In India, the Class 12 Boards are a monumental milestone. The exam's score influences college admissions and, consequently, shapes future career paths, placing immense pressure on students. However, while this exam seems overwhelmingly significant, it's important to remember that life extends far beyond a single test score.
Take, for example, an Indian-origin man now thriving in the US. Once an average student from a Tier III college, he has become a millionaire.
He is now sharing his inspiring journey on Reddit.
The 31-year-old recalls his early days with candid honesty: "In general, I was never a good student and I was not good at anything. Not studies, not sports, nothing. I knew my life was going to be pretty average."
Facing the reality of his modest academic background, with an AIEEE score over 1 lakh and no IIT-JEE success, he ended up in a Tier III college in West Bengal.?
A senior's advice to explore coding on SPOJ and Codechef turned out to be his breakthrough. He followed this advice to a T and "became a search master," he writes.
While others enjoyed college life, he immersed himself in coding, often skipping classes to solve problems.?
"In the start of the second semester, I started coding on Codechef and SPOJ. I used python primarily for my programming and spent all day coding," he shares.
His dedication paid off. By the end of his fifth semester, he secured an internship at a startup in Bangalore. His hard work led to a prestigious internship in Delhi and multiple coding contests, earning enough to cover his semester fees.
Upon graduation, he landed a job offer significantly higher than his peers.?
Moving to Bangalore, he joined a startup that doubled his salary within two years and gave him the chance to visit the US.?
There, he made connections with influential people, including the CEO who later started his own company.?
"Since I really liked working for him, I left and joined him," he recalls.
Working from India while his team was in the US, he put in 18-hour days.?
His persistence paid off: "In 2 years, the company showed signs of growing. We were around 20 people, and eventually, I moved to the US in 2018."
As the company grew and went public on Nasdaq in 2023, his shares skyrocketed, and he found himself standing on the Nasdaq building in Times Square.?
Reflecting on his journey, he remembers his father's advice: "Most people (95%) just go with the flow and follow traditional routes. If you put even a small amount of extra work compared to them, you will automatically be ahead of 95% of them. You don't need to be better than those 5%. You just need to be better than 95% and that will make sure you have a pretty good job."
My success story from a failure in school in a tier 3 city and a tier 3 college in India to a millionaire in the US
byu/Background-Text-5554 indevelopersIndia
As one commented, "Thousands of families have improved their standard of living via education/ job route and yours is a great example."
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