Remember that time when you Leveled Up!
We tend to be mediocre at things we would like to do. However, at certain times, maybe due to certain conditions, we decide “Not Anymore!” and we Level Up!
I would like to share that whatever I am today is because of those three or four Level-Up moments in my life. Maybe it was a moment of vision or passion or discipline or even shame or maybe a mix of all of those feelings.
But those moments forged me into who I am today!
Those moments helped me ascend!
The beauty of leveling up is that the things that might scare you now eventually become child's play. Instead of just seeing the fight at hand, you start seeing the entire battlefield.
It gives us a fresh perspective on life!
Certain confidence oozes out of you when you talk and influence others around you. It’s an amazing feeling!
I have this strong belief that all those successful programmers & entrepreneurs I have had the honour of working with, walk around with this inebriated state of leveling up frequently. It’s such a fulfilling state to be in.
I am trying to reflect on my Leveling Up moments and taking you along on this journey. A deep insight into my personal life. Here we go —
LEVEL 1 :
Somewhere around 11 or 12 years of age around 2003 I think. We used to live in this three-storey rented apartment with 4 other decent middle-class families with a bunch of children near my age.
We had this small ground adjacent to our apartment where we would play cricket every day, and I wasn’t any better compared to friends of my age. My batting was poor, no power in my bowling either. Small kids, big kids, girls, boys, uncles, aunties, everyone would get a shot in the game as parents were nearby, and we had to abide. Any crying kid or a vehicle parked by some annoyed uncle would ruin the game. On certain days, when there was no one to play, I would take my cycle and ride around the town spotting action in bigger grounds.
One of those cycling days, I found a classmate playing on a big ground, a few kilometres away from home, and they were one player short. It was my lucky day, and I started showing up every day for the matches.
Longer pitch, huge ground, exhausting run ups, zero concerns for withholding powerful strokes, no windows or balconies around, often playing with a dry mouth in the sun for hours, being mocked by bigger betters players daily for my sloppiness, occasional fights and wrestles with other kids to stand up for my dignity, big matches with our team money on the line. There was an initiation of team instincts to fight for the cricket pitch from other teams. These things brought a serious transformation in me after a year.
I was Leveled Up!
So this realisation came to me while bowling in a game with my neighbourhood friends after a long gap. I was bowling on our near-house small ground, and the ball was passing the batsman, wicket-keeper, and directly to the wall behind, making a loud.. thud noise every time I bowled. They were concerned about serious injuries because of how powerful my bowling was, and I wasn’t holding back either. They were scared, and being a young teenage boy, it was a joyful and fulfilling moment. My hands opened up, now I was used to this huge ground with batsmen trying for district and state level. This game in our apartment ground was now a child’s play.
Another very interesting thing — I saw this spark in my friend’s eyes that day who saw me bowl after a long time, and that spark said, “OK..., so this level of ferocity is possible at our age too!”.
After this leveling up, I understood the cool dudes, the kids who would call the shots. Now, I knew that they earned this position by fighting for themselves and their friends. I never thought about this as “leveling up” and considered it just a typical teenage transformation. However, talking to many of my college friends made me realise how smooth my high school years were because of this leveling up.
LEVEL 2:
Right before college, at 18 years of age, around 2011. I dropped out a year after 12th, preparing for top engineering colleges from home. So I was actually great in Maths and poor in chemistry, but Physics… was always a nightmare.
But I had a taste of leveling up, and I knew it wasn’t impossible!
So I took on this challenge and covered the complete book of physics (HC Verma Vol I and Vol II, The Holy Grail of intermediate Physics in India) cover to cover with all the exercises.
My goodness! It was no small feat for someone like me with a poor academic background, and to complete it all by myself with no help from any teacher or mentor was a huge success. A big boost to my self-confidence!
My elder brother, who cracked IIT with an All India Ranking of 311 and interviewed Mr H.C. Verma himself at IIT Kanpur, was a big confidence boost, while his brother was reading one of Humanity’s best books on Applied Physics.
I didn’t crack IITs or NITs, but just getting this upper hand in something that tormented me for two years was a huge excitement. Not to mention, I was going through my first romantic heartbreak of my life at that time. Maybe that helped too, I don’t know! Either way, I do not regret IITs and got into a highly underrated college in India with the highest number of patents in Karnataka during my time there.
That victory over Physics was a huge intellectual Level Up! moment, and at that stage, I was physically and mentally levelled up for my next big challenge.
LEVEL 3:
Note: College graduates, Interns, Folks who are not getting jobs, or Junior devs not getting decent salaries should definitely read about this Level 3 leveling up.
My dad used to say — “First deserve, then desire!”
Very soon in the college days, I realised that what they are teaching us in this Computer Science degree is not enough to provide value addition in a real software job to earn a living.
I had to learn SO MUCH MORE to provide this “real value addition” and to be able to take ownership in projects!
I had two yearbacks in college and couldn’t get into any decent company. The situation was not any good either, companies were ok to hire me if I had experience, but without a job, I could not get any experience. Lol, the dreaded deadlock situation!..
To overcome this, I did so many open-source projects and pro-bono consulting back then that eventually I leveled up to this mental state where I could talk directly with the company and say to their face — “OK! This is where you’re lacking, and this is how I can help, but you’ll have to pay me this much!”
But oh my god, to get to this mental state.., this journey was not smooth at all, and there were days when I felt like a stupid caveman surrounded by smart humans. But those were the days when I—
- Realised, I cannot do this without a mentor — More here
- Learned “how to learn” and wrote dozens of handwritten notes to get stuff through my thick skull — More here
- Developed a strong Bull mindset on Problem solving — More here
This level up helped me buy my first laptop for programming, my first bike, my first car, and for the first time, I was able to contribute back to family members.
LEVEL 4:
…ongoing!
I'll talk about Level 4 soon. A lot of interesting things are happening right now, and I am meeting some interesting people.
