The year was 2011

I was 17 and had a growing interest in tech and the Internet.

Unlike many young people of my age at that time, I had a growing interest in the world humans were building in the cloud.

I was 100% sure of why it mattered, it was just a gut feeling that this was the right way to go.

I wasn't privileged enough then to have computer access.

The only computers I had access to was the ones in school which we were rarely allowed to use.

It had more decorative than educational functions. Something the school could use to brag and gain ground over competitors.

I didn't let that deter me though. Lack of smartphone access left me with just one choice.

Newspapers.

And it was easy for me to gain ground with this as they were what helped me have great insights on the potential of the Internet anyway.

So for the next year or so. I read any Newspaper article about technology that I could lay hands on.

I wrote down a lot of things that I would once I got access to a computer or an Internet-enabled phone.

Forums to join, communities to be a part of etc. (Till today my main email address is a yahoo mail, not a Gmail)

Around 2012, I was gifted a Nokia 2610 by my uncle and at last, I could browse the Internet.

Blogging was the rave then, so it was what I was eventually drawn towards, I spent the next few months reading all I could about blogging and building a community online.

Boost Blog Traffic(Now SmartBlogger) by Jon Morrow was my number one port of call, as it was arguably the best blog online then on building a solid blog and online community.

I soaked up all the lessons on the blog until I read pretty much every article on the blog.

I learnt a lot of things from Jon, including the power of the human will.

Jon was rendered paralyzed neck down by spinal muscular atrophy, but he still went on to build one of the biggest media brands on the Internet.

Despite all that I learned about blogging, I couldn't carry on with building one because I didn't have a laptop or computer to practice and build with.

I later was able to get a friend to loan me his laptop in 2014 and that was when I made my first attempts at learning how to code.

It was a physical class and the teacher was better at coding than teaching so it was hard for him to pass across some concepts.

I had a hard time at the coding school and after the first few days, I stopped attending and concluded that coding was not for me.

It rekindled my dream of building a blog, but for one reason or the other, I could not get a blog up and running.

Things changed in October 2015 when I got admission into the university. The University had a compulsory laptop program for freshers.

So my dream of getting a laptop was finally about to be fulfilled.

I was among the last people to signup for the Laptop program so I was among the last set to receive a laptop over a year later.

I got my Laptop around November 2016 and I can count on one hand the number of times I have felt so empowered.

I set up a WordPress blog almost immediately and started creating content.

It was on a free version of WordPress so there was still a lot of work to be done, around that time I discovered a platform where you could publish stories and I started publishing stories there too.

My blogging career took a massive turn after I discovered Steemit in January 2017.

Steemit was the first blockchain-based blog that rewarded bloggers with their native Steem Token.

I started blogging on Steemit by writing short stories daily as I was a bit confused about what to blog about.

However, I soon discovered that many people on the platform didn't know how to build a blog or online brand.

There were just there due to the earnings. I had discovered a huge opening and I grabbed it with both hands.

I started writing about topics that revolved around how to blog and also build online communities the right way.

My community of readers started growing and my blog was recognised as one of the best blogs on Steemit.

By the fourth month, I had crossed $3000 in earnings and that was a huge win for me then. I never knew that I could make so much with blogging within a short period of time.

It took and still takes bloggers a longer time period of consistent work to make that much.

And this brings me to the first lesson that has helped me over the years.

The concept of Borrowing Brilliance.

I was able to distil all that I learnt from Jon Morrow and paired it up with the complimenting Blockchain terms and norms to create something entirely new.

I moved from just blogging to learning more things about online marketing and branding for both personal and business brands.

By 2019, I discovered product design and dove in fully and it enabled me not my first startup role.

After months of learning and practising, my work caught the eye of a startup founder and he commissioned me to design an app for him.

By the time I was done, he loved my work and gave me another task, after I was done with that he gave me full-time employment as a product designer. ( I am currently the COO of the company).

As I learnt and practised what it took to build communities and design products that met their need, I discovered day by day that there was a missing part of the equation.

I believed that I had what it takes to actually build those products myself.

However, my first experience with coding and the perception that I had about it (e.g I struggled with maths in school and extended that fear of math to coding) made it hard for me to take up coding.

I always believed that my work stopped at building communities and helping design products that met their needs, it was then a developer's Job to build those products.

I continued with such a mentality until I reached a turning point.

Discovering the Angel Philosopher

Image Source

Naval is a top 1% authority when it comes to tech and building on the Internet.

His thread on How To Get Rich is the most famous thread on in Tech Twitter.

How to Get Rich (without getting lucky):

— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018

Naval has a deep insight into philosophy, startups and building.

For a long time, his podcast was the only one that I listened to, and I made sure to talk about it at any chance that I got.

As a community and salesperson, one of the stances held by Naval about learning how to code made me believe that I was right to push back against learning how to code.

Naval Is typing now

And usually, the building is a thing that a salesperson can’t pick up later in life. It requires too much focused time. But a builder can pick up selling a little bit later, especially if they were already innately wired to be a good communicator. Bill Gates famously paraphrases this as, “I’d rather teach an engineering marketing, than a marketer engineering.”

Naval out

Hearing this from someone who had grown to become my number mentor in tech solidified my stance that learning how to code is not for me.

However, I still always had that nudge to learn how to code and with time I just directed my focus to No-Code tools.

However, I still found it hard to connect with them.

So I finally made a new decision.

I was going to try learning how to code again despite the doubts that I had.

Something that Naval said about his content made me understand that way the right choice.

He said something along the lines of that it was wrong to believe 100% of what he said.

That anyone who believes everything he says need to set his content aside and think hard.

I knew the concept of code being hard for salesmen to pick up was that for me.

So I started seeking tools and content that proved that I could learn how to code.

And I found a lot of them.

Getting Started With Software Development

My research on learning how to code led me to Buildspace because I was seeking platforms where I could learn by building.

I saw a link to Scribma on the Buildspace Discord and decided to check them out.

I fell in love with their mode of teaching and signed up immediately.

I started taking tutorials in their Frontend Development Career path and things has been amazing so far.

I have gotten to the point where I have a basic knowledge of HTML and CSS.

I have also built my first Webpage.

Below is a Screenshot of the page.

View Page Here

Learning how to code has been an amazing experience and the one thing that I have come to see coding as is a gateway to bringing life to my ideas.

As someone that has built several online communities I have a lot of tools and apps that I have documented to build and now I can finally build them without having to hire a developer.

As a developer, I may never get to the point where I write code for startups and this is because I have so much to build.

And this brings to another lesson that I have learnt.

Learning how to code goes beyond just working for Startups and getting paid. It is a gateway to building things that you love and live for.

And one of those things can turn into an amazing project that you would end up devoting most of your life to the building.

I have learnt so much love the past one month of learning how to code and I am sure that I am set to learn even more in the coming months and years.

The goal is to be unstoppable

Learn to build, learn to sell. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable

Naval

Over the years, I have learnt how to sell and now I have begun the journey of learning how to build.

I opened this blog so that I can write all ly technical articles here.

If you want to learn how to use Content and Community to earn customers and clients, follow me on Twitter and also visit my blog.

My Twitter: Ajulu

My Blog: Ajulu

Core Lessons

1) The only Limit that you have is that of the mind

2) Software Development is not for a select few, everyone should learn how to code even if it is just to build on their ideas.

3)Learning how to build communities gives you lots of insights on products to build( I will write an essay on this later)

Resources That Helped Me

Naval Podcast: The Angel Philosopher

TedTalk: Learning To Code Is Not Just For Coders

Article: New Year Clarity