I’m Dominik Kolb. I live in Upper Austria. The place where dreams come true.
Back in the days when Flappy Bird came out the journey began. I heard that one dev built that overnight success. I could not imagine because it had such a 'big impact' and there is one single person who created it. I wanted to do something like that as well!
I was 20 years old when I got started in evening school for software engineering. I was afraid that I would not make it because I was kinda lazy back in the days. All I was interested in was partying and hanging out with friends. Somehow I was extremely motivated from the first day I went to evening school.
I was really good in school and so I finished school with some really good grades. I found a job as a software engineer before I even finished school. That was when I really started to learn how to build software. The tech stack: From Java over Kotlin to different Javascript Frameworks. I always wanted to build my own apps in my spare time but never really finished any project. Sometimes I realized that the project was to big for a solo dev or there was something that made me not believe in the project anymore. That was pretty frustrating but I learned a lot in that time.
There were times where I was motivated to do something at home and times where I have been lazier. Sometimes my focus was on sports or gaming. Sometimes it was on creating websites or apps. I have always been motivated to go to work and make a traditional career. I think that is way easier than building your own business with things you create. You do your job and get money. In the companies where I worked until now you do not even have to work overtime to get a decent amount of money.
So why should you use your spare time to build products probably nobody is going to use and only cost time and money?
Because it's fun!!