I would not change a thing in my life! I am happy where I am.
2002 - went to get my math degree in Russia. Knew close to nothing about software development.
At that period of time, I was thinking about I wish I had a car, so I could work as a taxi driver, and make some money. I should have started collecting for a car a while back.
2005 - sold my first tiny program to a small factory. later got my first job as software engineer.
At that time I was pretty happy, that I did not have a car, and actually spent that time learning more than university could give me. And was able to make some money. That summer I also worked at construction.
2010 - got my first remote job for a company outside of Russia. Started making 5x times more than I used to.
At that time I was thinking, that I should have done it before. But hey, I did not have knowledge and experience. I am glad that I have spent that time not only working, but also learning, getting into community, got Microsoft MVP and MSP awards.
2011 - got a job in Microsoft, moved to USA. If you look at how many big macs I could buy in USA vs Russia, my salary probably went down maybe 2-5 times (if it matters it was $54,000USD in Russia vs $92,000USD in USA).
Was thinking every day, if moving out of Russia was a good idea or not, because Microsoft salary in Redmond was not the best at that time. But you know what? Now I am definitely glad that I moved away from Russia!
2013 - moved from Microsoft to Splunk. Best job I ever landed.
Certainly was thinking that I am so late in the game now. All those kids from college making so much money. And I am in getting close to 30, and only started working for a real company. All those smart people around me. Regretting that I invested more than 10 years in Microsoft technologies, when all the startups in Linux and cool languages like nodejs (it was very popular that year).
2017 - joined Stripe for just a year.
Definitely was thinking that I made a mistake joining them. Great company. I was on the wrong team. The manager could not explained me correctly what the team was doing - "hey you worked for Splunk, that includes Search - we doing something related to search" - turns out that was data engineering. But! Usually I would dedicate 40 hours + unlimited a week for a company I work for. But in case of Stripe my project was sooo boring for me, that I started building my own company while riding a bus everyday 40 minutes one way and 40 minutes another, and in the evening.
2017 (end of the year) - sold my first license for the software I have built.
2018 - left Stripe. I started working 80-100 hours a week. For at least two years. That was not a hobby anymore. There was a stress about starting my own company knowing nothing, and every day fighting with something new and unknown.
2024 - I am making Google Principal Engineer total salary and work for myself. I am very happy and don't want to change a thing. Because every single thing brought me to a place where I am right now.
I went thought painful divorce (happily married now, again). My dad recently died, and I could not go to Russia, because of situation right now. One of my dogs recently died. There is a lot of shit happening around me. But I am happy.
But yes, there is one thing, that I kept saying that I would change. If you want to have kids - make them in your 20. But you know? If I had a kid, I would probably be in a different place right now. Maybe I just did not want to have kids, that is the reason why I kept saying that.
My point is, do not look back. There is going to be so many people who would say, if only I was 10 year younger, or if I knew 10 years ago. Just 2 years ago we were saying that there could be nothing bigger than FFANG, but hey OpenAI came out of nowhere. Maybe OpenAI is going to die next year as a company, and sure there is going to be somebody like my mom who would say "I knew that was coming!" How the fuck did you knew?!