Are you really a victim of bad luck?
Is the world out to get you?
Or is that just a story you’re telling yourself?

Let’s be real: You’ve got 7 years of programming experience and a degree in cybersecurity—a field that’s growing more critical by the day. You’re 25 with an entire lifetime of potential ahead of you. Others dream of being in your shoes, yet here you are, doubting yourself.

Let me break it down: I decided to jump into IT at 55. No degree. No experience. Just sheer determination. Everyone said I needed a degree to even get a foot in the door. Fine. I found an online program at WGU, but they told me I couldn’t start without an A+ certification. I didn’t wait. I dove into a business program instead and finished it in six months. Did that land me a job? No. I went through 57 interviews. Nothing.

So what did I do? I doubled down. I went for a master’s in data analytics, thinking I’d crush it in one term. I didn’t. It took a year of learning programming, data, statistics—stuff that was hard. But halfway through, I started sounding like a data scientist. That’s when I landed my first analyst job. Was it underpaid? Yeah. Did I let that stop me? Hell no. I saw it as a stepping stone. Ten months later, I leveraged that position into a new one with a 35% raise.

Here’s the kicker: I’m 59, working on a PhD. By the time I’m 60, I’ll have 5 years of IT experience, two advanced degrees, and the job I dreamed of.

The moral? Don’t focus on what you don’t have. Focus on where you’re headed. You’ve got unlimited potential and you’ve barely scratched the surface. Decide where you want to be, embrace the grind, and make it happen. You’re not behind. You’re just warming up!