366 Days to Success

In June 2015, I set out on a 366 day journey to success when I quit my job. Will you follow me?

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Weekly Update: Work. Happy Birthday Mum. Study. Meerkat or Periscope?

This week went by fairly quickly. I was busy at work. It was my mum’s birthday. I had to cover a lot of study on JavaScript & JQuery. Still deciding what to use: Meerkat or Periscope? And we got our second client.

WORK: Audit...audit...audit. I find myself doing same thing. Although, my responsibility went up. I still feel like it is same thing, different day. Very glad that I am moving on. 

MUM’S BIRTHDAY: She turned 44 and soon I will be turning 24. 20 years of difference! That is insane! She is still very young, full of energy and beautiful. We celebrated at home in a family circle with 3 platters of sushi and a cheesecake . Nice and simple. 

STUDY: This week it was JavaScript and JQuery. I haven’t touched JS in a long time and JQ I’ve never touched. I found it was hard for me to concentrate but when I did, the concepts were easy to grasp. Overall, I think I will be better off learning it by applying the theory to the projects I want to create. 

MEERKAT or PERISCOPE: So this weekend I started using Meerkat. I found that my phone and my data can’t handle it for too long. Either the phone will mess up or the stream will cut out cause of the bad connection. Also, I noted that the app will crash few times on me and cut the stream. I want to try Periscope and since I wanted to buy an iPhone 6, I think I will try it out soon enough.

CONCLUSION: All in all, this week has been hectic and I am looking forward to the next one. Will be working on a complicated client and studying Ruby, which I never done before. 

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Quick Update: One year anniversary & my website.

This week I will make it quick. I know I have skipped previous Sunday, as I couldn’t blog because my girlfriend and I celebrated our 1 year together. 

It was great. We went to the Northern Point of New Zealand, Cape Reinga. Almost got into an accident with a cow at 100km/h. Took loads of pictures (I am waiting on my girlfriend to edit them) and had a wonderful time.

That was last week. This week...I built my personal website. Well, it is not ready yet, as I have to populate it with relevant information. However, overall look and feel, which is minimal, is what I wanted to achieve. 

I will use it for blogging and creating other content, once it is ready. It will eventually change to accommodate more information and to build my personal brand.

Check it out http://denistyurkov.github.io/

The website was part of a course that am I doing at Enspiral Dev Academy. This week was not that challenging. However, next one will be around JavaScript, which I didn’t touch in a long time.

The week is not over, as I have to do research for my online business that I want to set up. I will write it on it a bit later. 

Stay tuned!

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Selling my Baby & Fight We All Been Waiting For.

This week special: Bike Sale and Fight of the Century. 

What a hectic week it has been considering we had one extra day to relax from work and commend ANZAC day. 

Work. Study. Gym. Leaving party. Birthday. Girlfriend. Friends. Fights. 

It all started with me preparing to sell my baby...my motorcycle. Not the one I am sitting on but the one behind ;) Maybe I should consider swapping it to the bicycle...It kinda brings out my knees.

Reason for selling is I will be moving to Wellington and I will need extra cash to invest into my future ventures. Also, I owe some money to my parents and I feel like I need to return it before I move out.

DON’T WORRY! I will be buying a new one later this year so I can tour New Zealand....aww yeah :)

The End Result:

Just beautiful if you ask me but what do I know...I am biased, so judge for yourself. Oh, and thank you to my lovely girlfriend for these awesome pictures.

The asking price: $7,500 ono, which I feel is reasonable due to its condition. Long story short, I end up listing it on TradeMe. 

With no marketing done and 6 days later, I get 550 views and 40 watchers, which is a lot. 

Next thing I know, I get a text message from a nice guy named Dave. He wants to view the bike and we set the date.

On the same day, I am watching Fight of the Century...the fight we all been waiting for: Mayweather vs Pacquiao. Surprisingly, a lot of people became boxing fans and were all going for Pacquiao.

Having done 4 years of boxing and sparring, I was always a fan of Mayweather and tried to implement his style in my fights. It was super fun, as you land the punches, counter-punch and duck to try to get away. Something a lot of people don’t understand, that this is his style.

I get the impression that to people who are not familiar with boxing it is all about smashing each others face.

For some reason, it is considered being defensive and avoiding punching...as running away. How ridiculous is that?

Pacquiao got hit.

Mayweather got hit.

In the end of the day, the best fighter won.

This fight was a great one. Punches were exchanged and I am super happy with the outcome. Even though many people disagree. There is too much hate going around the internet right now. 

That has to stop.

Fast forward post the fight and with a smile on my face, I arrive home to show case my motorbike.

Dave arrives, check it out and takes it for a spin. Fifteen minutes later, he arrives with a smile on his face. 

He says he wants to buy the bike. I am stoked, as six days later I get the sale...Too early, as have to figure out how I will get to work now. Future Denis problems. 

Dave says he is waiting for the money to transfer, so he will get in touch with me in a couple of days. 

Now, I wait, will he buy it or not...will find out in few days.

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I got accepted.

Do you ever feel like you wanted to do something and when you do it you feel happy but then it goes away? And you start to question yourself? 

Tuesday, 8pm, 21 April 2015 - I got accepted into Enspiral DevAcademy, which is a 9 week software development bootcamp with an average of 100 hours of coding per week. Sounds intense, cause it is.

About 4 pm, that day, I am still at work and I receive an email that I will be having an interview. I was like “F*ck yeah! Bring it on.” However, me being me, I did no preparation. 

My intuition was telling me that I should at least make a list of questions. So I did. In last minute, I decide to make 5 bullet points of questions I would like to ask. 

It is 8pm, I receive a call, right on the dot. Punctuality...I like that in a man. He introduces himself as Rohan. We start chatting. 

As it turns out, the interview was more about me asking the questions, rather than him asking me. Well, that is interesting, I think to myself. Not to worry, I got this covered with my 5 bullet points.  

I try to think on the spot, as to how I should formulate the questions, and I manage to do that but turns out my quick thinking is not as good as I thought it would be. 

I end up jumping from question to question, following no logic. One moment, I am asking about the languages taught and the next, I am talking about start-ups. 

In the end, we end up having a nice conversation, where I am fascinated by Rohan’ sales skills. I must learn from him. Hopefully I will learn some sales skills. He will be my mentor, he just doesn’t know it yet. 

I accept the offer. 

I should be excited, with the fact that I am changing my life for better. I am doing what I wanted to do for a while.  However, my feelings are mixed. 

On one side, I am and looking forward to starting this journey. The knowledge, the people, the experience and the opportunities that I will get from it are priceless. 

On another, I am questioning whether it is the right decision. I feel that I am afraid to end up where I ended up before...working for someone else, achieving their dreams and not mine. 

Of course, I will need to make money to pay for rent & food. My plan is while I study continue making games with my team and when I graduate, get a part-time job in the tech industry. 

I must make sure I follow my own path. 

The path to success. 

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Chromacon 2015 - New Zealand Indie Arts Festival

A Sunday (19 April 2015) well spent with my girlfriend exploring awesome indie art of NZ.