Growing up, I was never the popular kid who was doing something extraordinary. I was always the quiet kid, who kept only to myself and this my story of how I travelled the world.

My childhood growing up was also nothing sort of extra ordinary, we had a roof above our head and enough to eat, what else do you need? But I’m reminded of memories from my childhood where I wanted to buy the latest game or some new sneaker that dropped but I couldn’t ask for it my parents because it always felt a little beyond our reach.

But one thing that fascinated me the most was maps and the globe. I wanted to travel the world, explore cultures and experience different art and music. There was something attractive about going on adventures, and being a traveller rather than a tourist. A tourist is just escaping his life but I wanted to experience it. But as a middle class boy that was a distant dream.

One of the best decisions that I realise in hindsight was joining Developer Dao in late 2021. I had been working as a freelance web developer for 2 years but wanted to work in crypto ever since I can remember. This community, Developer Dao, had a perfect mix of new developers entering the crypto space and also veterans of the industry.

This community, pushed me beyond my abilities. The folks here were willing to support me and teach me everything from scratch, while being so patient. Everything I put out whether a tweet or a project was received with so much love. People there were always ready to give me feedback and even mentor me. I met so many people here who are now my closest friends.

Just a few months into the space, I came across the Gitcoin Dao’s workstream called “the moonshot collective”. The team was simply filled with geniuses and rockstars, one of them being Austin Griffith, whom I look up to even today. They were looking for a frontend engineer and I just happened to be at the right place at the right time.

I didn’t know a lot of things but I learned a lot on the job and the team was really supportive about it. Not even a single day was same as the last and I my learnings as a front end engineer was sky rocketing.

One thing which I suggest new folks entering the space is try posting whatever you learn online. Whether on twitter, warp-cast, a blog or anyplace you like. I was sharing everything I was learning from my job and projects on twitter and my blog.

This helped me a lot in getting projects and building a distribution for all the work that I was doing. Sometimes I would post something and be totally wrong about it, but someone would correct me and I would learn way faster.

My first Full Time role in crypto was at Mazury, a platform for hiring and getting a job using your on-chain credentials. I worked behind building the entire UI for the launch, 5 months later in May.

But all this while, the kid in me who saw the dreams of going on adventures across the globe was still alive. So, I when I got a scholarship to go to Dubai, due to the work I did in the past I couldn’t keep calm. So in March 2022, I stepped a foot outside the borders of my home country, straight in Dubai. The trust I had in crypto only solidified after this and the plan to travel the world was once again filled with hope and belief.

So after I comeback from Dubai, I went all in. I kept working on projects and built new things. I built, I failed, I learned and built again.

And with a little magic, some people call it luck others call it hardwork, I cracked a role as a Dev Rel at Ankr. This was a completely remote gig that paid me a US standard Salary.

Now, I had everything, the financial stability to travel from my job and a remote gig, which meant I could work from anywhere.

Ever since that it has been an onwards and upwards journey. I joined my current company, Fuel Labs and travelled to more that 16 countries all within 2 years of going crypto. All thanks to the opportunities here in this ecosystem and the people behind it.

The best thing about this space is that it rewards you for your hardwork more than any other field. Here, people don’t care about your age but rather your skills. In a traditional field, you rarely make impact early on while being stuck doing unmeaningful work.

All you need to have is the hunger to want it, skills which you are really good at and not being an asshole to anyone you meet.

I had a dream to travel the world and web3 made it possible. Maybe you are at a place where I was a few years ago and have a dream. All I can say with 100% surety is that web3 can help you achieve whatever dream you have.

You are only one decision away from a completely different life, so take a leap of faith and dive right in.