From Factory Worker to Developer: The Trigger

Usually, we complain when bad things happen to us. But, those moments can be the best fuel to change, grow, and improve. It can be hard to realize it at the moment, but if you think about it, every time you’ve had a problem, you’ve learned something new, you’ve grown, and you’ve gotten better. So instead of complaining, be grateful for the bad things that happen to you.

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I had a friend in the town where I lived in Spain. Let’s call him Carlos. Carlos had been working in a factory for five years, always trying “side projects” while working.

Most of these “side projects,” if not all, failed. Still, when we met for a drink, he was always talking about his next idea.

What seemed incredible was his routine. Carlos worked the night shift in that factory, where they cut fabric for sofas on demand. It wasn’t a hard job, but it was definitely monotonous.

When he started in 2016, he was 19 years old and promised himself he wouldn’t be in the factory by the time he was 30. Something that seemed impossible in that town without any studies.

I think that all the big decisions we make in our lives come with a trigger. No matter how much Carlos wanted to leave the factory before 30, no matter how many side projects he had during the day after working at night, nothing changed until 2021. That year, he didn’t get fired, but his girlfriend left him.

That day, I remember he called me on the phone. I had never seen him like that: completely lost, without goals, and feeling that nothing made him happy in that town anymore.

That girl was everything to him at that moment. His last project had failed almost at the same time she left him.

Carlos and I always fantasized about living outside that town. But as I said, big decisions come with a trigger. People tend to talk a lot and do little, until something pushes them to act.

In Carlos’s case, it was hitting rock bottom and feeling he had nothing to lose.

The trigger was the breakup with his girlfriend and the failure of his project, but the change was moving to Portugal. According to him, what more could he lose? What could go worse? What could be harder than what he was living at that moment? Probably, nothing.

He went to Lisbon, where he found a job in a call center. And if many people ask, he chose Portugal as he could have chosen another place, he just wanted to leave that town.

It wasn’t his dream job, but it allowed him to live in a city he loved and gave him time to continue with his side projects.

In this case, it was programming, something he always liked, but never saw himself capable of learning.

It was time to change. It was no longer okay to stay in the comfort zone, no longer okay to lie in bed, or party until the early hours. It was time to get serious.

From 2022 to 2024, Carlos dedicated himself to learning programming, working on personal projects, networking, taking online courses, reading books, doing everything he could to learn and improve.

In 2024, Carlos is working as a web developer in Lisbon. He achieved what he set out to do in 2016: not being in the factory at 30.

All thanks to a trigger, or as we say in my country: “a shitty situation.”

And well, as you might have guessed, Carlos is me, and this is my little story.

Nowadays, what felt like the worst time of my life back then, is something I’m really grateful for.

And about Portugal, I had no idea how much this country would mean to me. I just want to say thanks to this amazing country and its people.