Mars in a few thousand years
It began very early: In the last months of highschool, were I had to decide what I was going to study. I was doing my final examens with specialisation in mechanics, which I enjoyed, so I decided to go on with studying mechanical engineering.
I just applied in one highschool that was close to some of my frinds and got enrolled there later. It turned out my mother helped a little, so it was not so easy after all.
Studying was a blast. I enjoyed going to the lectures, at least most of them. Despite the setbacks of failing many examens at the beginning, it was overall a good time. I got to learn how to learn and be around people that actually wanted to be where they are.
Chosing my subject was the first real decision I made to decide in which direction I wanted to go. I wasn't sure about my goal in life, but during university I thought that I would study, even if I had a million euro in the bank, I'd be right here aswell.
This feeling, along with the friends I made, helped me get through all the hard courses and examens, with almost incredible workload. I just took every course I could fit into the schedule, and then saw if it worked out. I did finish a lot.
The first few semesters went by and it came to another important decision. I had to do an internship. Long story short: I ended up going to China to work in the quality department of a german/chinese Wasching machine factory. (They had the best quality of all factories of this company around the world).
My experiences there are another story, but I want to say that I learned most importantly that I can be very self sufficient and can get along on my own pretty good. That is something I have never been able to find out in Germany and what I like everyone to experience himself.
I also learned that traveling is super exhausting but also very exciting and that you can squeeze a lot into a weekend, if you got only that much time during a work week.
I liked visiting factories and see people build streets and buildings. In later years I noticed that I enjoy a landscape a lot more if it contains signs of human ingenuity, in harmony with its sorroundings.
During work, I suffered from boredom looking at numbers. I found out quickly that it was a lot more fun to actually look for solutions of technical problems than to survey them.
Back in Germany I had another semester and then had to write my bachelor examen during another internship. This time I took care that I got a position in construction and development. A prestigious company for millturn machines gave me a chance.
I enjoyed the work a lot! When I look back I wonder how I made it happen: I had 6 months time. One month I used to get used to work, before choosing a topic. Before getting to that I also had to finish two reports about my internship in China! I had no idea what to write and put together an extravaganza of bloomy phrases. I went to the library and noted a few dozen books about quality, to which I could refer throughout the work. A final presentation sealed the deal, with a good enough grade to not be embarrassed.
On top I also took notes on what to do in my bachelor thesis and presentation.
I picked the task to develop a magazine for overlong tools. It gave me a lot of freedom, since the only restrains were space, energy supply and some minor details like noise and pollution.
I finished in time, but took one important lesson with me: the work was great, but my engineer colleagues were having the same boring talks as my friends that work on the convejor belt: Cars, houses, family, games.
That was not where I would be working if I had millions on my bank account.
Going further with my education, I did my master in biomedical engineering. It's basically applying my bachelor in engineering, to develop technology in and around the human body. From bandaids to implants and hospital ventilation systems, everything is possible.
I enjoyed learning about physiology and the prospect of solving health problems with technical means was very exciting and captures me today.
The program was completely in english and I soon had fun switching back and forth between the languages.
After the master I had the posibility to continue with a PhD, but I saw how many of them where just writing papers, researching what they are told and that for a miniscule wage.
On top, I saw that also there are many professors that just got through it with persistance, not smartness. You wondered what they were even doing there. That was another thing I wouldn't have wasted time on with a filled bank account.
So after the master I was clueless: not wanting a job, not doing a PhD, not wanting to be poor. Luckily I attended Exosphere, an academy for entrepreneurs.
I felt home quickly: finally I found people that ask the right questions. Discuss solutions and don't seem to have a fogged mind or an agenda that decides their behavior.
So entrepreneur it was. I tried for a year to get an idea what that meant. I called a few companies(2), but nothing worked out. I was clueless.
Then I decided to take the plunge and applied for the exosphere bootcamp, January 2016. I was under the first ones to apply, but it were a few months until I could finally go to south america.
My time just got worse. Before applying I felt so devoid of purpose that I became more and more depressed. Only lifting regulary seemed to have kept me sane. Another thing I learned I needed to keep doing.
In Chile I then learned how to listen to my inside. Hear what works for me and I got contact to many great and likeminded people. A real relief when you started feeling more and more in the wrong place before.
The rest of the year I pretty much tried to find my passion through reading and podcasts, while staying with friends in Chile. Guzzling on a stream of information, I wanted more from what I got in the bootcamp.
A few months later I found myself not going forward, so I decided to make my birthday present in a few months to be a simple decision: following one passion or going back to germany, getting a job and doing the passion thing on the side.
Things went on and I stayed in Chile, doubling down on my quest. That was the time when Elon Musk held his talk about colonizing mars. That was the moment I found a goal looking forward the first time.
I did play with the tought of building a company and using the money to go to mars and building huge factories there, constructing technical marvels. But I never saw the possibility to get there.
And now there was Elon, presenting his plan for a rocket to do just that.
I don't care if it's his BFR that brings me there. I only needed the possibility to fuel my aspirations.
That was when I started writing many articles on Steemit and produced YouTube videos on construction. Sadly I didn't really make a profit, but I had a bigger goal.
I went back to Germany and got a job. Not to work, but to learn how to become a better engineer, build a better world and safe some money to create a business.
When I had a lot of time, but didn't know what to do in Chile, I now know on what I can work...but have just a little time.
So if you want to know what I'd do with millions? What I would do if I knew I can't fail?
I'd find out how to be a great engineer, show many people how to build technical marvels and then try to get to Mars to build huge factories where nobody cares about air pollution. Buildings and machines that rival the pyramids.
From there on I can't see limits.
Mars in a few decades according to Elon Musk :-)