Revenge of the Gamer

Have you ever discovered something so profound that you knew it would change the world forever?  For me that moment came in 1994.  The world was a different place back then.  Bill Clinton was President.  NAFTA had just been signed into law.  Kurt Kobain was found dead in his home from a self inflicted shotgun blast. 

Almost no one had a home computer.  Neither Google nor Internet Exlorer existed.  DVDs hadn’t been invented.  Very few people had cell phones and those that did looked like this:

 

I’d just graduated high school and enrolled for my first semester at Santa Rosa Junior College.  I wanted to become a journalist, so one of the first classes I took was Electronic Journalism.  I had no idea what the course was about, but I figured it had Journalism in the name so I’d give it a shot.

The class ended up having nothing to do with Journalism.  It was actually a computer course about creating web pages in a language called HTML.  I felt duped.  I didn’t even own a computer and neither did most of my friends.  What was the point of learning this odd new language?  How would it help me get my writing published?

At that time no one knew what the internet was.  Yahoo hadn’t gone public yet.  The only web browser was the beta version of Netscape.  Words like dot com were only known to a select few computer geeks, and the few who did get online did so with a slower than molasses 56k modem.  DSL and cable modems didn’t exist.

By the end of my first day of class I no longer considered Electronic Journalism a waste of time.  Quite the opposite, my attitude did a complete 180.  I realized that the world wide web was going to change everything.  I saw the potential of what the web would become, and I wanted to be on the cutting edge of that digital wave.  The information age had begun.

I was so excited I changed my major from journalism to computer science.  Before long I lucked into a job at a company called Advanced Fibre Communications where I had my first taste of professional programming.

I loved it.  I regularly worked over 80 hours a week, often with no weekend. I didn’t care.  Writing code got into my blood, and I couldn’t get enough of it.  Over the next six months I wrote a variety of programs using something called Visual Foxpro (kudos if you remember it).

Unfortunately my stint at AFC only lasted six months.  The company decided to implement a rival technology called SAP and my entire department was let go.  Since I didn’t have a degree getting another programming job was out of the question, but I didn’t give up.  I decided to go back to school.

I took a part time job working at a local computer store to help pay the bills.  The job was an important step, because it taught me a whole new set of skills.  I learned to build and repair computers, set up networks and most importantly troubleshoot computer problems.

Within a year I became the head technician.  A year after that I was running the store.  I went from knowing nothing about computers to building them from scratch in my sleep.  I learned the ins and outs of running a small business, but the more time passed the less profitable the computer store became.  Worse, it consumed enough of my time that I dropped out of college.

Through it all I was left with the nagging feeling that I was missing out on the world wide web.  I kept thinking that there was some way I could tap into it to make my fortune, but I was too busy dealing with a rocky marriage and paying my rent to give the matter much thought.

Eventually I decided to leave the store and  took a job as a database coordinator for the telecom division of Nokia.  Within a year I became the youngest software engineer on their payroll.  I didn’t have a degree, but they were desperate for engineers and I was an exceptionally fast learner. 

The next twelve months were the most fun I have ever had professionally.  Management brought me a broad array of problems, and I was allowed to solve them however I wished.  I loved coming up with creative solutions and thrived on the challenges I was presented. 

Unfortunately it didn’t last.  I was doing a great job, but the telecom division was losing money at a record rate.  Nokia decided to close the plant I worked at, instead outsourcing our jobs to Taiwan.  My coworkers and I became a victims of the dot com crash, and we weren’t alone. 

Over six hundred thousand engineers were suddenly without a job, and I spent the next ten months in a fruitless search for work.  I applied for everything from bench tech to network security to junior programmer.  My resume was chock full of relevant experience, but there just weren’t any jobs to be had.

So I packed my bags and moved to Los Angeles.  The market wasn’t any better down there, and when I didn’t find a job in the IT field I took a temp position in the mortgage industry.  Within a month they promoted me to funding assistant.  Then funder.  Then I took over the lock desk.  Then I started drawing docs.

Somewhere along the way I took over the entire IT department.  I created the website, fixed the computers, set up our eFax, ran the network, set up the linux server and did everything else a small company demands of a computer guy.

I worked there for six years and used my command of technology to help fund forty million dollars in loans every month.  I worked 60+ hours most weeks, but I made money like it was going out of style.  The problem was that while I loved the computer work I hated the mortgage industry.  I also hated Los Angeles.  So in 2007 I decided to move home to Santa Rosa.

I spent a few months looking for a job, but unfortunately there wasn’t much in the way of tech support, networking or programming.  In the end I took a job in a call center at Redwood Credit Union (an amazing company to work for).  Last December I transferred to a new department with an accompanying pay raise and love my new postion.

The thing is I miss programming.  I miss creating software from nothing but raw ideas and the power of my imagination.  I get some of that fix from my writing, but I still get the itch to code.  

Which brings us to today.

I haven’t done much programming in the last three years.  Sure, there have been a few side projects but nothing steady.  I desperately miss programming, so what can I do?  The answer struck me like a bolt of lightning.

Stop trying to find a programming job and start working for myself.  Why not write my own software?

In 2008 I bought an iPhone.  I was fascinated with the sheer number of apps you can download.  Some are free, some have a small cost.  As soon as I saw them a lightbulb went on.  Why not write my own applications?

I did some research, but unfortunately Apple requires you to develop using a Mac.  I’ve always been a PC user, so I would need to shell out nearly a thousand dollars to buy the computer, and another hundred to enroll in their developer program.  I refused to drop that kind of money, because I worried that I might not see a return on my investment. 

What if I couldn’t come up with any good ideas for an app?  What if I was lazy and didn’t spend the time learning the Objective C language after I dropped the money?  I fell prey to my own fears and shelved the idea.

Since then three things have changed.  The first is my writing.  Since February of 2009 I have belted out an average of two thousand words every day.  This has helped me cultivate a newfound discipline and I asked myself a very serious question.  Could I harness this discipline for other parts of my life?

The second change came when I answered that question in January.  I decided I was going to start working out and applied the same discipline that I’d learned from writing.  I was apprehensive at first, but seven months later I’ve gone to the gym almost every day.  I’m stronger, in better shape and feel like a completely different person.

More importantly I’ve proven to myself that I can apply discipline to other parts of my life in order to build habits that will allow me to accomplish serious goals.  It’s filled me with a confidence I’ve found lacking in recent years, and its got me asking myself what else I can accomplish.   

That question was answered last month when a friend brought his iPad over.  When I’d first heard about it I dismissed it as an overpriced toy destined to fail.  Then I spent ten minutes using it.  The experience took me all the way back to 1994 when I first discovered the World Wide Web.  I knew immediately that the iPad was going to change everything in the same way the web did.

My prediction?  Tablet computers like the iPad will replace both desktops and laptops in the next ten years.  I realize that’s a bold claim, but hear me out.

They are smaller, lighter, more portable, and more aesthetically pleasing than a laptop.  They allow you to do everything from surfing the internet to reading books to writing a term paper to watching netflix.  It can hold your entire music collection, picture collection and your entire library of books with room left over.  It can even be set up on your desk like a picture frame so it can cycle through your photos like a slide show.

I just took mine to Yosemite and used it for everything from navigation (driving directions) to working on my novel while watching the sun set.  I use it at work during meetings to take notes and have even set it up to deliver presentations using Powerpoint.

I believe the tablet PC is the next logical step in the evolution of computers.  It’s going to replace traditional laptops and PCs the way DVDs replaced VHS.  The same way Smartphones are replacing the traditional cell phones.

We are standing on the verge of a massive change in personal computing that will rival the advent of the world wide web itself.  In the next decade you will see more and more people adopt this technology.  Already universities are brainstorming ways to work tablets into their curriculums.

The hardware will only get cheaper, and when it does more and more people will buy them.  The iPad looks amazing, but few people are willing to drop $500+ for one.  What if you could get one for $35?  Tens of millions will purchase them as the price drops, creating an ever larger pool of people willing to buy software.

So what does this have to do with me getting back into programming?  There are fifty million iPhone users.  There are nine million iPad users, with a million more being added every month.  There would be even more, but that’s as fast as Apple can make iPads.

I can write applications for both using the same language, which gives me access to nearly sixty million users.  Tablet technology is still in its infancy, so there will never be a better time for me to start making apps.

This has the potential to be extraordinarily profitable.  How profitable?  If you charged $.99 cents for an app and .01% of iPhone/iPad users decided to buy it you’d make $60,000 in raw revenue.  If a full 1% liked your app you’d gross $600,000.  Those numbers are  theoretical of course, but not as much as you might think.  One of the engineers I worked with at Nokia got into iPhone programming in 2008.  A game he made grossed over $50,000 in the first year.

Am I expecting similar success?  Not even close.  It might happen, but its more likely that I’ll see much smaller returns since my first app targets a limited audience.  Still, even a couple hundred dollars every month is more than I have right now.

Once I made the decision to become an iPhone developer I spent a few days brainstorming.  Three potential apps took shape, and one is simple enough to finish by the end of the summer.  I decided to work on that one first, but before I began I thought it was a good idea to see if there was any existing competition.  To my surprise their isnt!  My app will be the first of its kind to market.

Now that I had my idea I needed an iPad, a Macbook, a website and an Apple Developer membership.  Add in an advertising budget and I realized I was looking at a $3,000 investment.  That’s quite a chunk of change to spend on the chance that an iPhone application I haven’t even written yet will take off. 

Bear in mind that I have always been a conservative pragmatist.  I’ve never spent so much as a dollar in a casino, because I don’t like the odds.  I don’t take chances unless I am pretty damn sure I will see a return on my investment.  Polite people call me frugal.  Not so polite people call me miserly.

So you can understand how hard investing $3,000 is for me.  But you know what?  I decided to bite the bullet and do it anyway.  My rationale went something like this.

When the world wide web hit in the mid 90s I wasn’t in a position to ride the wave like so many of my older friends.  I was young, untrained and had no capital. I didn’t know squat about advertising or marketing.  I couldn’t even afford to buy myself a computer, much less get a business up and running. 

I knew how big the web would be.  I told anyone and everyone who’d listen.  Fortunes were going to be made.  Yet I was powerless to claim a piece of it.  Instead I watched as people I knew got rich.  I saw first Yahoo, then Google become the powerhouses they are today.

Don’t get me wrong I learned some very necessary skills during that time.  Today you’d be hard pressed to find someone more versatile or knowledgable about computers than I am.  I can program, do tech work, web design, database creation, build and repair computers, set up networks…you get the picture.

Still, I’m left with this hollow feeling.  I missed a golden opportunity to ride the digital wave to fame and riches, and that’s haunted me ever since.  It was a once in a lifetime chance, or so I thought.  Now I am not so sure.  I believe I have a second chance and I plan to capitalize on it.

When I was 18 I lacked the drive and discipline to start my own company and make it profitable.  Today I have both.  I can do this.  I will do this.  I have invested nearly $2,000 in hardware and software.  I have looked into advertising, marketing and establishing a killer website.  I have written my first test application.  It’s on my iPhone even as we speak.

In another month I plan to have a beta version of my first iPhone / iPad application ready to go.  I’ll also have another blog post up in the next week or two detailing my progress and marketing strategy.  Wish me luck!