I've thought about what to write in this email ever since I signed up to the list, and to selected this early in the list is both awesome and a little frightening, because I don't really feel ready. Nevertheless, this is my contribution, and it will hopefully be of some kind of use you!
When I got the mail about being selected, the first thing I had to do was to decide what I wanted to write about. Should I tell a story? Write about my life and ambitions? Tell about the company I am starting? Why I think my education is awesome? Or why I love developing for Android?
It was a hard choice, but I finally made up my mind – to tell something I usually don't write about, something I know I am admired for all bragging set aside.
So I chose to write a little about my way of life, and why I think it makes me the one of the happiest guys in the world.
Sure, the past 26 years have been mostly great for me, but there has sure been some lows down the road already. But no matter what has happened I have kept my spirits high, and with a healthy faith in life I have made it all the way till today. To put it in a little perspective, here is a short summary of one of the worst weeks of my life so far:
It started out great, with plans to go the Crete with my beautiful girlfriend for a week, taking of Sunday morning. On Tuesday some idiot broke in to my car an stole a lot of stuff, including my laptop (yeah, it was hidden) and set me back around $3500. On the following Saturday one of my teeth started to hurt, and at around 8 in the evening I couldn't stand the pain. The result was a root canal, a canceled holiday not covered by the insurance because it happened before I left the country in total setting me back another $2000. And all of this while being a student having $900 a month for everything. But I kept my spirits high, because there are more important things in life.
And what is it then? Well, it is kinda hard to explain, but basically my philosophy in life is stay happy. Not at any cost, but if there is something to be happy about, why spend time moaning about what has gone wrong? It kinda works like this; when something goes wrong, I focus only on the good things that results from whatever and let the bad stuff happen as something that need to get done to get to the good stuff. For example, I was just glad that the lady at the emergency room gave my both penicillin and very strong painkillers that got me through the night, and that the dentist gave a completely painless root canal the day after leaving me with a fixed tooth and no pain at all.
So, what I am actually trying to say here is that life is awesome, and if you can control the way you think about things, you can actually stay on the good side of almost anything. It works for me anyway!
Be positive, and spread it with a smile! It WILL get you further!
Jacob "Jam" Markussen
Aarhus, Denmark