In 2012, somebody stole half of my life savings.<p>I was halfway through college (I was an econ major) and had hired somebody to build a website for me. Immediately upon paying them half of the invoice, they fell off the face of the earth and never shipped a line of code.<p>I was left cash-less and code-less.<p>I <i>decided</i> to teach myself how to program so that I'd never need to be that dependent on somebody.<p>I watched hours upon hours of YouTube, audited a handful of CS courses at my university (UVA), and, after about a year, I had become a decent iOS developer.<p>As school neared an end, a mutual friend pitched me on a startup idea he was working on. I agreed to build the MVP, joined him as CTO, and our startup went on to have a $50M+ exit a few years after I graduated.<p>Hugely impactful decision.<p>I'd probably working some finance job I hate if I hadn't made that decision.
Three come to mind rather than one. Deciding at 13 I had to learn how to make video games. Having the guts to ask out my future wife at 19. Deciding in my 20s I would no longer allow myself to be tormented by bullies/events of the past. I’m 36 now. I’m happy I made these decisions, huge impact.
I'm 19 so the bar for "impact on my life" is relatively low, but probably choosing to cold-email a bunch of startup CEOs whose emails I guessed at the start of 2019. It got me my first SWE internship, which helped me get full-time positions afterwards.
Writing a blog post about something I built in my spare time and then sneaked-in to share with co-workers.<p>Then boss reprimanded me, but another company read my blog post and hired me.<p>Turned to be the best job of my life.