helping others, turns of life and rewards

I just told this long story to my old mother and I would like to share it here as well, because I think that it contains a great message

I am 49yo and have worked in a software development company for more than 15 years as a developer.

About 10 years ago, Tom, a project leader for another company and a good friend of mine, told me that his company was downsizing and that he felt sorry for one of his programmers, because she was going to be lay out. I offered myself to help because there was an open position in my company and he told me that she was a capable developer

I recommended her for the position (putting my name in the fire without personally knowing her, dedicated several hours to advise her for the interview, provided reading materials, etc) .
Everything worked out and she joined group B (lets call it that) and we would see each other every now and then and we would say hi and had some smalltalk.

The same situation somehow repeated about 4 years ago, this time with a cyclist “friend” of mine. He was the project leader for another company that was facing financial problems so I offered myself to help. We went through a similar process, he was accepted and joined group C.

Then 2 more years passed, and we got an open for a senior position in my group (group A). the salary for this position was ~ 10-20k above my salary, so that you have a reference, and ofc that I was interested and I thought that I deserved it due to my experience and knowledge

I was very surprised when the guy I had recommended told me that he was applying too, even when he knew that I was a strong candidate for that and it was in my own group. Well, apart from being very bright , he is an excellent friend of my boss … so he got the position. He apologized to me and all of that , but I felt it was an illegal punch and I felt hurt; so our friendship has never been the same since then

then, to continue the story, some restructuring of my section was done and a new group , lets call it group D , was created. A senior position was open for this new group. As a boss, an old lady was appointed, she knows me and my capabilities, but I was also aware that she had questioned my work habits in the past, so I was a bit worried, but still applied.
I was told that the other (recommended by me) woman working for group B also applied.

What about if I tell you that she was selected for the position …

After this, I felt sad and disappointed with my 0 for 2 score, specially because these 2 guys were there in the company because of me; I had helped them just because I was in the position to help, with no interest whatsoever

A few months after that 2nd selection , I could easily see that I was running on cruise control in my job with 0 motivation. I did some soul searching and talked to God and his angels , realizing that what I truly wanted was early retirement and be done with the corporate life; I just wanted to get away from the grinder and the hypocrisy and focus on my spiritual growth and helping others

then a few months later, my friend Tom approached me with some investment ideas. at first they seemed too ridiculous to be taken seriously, but he pitched it a 2nd time, and I gave it some thought . the more I researched it the more I liked it but I still could not pull the trigger… until I had 3 very strange vivid dreams , which basically told me that this was a good idea to pursue

I decided to invest a decent amount of money and 2 years later , I have 20x of that investment …

Basically I have enough to retire any time now and move to a quiet country to focus on what really matters to me

I find it interesting how this has all worked out. these guys got the senior positions but most likely will need to keep running in the wheel forever … while I can finally get out of it


the message is to HELP OTHERS, do it if you can without expecting anything in return ;

it doesn’t matter if the recipients of the help might seem ungrateful or as turning against you due to greed. if it is the right thing, and you feel good doing that, simply DO IT

even more, If I had the possibility to go back in time, I would certainly help them again.


ps: A couple of months ago my boss (who is a great guy and close to being a friend) mentioned to me that he thought that I should be getting a reclassification for a senior position and that, to substantiate this request, it would be advisable that I take over a complex infrastructure from someone who was overloaded in his work, but that it was “up to me” to decide

… I replied that I was no longer interested . that I was good with my position and the level of my responsibilities and that I no longer needed the extra money. That they had discarded me when I was interested in climbing the corporate ladder, so I had redefined my priorities .
I didn’t tell him that I was planning to retire soon ofc


what’s your take on this story?

… Life is certainly mysterious