1987, I was 19, invited a girl (from the same tech highschool I had just finished) to watch Crocodile Dundee (not a date). Yes I know, this is a 1986 movie, but in the age when movies travelled in reels, releases took time to arrive in Brazil.
Arrived at her home, she was still showering. Her older sister (25 years old, just out of college, a Pharmacist) invited me in for a coffee.
Had a coffee with her and their mother. I was mesmerized by older sister. I had given up dating girls about my age, because too much immature fantasy romance. This girl was independent, bewitchingly intelligent, and beautiful.
I was too intimidated to invite her to join us. In my mind, she would answer “oh, sorry, my fiancee is about to arrive” or something like that, which would have crushed me.
So the younger sister finally shows up and invites her to join. She (thinking I was interested in younger sister) asks me “is that ok?” “YES YES Please!”.
We went out as friends for some months, then dated for 7 years, while I went through college and got a stable job. Married in 1994.
We’re still together, two “kids” (23 year old Nurse degree and 25, 1 year to finish med school).
I did a lot of awesome things in life, but so far the most extraordinary, happened by pure chance, life changing, fortunate, unlock secret ultimate quest event was meeting my wife.
When I lost my virginity it was with two girls at the same time. Life has been going downhill ever since.
You peaked way to early my friend.
I was invited to Valve’s Game Developers Conference after party. I met Felicia Day and swing danced with her. She’s super fucking cool. During that same GDC, I started interviewing at Riot Games and ended up getting hired by them.
There’s other fun stuff I’ve proactively done, but I think that’s the big one that happened to me
I answered a ringing payphone in an otherwise empty train station. Life goal achieved!
I also spent a week surviving in the wilderness a couple times, slept out for multiple days in below-zero temperatures, built and slept in a snow-dome shelter, and so on, but that’s just life in the Scouts.
And I judged the world’s largest annual scavenger hunt for years.
Yo, that’s super cool. +1 on the who was on the phone?
A woman whose son was supposed to be there waiting for the train. She sounded really annoyed; obviously he wasn’t there.
“Mr. Anderson…”
Wait, what happened when you answered? Did it start the plot of payphone?
That’s cool!
Thank you! I was really tempted to try to put moves on her, but I was in a relationship at the time. When I got home and told the story, my girlfriend at the time said she totally would have given me a pass. I have regrets. Of course, I probably would have failed anyway, but it’s fun to think about.
I always imagined her as a super cool person, thanks for confirming!
Senior year of university I was browsing my school’s intranet page late one evening when I saw an advertisement for a “developer interview day” hosted by a Fortune 25 company.
I thought what the heck and filled out the application. Upon submitting the form, I got an error saying that my GPA did not meet the minimum requirements for the position.
I kept bumping up my GPA until the submission went through.
Ended up working at that company for 5 years!
I rock climbed a 350mts vertical tall mountain to it’s peak. It took me (and my partner) 8 hours to get to the top.
I am extremely afraid of heights.
Somebody offered to buy the company I founded…and we sold it!
Was a fun experience to go through and now I have a decent nest egg to fall back on in case something else I do doesn’t work out.
It was mostly luck, but the company that bought us still uses the product today, so I guess it was a good deal for all involved.
How old was the company? What industry? How many staff? Much revenue?
I want to get started on something, but there seems to be a well established and well funded competitor operating locally for every bloody idea haha
I feel you, I just started my second venture and it’s a doozy trying to find that sweet spot of new idea and something someone will actually buy/use.
To answer your other questions: about 2 yrs old, healthcare technology, like 4 of us, minimal revenue but growing 20% or so MoM. I would have classified us as an early stage startup. If we didn’t get acquired, we probably would have tried to raise a seed round soon after.
Lost my virginity in a church parsonage basement while watching Hook. I was dating the minister’s daughter and that’s where her room was. I ended up married to her for a while. I guess now that I type it out, it wasn’t all that legendary.
Would’ve been one helluva story to tell in school tho
I got to stage dive at a packed concert, like 4 times. There were a bunch of other people doing it and it seemed like the band playing was even encouraging people to, so I just had to squeeze my way to the front of the crowd and climb up on stage to try it myself. It was just as much fun as I imagined. The other people there were really cool about it too and helped jumpers get caught/let down safely
I got to work on the set of Inception! It was super cool, hung around Ken Watanabe and flew Leo to set. His mom was in the trailer with him
I have worked for a lot of the really large companies, those that are the largest one in each their respective industry or market.
Siemens, Microsoft, IBM, Allianz, and a number of largest businesses in niche industries that average people will never hear about, like vehicle repair software, international tax reporting software, (anti) money laundering software,…
I also speak six languages and have lived in five countries on two continents.
Sounds like I am bragging, but you did ask!
You didnt answer the question, though.
What legendary thing happened to you. Not, what legendary life do you lead.
So you’ve seen the worst of the worst of legacy codebases, huh?
Even after decades, I still see too often that prototypes become the actual product, instead of building anew with smart and proper architecture/design. Sigh.
Everything is a “proof of concept” until someone starts using it in production!
Yes but no. The point of a prototype is to test a given approach, in a quick and dirty way. Like a backdrop on a theatre stage, it’s not meant to be real, only meant to show what it could be.
It is typically greed and poor foresight that leads to the decision to not make it for real. This inevitably bites someone in the butt, later on. Sadly the bitten is almost never the onthrt forced the poor decision in the first place - surprising nobody.
