They quoted me $20k for 3 months of work for something I built in 3 weeks……

Originally appeared here

I know a lot of people have ideas — call them start up ideas or problem solving ideas but means to execute those ideas are possessed by only a few. And those few are known as developers.

I just made a declarative statement but it’s not from the sidelines. I have struggled to give form to my ideas since 2007 and the problem always had been that I did not know coding and I could not afford hiring an agency.

Last year, I decided it was enough and that I should learn coding myself. I was reluctant at first as I had just quit my comfortable job to join the booming startup world and instead, here I was about to tackle what many consider as an arduous and time consuming subject. Would 3 months of learning be enough for what people learn in 4 years at a college?

Nonetheless, I built up whatever courage I could find and trust me there was not much left after sitting in a comfortable no risk job for almost 8 years. But. I guess it was enough because I enrolled in General Assembly’s Web Development bootcamp.

After 3 months of literally a bootcamp style work ethic and in addition, a couple of months of 12 hours a day practice and thousands of lines of code, I felt comfortable to take on one of my own ideas.

Before I joined General Assembly, I was fishing for a dev team to work on the same idea. The lowest quote I got was $20k for 3 months of work by a whole team to finish my prototype.

I just finished the prototype after only 3 weeks of work, with far better technologies than the ones suggested by them.

I am not the one usually to see how far I have come or how far I have to go. For me single-mindedness and patience is key to taking on big tasks.

But during a conversation with a coder friend yesterday, I could not help looking at the past few months and feeling proud of my decision.

And now, I am writing about it, because I feel people in the same shoes as I was in, can consider this route as well.

In reality, I could have created a working prototype without putting in 12 hour days for couple of months after the course ended. General Assembly gave me enough tools to do that right after.

But I usually tend to take a different approach when I have multiple options in front of me.

See, coding provides you different ways of tackling a problem. My approach is not to go with the first solution that comes to mind or I see on the internet.

I like to research the internet about all the possible approaches, which means reading a lot of articles, blog posts, watching a lot of videos, tutorials and sometimes it can take days to figure out the best solution for particular scenario. For me best is usually what is best for the user.

This obsessive approach takes time but it ensures I develop deep foundations, which in turn means future projects will be done faster and better.

A lot of coding is patchwork as I have found. So if you lack a crucial resource known as time, you can do without the research.

If you are the kind of person, who likes a challenge everyday, who is motivated to create products solving real-world problems, or may be you are motivated to make money out of your ideas, whatever the reason may be, I assure you — you will be in a better place after you have given coding a shot.

Technology’s rise is constant. Just a little bit of work and you can be on that train.

Don’t sit on those ideas. Learn coding!