Lots of luck + some hard work. Graduated from a decent state school with a degree in English and started working for a small publishing company as an "editor."

Lots of luck + some hard work. Graduated from a decent state school with a degree in English and started working for a small publishing company as an "editor." The luck part was that the company was so incredibly cheap that rather than hiring a person with real programming skills, they opted to repurpose a young person (me) with some technology knowhow to do some programming for internal stuff at a fraction of the cost. Went back to college for a few semesters (on their dime) for a CS degree but never finished. I built-up an okay portfolio + work experience and landed a job at a very small software company. Worked there for a while, landed a better job at a bigger company, rinse, repeat. I'm making a good living now doing something that I really enjoy. I still can't believe this is how things turned out.