2025 plan

i’m usually not one to post stuff like this—i kinda don’t care—but everyone else is doing it, so why not.

 • 2023: absolute killer year in sales. felt on top of the world.

 • 2024: meh, not so hot (for everyone in sales).

 • 2025: now i’m unemployed—again. 6th time in my 20s.

in the background, i’ve been teaching myself to code for about 3.5 years now—mostly ruby, with a dab of rails. my biggest leap happened at ryan kulp’s camp, where i went full-immersion: 5–12 hours a day, basically locked in. somehow squeezed months of learning into two weeks (shoutout to Pooria for making that slightly distracting).

anyway, sales jobs can be soul-sucking, and learning to code whilst dealing with high-stakes quotas all day is tough. i’ve got friends who are software engineers that just kinda hang out at work, learn random stuff on the job, and basically get paid to not jump to a competitor. they were learning things so much faster than me. jealous? yeah. but i kept plugging away anyway.

my last role decided to move upmarket (or so they said), and my manager was probably done with me. no hard feelings. i had a good run, won some awards, traveled on their dime a ridiculous amount (europe 3x, was supposed to be 5x but who’s counting?). sales is an incredible skill—persuasion, negotiation, reading people—it’s basically the God Skill. but i want to dive into rails and building apps now, something i’ve never really had the time or the multiple skills needed to do so.

i’m not living in fantasyland: i’ll probably need a job eventually. i’m not about to burn through my nest egg just to take a coding sabbatical. but i do want a few months of minimal distraction: code rails, read a ton, brush up on fundamentals, and get my six pack back again. i’ll keep living costs low and see how far i can stretch it. the pressure’s on to make some kind of recurring revenue from something i build with my own hands, but let’s be real, i’m not banking on that. if it happens, great. if not, i’ll live.

goals for 2025

 1. deepen ruby on rails expertise

 • focus & immersion: recreate that bootcamp vibe—5–10+ hours a day coding, reading docs, messing with new gems.

 • outcome: be comfortably intermediate. i want to be able to build and maintain rails apps on my own, front to back.

 2. build & launch saas products

 • product development: i need to actually ship stuff. all this practice means nothing if i don’t launch. start small, mvp-style, iterate fast.

 • lifestyle alignment: keep costs low. “default alive” is the name of the game—ideally, each project makes enough to cover itself (and me).

 3. leverage sales experience

 • sales confidence: i know how to pitch and close. might as well use it to get early adopters on anything i build.

 • networking & partnerships: i have a somewhat decent network. coding + proven sales chops might open doors i never even saw before.

 4. maintain personal momentum

 • routine & consistency: i need a daily/weekly plan for coding, reading, launching new features. it’s too easy to get lazy without structure. trying my best not to get comfortable—shoutout to Channing.

 • community & accountability: i’ll post updates, get code reviews, pair program, and keep accountability buddies like Corey, Brian & Xi(yes you did in fact sign up for this)in the loop. that kind of stuff keeps me honest.

 5. long-term vision

 • financial independence: the dream is for at least one saas to cover my basic bills so i can reinvest profits (or time) into more building. i know it’s a stretch, but i’m swinging for it.

 • skill evolution: i don’t want to be stuck in the basics forever. as tech evolves, so will i. lifelong learning’s just part of the deal.

why these goals matter

 1. sustainable freedom

by keeping a tight budget and trying to build apps that pay for themselves, i could be free to do what i enjoy (right now)—without the corporate leash.

 2. professional growth

sales + coding might be the most powerful combo. if i can build a product and sell it, that’s a serious edge. (though a marketer-turned-dev is probably a close second.)

 3. personal fulfillment

i like making things. i don't love it, but when i force it i generally feel good. diving deeper into that has been super rewarding already, and i’m ready for more.

so here i go—2025 is when i push all-in on rails, build real products, and see how far i can take this sales/dev combo. let’s do this.