I officially quit my dream job!
And I couldn't be happier.
Also, this is my 1337th post, which is a 1337 milestone in my Steemit career.
What does this all mean? It means that I now have freedom once again. I've been working for a "cyber security," (ugh, "cyber") company for the past year or so as a Network and Information Security Analyst. My dream job has always been to work professionally in the realm of network and information security that would keep me hands on with cutting edge tech as well as keep my hands on code.
I eventually landed that job after free-lancing as a sole-proprietor for the majority of my adult life. With plenty of room to move around and up, the future was mine! My path was at my discretion. But then I realized . . . that I don't handle authority well. Never have, never will. I also don't operate well with having someone else dictate my schedule or having someone else have the authority to lock me down to one geographic location. I require freedom of movement and well, just straight up freedom I guess.
What would or could possibly give me that, that would encourage me to quit the job I've spent a life-time seeking? I will tell you:
The Blockchain World.
I've been in this space for a very, very long time. Surrounded by your typical POW blockchain up until roughly 2014/2015, I forget. POW is gross, we all know that. It's all about Graphene! It's all about DPOS.
I won't go too much further into detail . . . yet! But you will all know my/our plans very soon. We will be announcing some things in the very near future, so follow and stay tuned!!! Exciting things are in the works, and if you're a player in this space, we've got some nice stuff to bring to the table. Being able to use existing and future tech to create an absolutely win-win scenario for both ourselves, the people we're surrounded by, and our end users is such an amazing thing. It feels great and I can't wait to bring it all to light.
Aaaahhhhhhhhhh!!! It feels so good!!! FREEDOM!!!
That's all I've got for now. Well, aside from this picture of @kotturinn that I popped from around a corner and took by surprise of her yelling for me. She's going to kill me, she hates this picture! EDIT: She's already demanding that I take it down; NOPE!!!
Until next time!
-Matt
Best of luck brother, the future is only bright for you!
I sure hope so, man! Your future on the other hand, now that's a bright one. You're in a position to absolutely beat the hell out of life! I wanna see you do it! I want front row tickets!
It make me happy to see a fellow hacker out of reach of the man !!!
Woah, dude! Someone put you in possession of some serious Steem Power! Gotta say, that was a wise move, you deserve it. Congratulations! Use 'er wisely!
Haha, I thought it was useful to give you a full SP upvote right there! And, I know man! I am beyond grateful! Will do!
Haha, I'm glad you did! I truly appreciate it, I am honestly humbled. Thank you so much! Who knows, you may end up controlling a bit of my stake for a while as well in the future!? There's you another 100% upvote from me as well :-).
Oooh, that sounds intriguing! And,,,,,, ANOTHA ONE!
w000000000t! Right back at ya, hahaha. Just not as hardcore as yours! Thanks, man!!!
:Thumbs_Up: ;)
Best of luck dear - Hope to see your rich soon :P I am thinking same, if this site has some potential to pay me back :)
Thank you very much!!! I'm not very worried about being rich. I'm more interested in the implications that these tools hold being in my hands. I want to be able to help society and be able to help uplift impoverished people that feel as though they have no hope in life. That mindset runs absolutely rampant in the world, it's heartbreaking.
My plan is to be like you my friend! you just got a new follower!
@evanrvoss
Nice! I'll try not to ruin my life so I don't ruin your life haha. I'll do my best to lead by example. Thanks for the follow! Have an upvote :-).
HAHA I don't think that would happen M8! Just watch my post to see if my life is already getting ruined.
Now i'm gonna have to keep tabs to make sure!
Who knows I might be retired by that point lol.
:-O
Wow. You have just done what I am trying to do: get my freedom. The only difference is that I am not liberating myself from a job but joblessness. Not fighting to free myself from my dream job but from dead dreams.
I had dreams of working in tech firms, that was in 2004 when I was thirteen. But little did I know that I would never realize them. I was born and raised in Zimbabwe and if you're not familiar with its history, you can Google "Zimbabwe Hyperinflation"
To give you the short version: dead economy, dead dreams...
Anyway, discovering the blockchain and, most importantly Steemit, has given me new hope. Hope for financial freedom and so much more. Thanks for sharing your story, it has inspired and motivated me to keep working on my dreams. :)
Actually, I do know what you're talking about and understand the economy there. I have a One-Hundred Trillion Zimbabwean Dollar bank note on my desk.
But yeah man, don't give up! You have the internet. You can learn anything that you want to learn. Information is free now, but it's up to you to use it wisely.
Have you tried Codecademy or or Khan Academy? If not, you should really check them out. Be sure to study Computer Science on Khan Academy, btw! Once you get a few months of that nuder your belt, join Hacker Rank and start solving coding puzzles. If you solve certain ones, you're GUARANTEED interviews at large companies with really good pay. Remote positions available as well!
I'm really glad for you, my friend. I hope in this new way you achieve all your goals! You've really proved to be a very generous person in this community and you deserve the best. All my positive energy for you dear matt!
That's very kind of you to say, thank you very much! I try to set a good example and I just hope that others try to do good for the overall well being of everyone as well. We only live once, might as well try to do your best for the world. A world without people would be an awful one, so it's cool to try to better your peers. But yeah, thank you! I wont let ya down.
I'm just telling the truth and I do not know you in person, but I can tell what kind of human you are. You are always thinking of helping others. And as what you give, it always comes back. I have no doubt that your life will be surrounded by good times. Keep sparing your good energy my friend! A pleasure to have crossed with you
Thank you very much for the kind words! I love getting replies like this more than any other. I'm very glad to have done something nice for anyone. Life is short, if we aren't trying to help others as well, we've led the wrong type of life. Helping others also helps yourself, that's what I believe anyways. And if I am wrong, I don't want to be right.
I will always be as I am now :-). It is always how I have been and will continue to be! Keep up the great attitude and positivity!
Congrats @matt-a - big fan of your work as you know. Keep it up!
Thanks a lot! The enjoyment is very much mutual!
Thats leet :))
Oh yesssssss!!!
Nice @matt-a
WOW Congrats and it sounds exciting! I love that pic! Too funny!!!!!
Thanks Matt, You are awesome! Inspiration for me and many others! Upvote
You're most welcome. And also, thanks for the compliment! I'm glad I could at least make some sort of positive impact out of quitting a job that I worked insanely hard for haha.
I truly believe you will make much more Impact on people here than on your old job!
That's for damn sure haha.
Yes this is inspirational @matt-a. Congratulations!
Thanks! Glad it is :-).
Inhale the future and exhale the past, you are now a free man with complete freedom... wise decision.
Exactly right, free-er than a bird!
That is why steemit is so special.
It is the first shot across the bow of the old centralized ship.
The more I see the more I understand and love.
Thanks again @matt-a for being so welcoming to me and my daughter @equine.love , It has been very helpful in my further recruiting efforts.
I read a post about someone tipping in alt currency and think I will follow suit.
I already have three of my kids working for doge coin allowances.
You're most definitely welcome! Without people, this is all NOTHING. We gotta fight the good fight and help this community thrive. I'm doing my best!
Haha, that rules! Paying your kids in Doge! Write an article about it, man!
My daughter @equine.love sold her 15,000 Doge for Basic Attention Tokens after I installed the BRAVE browser on her desk top. ON a dip of course):
Haha, imbue the spirit of the hustle into them!
I just got my brother who is the vice- mayor and longtime city council member of the city of San Gabriel California to join steemit today! @seahawksfan
He is a lawyer and a libertarian.
kind of a ball buster but definitely will add value to steemit.
Woah, that rules! Make sure he stays engaged! Who knows? Maybe he can get more citizens involved? That would be insane.
He works as the RE manager for a large (think 100's of billion big)retirement firm in Pasadena CA. They just had a board meeting today about going deeper into blockchain and bitcoin in particular. They have bought a big interest in coinbase recently as well.
After years of telling him about Bitcoin and Ethereum and even through the massive gains, it took his CTO to tell him to get into crypto.
At least I get to be right.
He has a big network and is connected in the California libertarian party and with a lot of local non-profits.
You are a Rock Star! but keep a level head...
Thanks! No worries on that front, I am the master of level heads! I'm looking at this as an opportunity to not only do well for myself and family, but help others do well for themselves as well and hopefully be a bit inspirational to them. I want to give people coming from nothing a bit of hope, because escaping poverty IS doable but it sure as hell isn't an easy road.
For sure paying it forward in life returns awesome karma...
Wow, excited for your upcoming plans! You have the freedom to pursue them now!
Yup, that was the plan. Now it's time to bust ass and make some things happen!
Busting ass usually does the trick!
No asses shall go unbusted!
Congrats matt...
Thank ya, kindly.
Good Luck , chase your dreams !
Thanks! I'm hot on its trail!
May the Power of Steem be with You always!
IT'S IN MY BLOOD!
Congrats on following your dreams. Go get em. I am now following your blog
Thanks! And that rules, mo' followers, mo' betterer life!
nice post..
Thanks!
Of course I am also grateful for having replied .... hopefully we support each other in the post ...
No hoping to it, I've been upvoting everyone! haha
I like to make sure that the wealth is spread around as much as possible, especially to smaller stake holders and newcomers.
Very true ... sometimes not only upvote but how to write a post also need to give advice .... thank you very much.
Very true! Sometimes it can be very hard to write a good post that people will like to read, share, and engage. If you keep it up, you will get better and better. You should try writing posts both in your native language and English both, that would be cool. Also be sure to use all 5 tags when making a post!
Wow, very good advice, and this is rarely given to know other people.
congrats on your freedom. i too am seeking freedom!
Hang in there and you will get it if you keep your mind to it!
Very inspirational after a tough day of thinking to myself what am I doing with my life !
Nice! Glad I could be of some inspiration!!! Just hang in there and never stop giving life hell and you're golden. Life can be really shitty a lot of times, it can be super tough and make you feel like giving up a lot of times, but it's important to stay positive. It's what you make it, ultimately. Any moment spent being pessimistic is a moment absolutely wasted. Life is very much finite, it's much shorter than you think. Gotta make every second count and always be trying to lead by example, bringing those up with you along the way.
Thank you for the lovely words !
You're welcome, just being real!
Shine bright like a diamond!
I wanna shine like a police searchlight that someone stole from the cops!
😂😂😂
I guess congrats? Follow your dreams and me of course.
Haha, thank you. Congrats works just fine! It's all part of a bigger plan ;-).
This is the only place in the world where one can be proud of saying that he/she quited a job. Love it. :)
Well, I'm primarily quitting to form a company with a friend of mine :-). But yes, I agree. This place is amazing! It empowers so many human beings it's unbelievable. This makes me want to nominate Dan Larimer and his team for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Awesome
hey man good job!, im not far behind haha.. Being active on this site your numbers go up pretty quick
The beauty of it is how if you contribute to the community and try to make a positive impact, it gives back to you. This system is straight up revolutionary. It will only continue to grow exponentially! I can't wait to see it in a year or so. Some of my future plans is to get my immediate, as well as my home, communities involved in Steemit. It's gonna get wiiiild.
@matt-a this tech is totally revolutionary man, and were at the forefront of something thats going to change the world. It feels good to be a part of this movement...I'm trying to convince my friends too, but they dont believe me smh...they'll believe when my account is over 100k lol
Shove the whitepaper in their face! https://steem.io/SteemWhitePaper.pdf
I think everyone has the same problem. People think you're crazy until they start seeing actual dollars signs. Plays into people's greed!
Freedom indeed. Congratulations!! It takes courage to do it. All the best of luck to you.
Thanks a lot! Yeah, this particular instance took quite a bit of courage unfortunately. I have a two-year, $15,000 USD contract hanging over my head :-S.
Congratulations Matt-a. It's a big step and I'm so happy for you freedom. I'm hoping to get there myself. So wonderful to hear good news. :) I look forward to hearing more
Thanks! It wasn't an easy decision, but it was one that had to be made. At this point in time, I'm super glad that I made it.
I'm sure it wasn't easy at all. That takes a lot of courage, strength, confidence and many other things. Kudos to you :) That's absolutely wonderful.
Especially when they're dangling a two-year $15,000 contract over your head :-/. I had to be ready to fight it. Luckily, they didn't enforce it! I got seriously lucky.
awesome. Congratulations :) Seems this was the right thing to do.
Thanks! Yeah, I really think that it was. I just need more freedom!
keep it up@matt-a
Can't stop, won't stop!
Absolutely amazing. So inspirational. Hope it all works out for you!
I am a newbie here, and it seems to me like "this is unbelievable". I hope one day I will enjoy the benefits of the Blockchain world.
It is unbelievable! But it works :-). You're ALREADY enjoying the benefits! Just keep with it and you will grow rapidly. Good luck!
Color me envious.
What's the name of that crayon and I shall oblige! haha
"I am Jack's burning desire to not work in a corporate environment" blue.
I may not know the difference between POW and Graphene, but I know the sound of a man with guts who is chasing a dream. Good luck with it!
Well if you'd like to learn, here's some reading materials to help remedy that!
POW: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Proof_of_work
Graphene/DPOS: http://cryptorials.io/glossary/delegated-proof-of-stake/
Thanks for the kind words! I appreciate that, definitely motivates me.
Looks like she's about to raise the fork and stab you haha!! And that is all awesome news man. I am full of anticipation wondering what it's going to be and how long I have to wait to find out!! I know if you quit your job to focus on it. That it will be epic for sure!! And now you guys can travel and come see Zion hah!! Keep doing what your doing matt, you are appreciated!
She has a tendency to stab me a lot of times :-/. She's a terribly abusive woman! You know how Russian woman are, always stabbing their men!
Haha, thanks! Happy I can garner a bit of excitement, I can't wait to announce everything with my team. It's certainly worth quitting my job for, at least I think so. My other team mates are also quitting their jobs, one of them put in their resignation yesterday and another had their last day on Friday. Exciting times indeeeed!
Travel is pretty much the main reason I need freedom, I want to be able to travel. There isn't much more to life than traveling, seeing as many places as you can, experiencing and understanding as many cultures as you can, and just being friendly throughout those times. To me, that's one of the main purposes of life.
Oh yeah, where's Zion?! Jerusalem!?
My friend's wife is Russian, well she was part of the Soviet Union. But I know you are correct, that Russian woman are a special breed haha!! Yes a life well traveled is a life well lived I think as well!!! I hope to break my shackles and to be able to travel someday as well!! And its in southern Utah! So not so far as jerusalem!! And jerusalem doesn't have anything on the real Zion haha :) And I will be watching and waiting for a big, super dope announcement!!
That's cool, my wife is from Crimea, she was actually born in the Soviet Union, then of course it collapsed and she mas magically from another country, then magic happened again and the territory changes countries AGAIN! haha
Ahh, I got ya! I thought you were talking about Mount Zion! haha
Yup, stay tuned! We will come out of the woodwork sometime soon!
Wish you a very promising future, my friend!
Upvoted and followed you @matt-a .
Awesome! Thank you very much! Much appreciated!!!
You are welcome.
Oh yeah forgot to mention, I added you to my bot as well at 100% :-).
Wow，Thank you very much.
And FYI, you are already in my bot list. 😄
Awesome!!! Thanks :-D
Hi, my dear friend @matt-a :
It seems that you robot doesn't vote for my post. 😰
Did I offend him? lol.😭😭😭
That's weird, it has been missing people sometimes. Let me check the configurations again.
Hmm, weird, it had it on the rule in place. I deleted it and re-added it. Hopefully that does the trick!
Thank you for taking the time to check it. 👍
My robot occasionally misses important posts too.
It takes me several days to make it more better. 😛
I too am quitting a fantastic job and a great lifestyle. Not due to being set on Steemit, but for a life change and perhaps a downsize.
Who know what it could bring you? It's freedom! Leave the window of opportunity wide open.
I'm not quitting due to my Steemit stake although I do plan on being more involved with the community on a much larger scale, but me and some friends have some things in the works ;-).
Great to hear it, hope you Will make World better place
Thanks, I sure hope that I do, too. I'm going to try my very best.
Best of luck man! I know you'll kill it. While I am still, in college I feel for you.
While not really my choice, I ended up back home and had to back out of my internship for this summer. At first I was disappointed. But, now I actually have the time to go all out on my Steemit project and get to live 45 minutes out of Silicon Valley and explore blockchain all summer. Not too bad really! Not quite freedom (because I have to pick up a non-tech summer job to make some cash because Steemit cannot pay for everything lol) but still a damn good time to be working on cool tech stuff that interests me.
Cannot wait for your announcement!!! Cheers and Steem on!
Thanks, man! I appreciate the confidence! Definitely boost morale haha.
Woah, sounds like you kinda lucked out in a way. Sometimes doing your own thing and exploring your true passions can be a much better learning experience, so really go hard!
What kind of project are you working on? Do you have any languages you're particularly good at?
I am working on SteemEngine. Basically like MetaMask for Steemit. Check it out here and here. Looking for an easy way for developers to make Steemit web apps and for users to connect to these web apps without giving out ANY personal information. Similar idea to Steem Connect with a twist. I am coding the Google Chrome Extension in HTML, CSS, JS, Angular. I am pretty good with Python, Swift, and Java as well.
That is bad ass! Well, if you're partial to graphene, we may get in touch if you want to play with some stuff.
May be badass, but also a little ambitious LOL. Always down to have a little fun playing around with graphene.
Never too ambitious! If you aren't pushing yourself, you aren't growing. I'll keep ya posted ;-).
Have you thought about BitShares worker proposals or PeerPlays yet?
I have not. Honestly do not know too much about either of those. Has been on my todo list for far too long!
@matt-a well done on getting out the job hope you have every success in the cryptocurrency nice to meet
Thank you very much!
Awesome. Thanks for being a great member of the steemit community!
You're welcome, I try very hard! Thank YOU for being a great member of the community.
Good job man !
Keep it up!
Spasibo bolshoi, moi droog.
So inspiring! Well deserved!
I like hearing this :-). Thanks a lot! Makes me feel good haha.
It is an amazing brave new world - taking what seems like a big risk can pay off even more when you commit yourself - keep up the work and sharing your thought - it inspires others.
Very true. With risk comes reward, but you MUST calculate that risk to the best of your abilities or else you're in for some good old fashioned DOOM.
Thank you!
Congrats @matt-a !! (I just checked there is no matt-b... lol)
First of all, thanks for your support/votes. Secondly, Wow... this is exactly what I want to achieve ... quit and be freed. I look forward to knowing more from your experience... But as I cannot code, I need to find my own way of achieving this...
Best of luck!
deanliu
Thank you very much! If there was a matt-b, I'd have to fight them to the death! haha
You're very welcome! I'm glad I can help you out! It speaks for your character to come to me and say thanks, that shows you're a good person in my opinion, makes me feel even better about having you on my bot. Communities need people like that! Communities like Steemit.
You can always learn to code! Have you looked at places like www.codecademy.com, www.khanacademy.org, https://ocw.mit.edu, or www.hackerrank.com ? Those are all free, awesome resources to help you get in tune with computer science, programming, and so much more. I highly recommend them for anyone trying to learn.
Thanks for such an encouraging reply. I know I can always learn to code, but I have doubts about the income that this learning might bring to me .. probably not enough to support my family... but will certainly check those sources to familiarize myself with it. Or maybe I will get my son to learn coding, when he gets a little bit older. What's the earliest age you think that can learn coding? My son is almost 5 now. Maybe I should ask Stan when Dan started to learn coding... LOL
All the best and I will be following you and your project's progress. Cheers.
You're welcome! You can make very good money. You can even find a lot of companies that will hire you in as a "Junior Developer," that will kind of hold your hand along the way and allow you to learn as you're being paid a liveable wage.
DEFINITELY get your son into programming NOW! There's an awesome programming language specifically to teach to children to introduce them to the concepts of programming. If you can get him learning this now, you're going to have one powerful human being on your hands that has an insanely bright future ahead of them.
The language is called "Scratch," and you can learn more about it here: https://scratch.mit.edu/
Also, talking to Stand and Dan about this would probably be an absolutely brilliant idea. You can catch Dan everyday in the EOS chat on Telegram and Slack. If you need directions to those, let me know and I'll get you in the right place.
Thank you so much, and the best of luck to you as well!!!
This post received a 48% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @matt-a! For more information, click here!
Hello my friend . Good information. Thanks for sharing Post
Please my friend I would like to get your support here your vote great honor
https://steemit.com/steemit/@mars9/steemit-the-idea-in-a-white-paper-was-published-in-march-2016-now-the-dream-is-coming-true
That's great👍