up with a person that I knew nothing about and what an encounter it was. Let me say this.. bless this person's soul! No CVs, just a lax chat on my programming history and skills and some funny tales. He was right: skills are proven by results, not CVs and I gladly did so. I was off to a good start in my endeavor and things just kept going up. I started learning more and more, became better (faster, stronger.. sorry again :D) and we kind of end up HERE. The present!
All my previous bad experiences led me to my own independence, acknowledgement of self-worth and philosophy that maybe someone was watching, that humans have great undiscovered potential and that good people deserve a helping hand. I am now a husband, supporter of people & #directdemocracy and CEO of my startup wannabe #zebracompany (see here for zebras). I developed slowly to this point, but.. Better late than never, right? :)
For all of you that read through the story, or just skipped to the ending :)) here is the picture of who I was.
(I was smiling because I was expecting to receive that pen and pencil box :) Imagine my disappointment when I found out it was just for show. Figures :/)
