How I refused $ 300,000
When we are twenty and a penny old, when we, by and large, have nothing to lose, we have the time, the skills and the greed for risk, why not make an Attempt of All Life? If nothing succeeds - and for most it will be like this - then the end of the world will not come. But if you succeed, then imagine a reward.
2008 is a leap year. This means that exactly 366 days ago, almost at the same time, I sat alone in a booth in the " Zeke's Sports Bar and Grill " on 3rd Street in San Francisco. Sport bars are the last place where you can find me, not to mention the sports bar at SOMA , but that Thursday was the evening " Can I Has Ruby ". It seems to me that then the name “Can I Has ...” could be attached to almost everything that would have to. The ICHR was a sort of half-closed meeting of Ruby programmers, which usually — with the hot support of the same programmers — turned into a nightly drinking party. Usually, all the memories of such gatherings disappeared along with the hangover the next morning, but that evening was special. That was the evening when GitHub was born.
As far as I can remember, I was sitting alone in a booth because I had just ordered a Fresh Tire mug and wanted to take a break from the heated discussions that took place at long tables in a dimly lit far side of the bar. On the fifth or sixth pharynx, Chris Wanstrath entered. I don’t remember already, I could call Chris my friend at that time: we were nodding acquaintances, meeting at Ruby conferences and at such gatherings. Just mutual "cool code you write," no more. And something jerked me to call him to myself and say: "dude, check it out."
A week earlier, I started a project called Grit - a library for accessing the Git repository in object-oriented style. Chris was one of the few Ruby programmers who were genuinely interested in Git. He sat down next to me and I began to show him the little insights that I had. Chris became interested, and, sensing this, I gave him my idea of ​​creating a website that would serve as a hosting center for Git repositories. I even came up with a name: "GitHub".
')
Perhaps, I distort words a little, but I will convey the general mood: he replied, “I fit in. Come on, work! ”
The following evening, October 19, 2007, on Friday at 10:24 pm, Chris made the first commit to the GitHub repository, thus starting our joint venture. There was nothing like an agreement on how all this would happen, there were just two guys who decided to put into practice what sounded so great in words.
Remember those amazing moments of the movie Karate Kid, in which Daniel trains and becomes a master of martial arts? Here, take and put in the player " You're The Best ", because then there will be a similar installation.
The next three months, Chris and I spent an insane amount of time developing GitHub. I continued to work on Grit and created the user interface, and Chris worked on the Rails site. Every Saturday we met in person: we were discussing design decisions and puzzled over the question of what our tariff plan would be. I remember one especially rainy day, when, tasting, perhaps, the best in the city of Cha Gio , we talked about different pricing strategies for a good two hours. And we did all this, fulfilling in parallel our main duties at the then jobs. For example, I worked at Powerset and developed tools for the Ranking and Relevance team.
In the middle of January, after three months of work at night and on weekends, we began a closed beta test among our friends. In mid-February, PJ Hyett joined us. The official launch took place on April 10th. TechCrunch was not invited. At that moment we were just three twenty-plus-year-old programmers, and we did not have a penny of foreign investment.
On July 1, 2008, I was still working at Powerset, and it was on this day that it became known that Microsoft bought us for about $ 100 million. The moment was quite interesting. In connection with this acquisition, I had to make a serious choice much earlier than I had intended. I could either become an employee of Microsoft, or leave and devote myself completely to GitHub. At 29, I was the oldest of the GitHub team, and, accordingly, I had proportionally more debts - as, however, the amount of monthly expenses. I'm already used to the "six-figured" way of life. Even more piquancy of the situation was given by the inevitable return of my wife Teresa from her field studies from Costa Rica and my subsequent transformation from an imaginary bachelor to a married man.
And in order to completely confuse everything, Microsoft offered quite juicy employment conditions: a salary and $ 300,000 for three years. An ample amount to make anyone think twice about anything.
Thus, I had a choice: either reliable work at Microsoft and a lot of money, or risky work and an unknown amount of money. I knew that the rest of the guys from GitHub could not cope with all the work, I stayed in Powerset for a while. Having saved money and became freelancers, they began to devote their time to GitHub. So either the chest in the crosses, or the head in the bushes: either completely switch to GitHub, or load money in barrels to Microsoft.
If you want a recipe for restless sleep, here it is: take one part “What my wife thinks,” 3000 parts “Benjamin Franklin”, mix it all up with “Beer anytime, damn it, time” and spice up “Financial independence” .
Recently, it has become quite good for me to tell the employer the bad news that I am leaving the company. I announced my decision to leave to my boss at the Powerset on the day when I had to decide something with a job offer. I said I was leaving to dedicate all the time to GitHub. He was stunned, but, like any good boss, he understood me well and did not try to force me to change the decision by offering a large sum. I think he already guessed that I wanted to leave. Perhaps the incentive to stay with me was much greater than that of others - precisely because of the risk that I might leave. Microsoft's managers are pretty clever, I tell you. The policy of paying bonuses to keep them polished to a shine. But she also failed, having come across a peculiarity of the business world - a start-up. Everything turns upside down when dealing with it.
In the end, just like Indiana Jones, never missing an opportunity to find the Holy Grail, I could not miss the chance to work for myself on what I really love, despite all the alternatives. On my deathbed, I would like to say “This was a great adventure!” And not “Yes, I was very reliable.”
2008 is a leap year. This means that exactly 366 days ago, almost at the same time, I sat alone in a booth in the " Zeke's Sports Bar and Grill " on 3rd Street in San Francisco. Sport bars are the last place where you can find me, not to mention the sports bar at SOMA , but that Thursday was the evening " Can I Has Ruby ". It seems to me that then the name “Can I Has ...” could be attached to almost everything that would have to. The ICHR was a sort of half-closed meeting of Ruby programmers, which usually — with the hot support of the same programmers — turned into a nightly drinking party. Usually, all the memories of such gatherings disappeared along with the hangover the next morning, but that evening was special. That was the evening when GitHub was born.
As far as I can remember, I was sitting alone in a booth because I had just ordered a Fresh Tire mug and wanted to take a break from the heated discussions that took place at long tables in a dimly lit far side of the bar. On the fifth or sixth pharynx, Chris Wanstrath entered. I don’t remember already, I could call Chris my friend at that time: we were nodding acquaintances, meeting at Ruby conferences and at such gatherings. Just mutual "cool code you write," no more. And something jerked me to call him to myself and say: "dude, check it out."
A week earlier, I started a project called Grit - a library for accessing the Git repository in object-oriented style. Chris was one of the few Ruby programmers who were genuinely interested in Git. He sat down next to me and I began to show him the little insights that I had. Chris became interested, and, sensing this, I gave him my idea of ​​creating a website that would serve as a hosting center for Git repositories. I even came up with a name: "GitHub".
')
Perhaps, I distort words a little, but I will convey the general mood: he replied, “I fit in. Come on, work! ”
The following evening, October 19, 2007, on Friday at 10:24 pm, Chris made the first commit to the GitHub repository, thus starting our joint venture. There was nothing like an agreement on how all this would happen, there were just two guys who decided to put into practice what sounded so great in words.
Remember those amazing moments of the movie Karate Kid, in which Daniel trains and becomes a master of martial arts? Here, take and put in the player " You're The Best ", because then there will be a similar installation.
The next three months, Chris and I spent an insane amount of time developing GitHub. I continued to work on Grit and created the user interface, and Chris worked on the Rails site. Every Saturday we met in person: we were discussing design decisions and puzzled over the question of what our tariff plan would be. I remember one especially rainy day, when, tasting, perhaps, the best in the city of Cha Gio , we talked about different pricing strategies for a good two hours. And we did all this, fulfilling in parallel our main duties at the then jobs. For example, I worked at Powerset and developed tools for the Ranking and Relevance team.
In the middle of January, after three months of work at night and on weekends, we began a closed beta test among our friends. In mid-February, PJ Hyett joined us. The official launch took place on April 10th. TechCrunch was not invited. At that moment we were just three twenty-plus-year-old programmers, and we did not have a penny of foreign investment.
On July 1, 2008, I was still working at Powerset, and it was on this day that it became known that Microsoft bought us for about $ 100 million. The moment was quite interesting. In connection with this acquisition, I had to make a serious choice much earlier than I had intended. I could either become an employee of Microsoft, or leave and devote myself completely to GitHub. At 29, I was the oldest of the GitHub team, and, accordingly, I had proportionally more debts - as, however, the amount of monthly expenses. I'm already used to the "six-figured" way of life. Even more piquancy of the situation was given by the inevitable return of my wife Teresa from her field studies from Costa Rica and my subsequent transformation from an imaginary bachelor to a married man.
And in order to completely confuse everything, Microsoft offered quite juicy employment conditions: a salary and $ 300,000 for three years. An ample amount to make anyone think twice about anything.
Thus, I had a choice: either reliable work at Microsoft and a lot of money, or risky work and an unknown amount of money. I knew that the rest of the guys from GitHub could not cope with all the work, I stayed in Powerset for a while. Having saved money and became freelancers, they began to devote their time to GitHub. So either the chest in the crosses, or the head in the bushes: either completely switch to GitHub, or load money in barrels to Microsoft.
If you want a recipe for restless sleep, here it is: take one part “What my wife thinks,” 3000 parts “Benjamin Franklin”, mix it all up with “Beer anytime, damn it, time” and spice up “Financial independence” .
Recently, it has become quite good for me to tell the employer the bad news that I am leaving the company. I announced my decision to leave to my boss at the Powerset on the day when I had to decide something with a job offer. I said I was leaving to dedicate all the time to GitHub. He was stunned, but, like any good boss, he understood me well and did not try to force me to change the decision by offering a large sum. I think he already guessed that I wanted to leave. Perhaps the incentive to stay with me was much greater than that of others - precisely because of the risk that I might leave. Microsoft's managers are pretty clever, I tell you. The policy of paying bonuses to keep them polished to a shine. But she also failed, having come across a peculiarity of the business world - a start-up. Everything turns upside down when dealing with it.
In the end, just like Indiana Jones, never missing an opportunity to find the Holy Grail, I could not miss the chance to work for myself on what I really love, despite all the alternatives. On my deathbed, I would like to say “This was a great adventure!” And not “Yes, I was very reliable.”
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/43097/
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