First one, was in college, didn't really understand what I was doing, got invited by a friend and I was just really excited about programming real stuff on my f

First one, was in college, didn't really understand what I was doing, got invited by a friend and I was just really excited about programming real stuff on my free time outside of school. Got out 2 years later, right before my partners graduated and really grew the company. Second time, almost right after college, I started working as the first employee at another startup, at first it was really exciting, I felt like I was part of the founding team, contributed a lot to the direction of the company and got to work on the pitch as well as go to meetings with investors, but when the company started growing, a line was drawn between founders and employees. That's when I got together with one of the other employees and left to start our own company. Thirds time, while running my previous company I decided to participate in a hackathon with a friend, we won the local chapter, then the global chapter and then we got funding. Looking back, I've been extremely lucky and never really planned anything too much, things just happened. Also, if I could go back in time, I might have chosen to just dedicate myself to being a very good programmer instead of playing the startup game.