Opportunity makes a better developer

I delved into Web Dev over 7 years ago and I started developing real and working web apps.

I was quite good, even though I was a solo developer,
No community, no mentor .

I have friends in the same field, Friends that are way better than me esp those that were chanced to work in Lagos.

Lagos is a whole tech ecosystem on its own
You dont have a choice than to be a good developer even if you dont want to,Inferiority complex and shame would push you.

Three years into my dev. journey
I never used GIT, It sounds crazy, but truthfully I did not even know what GIT was all about.

What type of developer does not -use- know GIT .....?

One of my close tech pals explained how important it was for me to know how to use git ,
A dev without git is a local dev

He was absolutely RIGHT!, I was a local developer.
As at those periods, even without my knowledge of git, I have worked with 2 companies as a software developer and I was quite good !

But being a good developer is not the point here ,

I was a local developer cos of null git knowledge,

Do you know why I was a local dev?
Why was I not able to use git 4 years into being a good dev ?
What differentiate me from my friend who has spent more of his tech carriers using GIT . ?

The answer is simple
One word

OPPORTUNITY!

That's it !

I never saw any opportunity to use GIT,
I never saw any opportunity to collaborate with others,

Git was not used in the companies I worked!
Unlike him, who worked in places git was required!

All the places I have worked never required usage of git.

I tried to use git on my own, but its not just "gitting" !
I could not practically collaborate with my self.

And this is what differentiates and classifies a lot of us into hierarchies !

OPPORTUNITY

A lot of people dont have the opportunity you have,
You probably wont be this good if not for the chances you had to be where you are

A lot of people probably would have been better than you if they had a bit of the opportunity you had.

I know there are people that blow opportunities, well it's their faults ..
But a lot of people dont even have any, if at all they want to blow them.

When you think deeply, you will discover this life is all about opportunities .

"someone introduced you to"
"someone adviced you to follow a particular route"
"you came by it by chance"
"your application was accepted"
"you got the offer"

When I think of how easily I use Git now,
The various commands I have at my finger tips,
Pushing, Pulling, Merging, Merge requests

I never stopped being grateful to those that gave me the opportunity, especially the moonMan, This man is my hero.

This post is not about GIT, but understanding how opportunities will make you better.

A lot of people have acquired skills, but they are yet to get an opportunity to put their skills into real world test,
just one right opportunity and the story changes for ever.

To every developer out there,
take that low paying offer today,
Apply for that internship,
Do that free work ..
its gonna be an opportunity to be better !

~amfstacks