Alex Williams

Just a warning: this post offers no great advice about life, business or whatever… it’s more of a personal thing.

Although I’ve been 25 for the last 7 years, today it was made official and ironically it’s today that I feel like I just turned 18.

That probably made no sense to anyone, so let me explain:

In the last 7 years, I’ve had my head submerged in the IT industry, working as a “professional whatchamacallit“, doing things to help people with their computer problems, programming eCommerce websites, helping companies with their computer problems, programming Fashion-related websites, helping coworkers with their computer problems, and now back to programming websites.

In the last 7 years, I almost completely gave up the idea of going to school to learn, because the educational programs were too slow for me, or I was too fast for them. Cobol and Fortran? Meh!

In the last 7 years, I:

• Went to college for 1 year in Computer Science.
• Dropped out to work as a web programmer.
• Purchased a brand new car and got rid of it 4 years later.
• Worked for a few small “startups”, only 1 survived.
• Went to University to learn Math and VB.
• Dropped out to start my own company.
• Purchased a motorcycle. Then sold it.
• Purchased a condo.
• Stopped running my business.
• Started working for a large corporate.
• Purchased another motorcycle.
• Rented my condo to a really cool couple from the USA.
• Quit the corporate job to travel around Europe, with hopes of staying there.
• Learned how to bartend, save lives, juggle, and speak Spanish.
• Returned to Canada to grow my 2nd company.

In the last 7 years, I also traveled to Florida twice, Virginia twice, BC once, Ontario and Quebec a million times.

In the last 7 years, I made a ton of mistakes, more than I should list here… but don’t worry, I know what they are ;)

In the last 7 years, I also got a few different girlfriends. I guess THAT means I did farely well amongst my fellow computer geeks ;)

In the last 7 minutes, I realized in 7 years I could easily return to Spain to work as a bartending juggler on a beach filled with people who have heart attacks trying to debug VB applications. Cool?!

So why do I feel like i’m 18 now? As opposed to being 25? Simple:

• I have no post-secondary degree, yet
• I live with my parents
• I have no job
• I have no car
• I only have a vague idea of my future <-- typical youngspeak…

To reconcile myself, I need to constantly remember what I’ve done in the last 7 years, and remember that I get to pay less insurance now! Haha! In your face, age!

For the record, my birth certificate says February 6, 82. (2+6+8+2) = 18. Go figure.

Update: On the plus side, I am being bombarded with freelance contracts for both IT consulting and web development. I also get a steady income from renting my condo. I enjoy the free time I get to spend with my friends and family, the free time I get to work on my 2nd business venture, and things are looking better than ever. Who said feeling young was such a bad thing?

What’s your story? Feel free to share it in the comments below.