Keep programming and don't be afraid of corporate I.T. You don't have to be a musician or make a huge impact on the world but if you keep programming you'll be

Keep programming and don't be afraid of corporate I.T. You don't have to be a musician or make a huge impact on the world but if you keep programming you'll be happy. That was back in 1994. Back then I felt pulled in multiple directions because I was in a band, hanging out with hippies, writing music, but I also loved hacking and all things computer related. I was raised to believe we all must do our best to have the maximum positive impact on the world, and anything less would be selling yourself short. I also wanted to be a programmer, maybe eventually a game developer, but back then the only programming jobs required a CS degree. I went through some books and wrote a few apps, but it all seemed out of reach back then. I eventually settled on I.T. but stayed in the SMB space due to bad experiences in the corporate world early on. I hit rock bottom after failing to run my own business during the late 00's. I was ready for a career change when I stumbled on an enterprise I.T. gig. About 2 years ago I discovered DevOps and now I'm a full time developer focused on simplifying, automating, and abstracting complex infrastructure tasks. It's so fun! Python, HTML, and JS all day! So yeah, I should have stuck with programming, I had no idea how fun it would be. Maybe back then I didn't have the focus or perspective to really engineer complex projects. I was also intimidated by all the maths.