I decided to make this blog as a blueprint for someone like me. Someone who has dreams of financial freedom, as well as freedom of time. Someone who wants a life where they can spend time with their family and show up in the ways needed by their kids but also needs to put food on the table and pay for vacations. If you just heard about bug bounty, cyber security, web penetration testing, red teaming, or any other number of terms used and feel like it might be a good fit for you, I'm going to spend the rest of my very first post telling you why you're wrong. If by the end of it you disagree with me, you're probably cut out to be a hacker. My opinion is specific to hacking web applications, and I consider myself a future specialist in API hacking. Firstly hacking websites is extremely technical. Even a basic understanding of how a full stack application functions requires you to have a basic understanding of about 3-5 programming languages, and how they all interact with each other. Beyond that you need to understand the hardware at play these various languages are using to talk with. I'm using extremely simple terms here but hopefully you get the idea. Developing a hackers mindset I honestly think just isn't for everyone. I don't care what anyone says I believe there is a certain amount of emotional maturity required to be a successful hacker. I say this because the process of developing the skills I just mentioned takes a long time. For a genius I'd expect at least a year of dedicated study to become a credited rookie hacker. You don't just need to be intelligent though, you need to be a good learner. Cyber Security is a constantly evolving field that demands you be a life long student. If you don't love it, you'll burn out fast. You're also up against AI, so you better be ready to be a pro if you wanna make it. This means discipline despite motivation. Further proof of the requirement for emotional maturity. Additionally you're not gonna see much fruit from your labor for quite some time. You won't make money along the way as you acquire this skill. If that's what you're after, go learn a trade. If after reading this you're thinking something like "I don't care, I still want to learn," congrats. You're probably gonna be a great hacker. In my next few posts I'll talk about important first steps, and how to take them. If you read this far, I love you.