Nikolas Escobal

My life in emojis 🍜🍻💩💻🙏🔁
Full-stack dev, Clojure enthusiast, philomath, musician.
Always down for a good chat over sushi.

[Nikolas Escobal @nikoescobal]

Check out my latest article: The Top Skills Every Aspiring Developer Needs To Master
https://t.co/HWbdfMTsls via @LinkedIn

[Nikolas Escobal @nikoescobal]

@lucaspatiri_ UGC

[Nikolas Escobal @nikoescobal]

@dayonefoundry I think people underestimate just how valuable it is to pursue something truly meaningful, to the point that building no longer feels like work

[Nikolas Escobal @nikoescobal]

@Timb03 @MongoDB @nuxt_js @stripe @render @cannyHQ @crisp_im @ImagekitIo @PlausibleHQ @cronitorio Amazing. And in these 4 years, how did you survive? Did you get a job and do this until it made enough money for you to go full-time?

[Nikolas Escobal @nikoescobal]

@Timb03 @MongoDB @nuxt_js @stripe @render @cannyHQ @crisp_im @ImagekitIo @PlausibleHQ @cronitorio Just how does one get from 0 coding knowledge to building something truly valuable in 6 months? Man, that's insane. And just a few hours every evening? Did you not get a job while Pallyy wasn't making enough money?

[Nikolas Escobal @nikoescobal]

@__mikareyes It's my pleasure. And yes, looking forward to it! :)

[Nikolas Escobal @nikoescobal]

So happy that there are a group of people who really care about solving an issue remote workers like me face on a regular basis. Kudos to everyone on the Parallax team!

[Mika Reyes ⚡️ @__mikareyes]

2/ Why Parallax?

Sending money internationally is tough. Think high fees, slow transfers, hidden markups, and poor customer support.

Big headaches for remote workers, freelancers, businessowners and many international workers looking to get paid their hard-earned money.🤕

[Mika Reyes ⚡️ @__mikareyes]

2/ Why Parallax?

Sending money internationally is tough. Think high fees, slow transfers, hidden markups, and poor customer support.

Big headaches for remote workers, freelancers, businessowners and many international workers looking to get paid their hard-earned money.🤕

[Nikolas Escobal @nikoescobal]

@__mikareyes Amazing work! Let’s go team! 👏 👏

[Nick Huber @sweatystartup]

Entrepreneurship culture in America is all messed up and it’s a shame.

TechCrunch. Product Hunt. Shark Tank.

It’s all about new ideas. Changing the world. Innovation. 0 to 1. Blue ocean. Venture capital and exits and scalability.

And IT’S ALL A LIE.

If you ask the average American who a real entrepreneur is they’ll say Jobs, Musk or Zuck. We read their books and idolize them and hang on to their every word.

So the brightest among us think they need a moat. A new idea. Something revolutionary. We're setting them up for FAILURE.

I took an entrepreneurship course at Cornell in 2011. 24 kids with new ideas. Big plans. Pitch decks looking for series As.

I was #25 with a regular old-fashioned business. When professors asked me what my differentiator was I didn’t have an answer.

"We're just going to pick up people's stuff and store it when they go home for the summer. I'll answer the phone, do things a little better and I think I can make some decent money."

I saw a company out there doing sweaty, non-scalable work. They weren't very good at it and yet they made really good money.

I started by trading my time for money. Bought a $1500 cargo van. Storage Squad was born. Used the things I had in my life to make some profit.
I wasn’t trying to educate a customer base.
I wasn’t following my passion.
I didn’t need funding or a network.
I wasn’t competing against brilliant folks from Stanford.
I want trying to prove a concept.
I wasn’t emotionally attached to anything except adding value.
My customers and my competitors existed. I could study them interacting with each other. I made decisions with my brain, not my heart. I was competing against folks with fax machines, clipboards and paper ledgers.

And the best part... WE WERE PROFITABLE FROM DAY ONE.

Not a single one of those 24 folks in my class succeeded. They all went and got jobs. Their new ideas didn’t catch on. They all had dreams of millions of users and an exit. Scalable models that could work anywhere from a computer. But 99% failed to make a single dollar.

We made enough money in a few years to build our first self storage facility. That grew into the 60+ property $100m+ portfolio we own and operate today. We sold the service business in January 2021 for $1.75 million. We had no debt and no silent partners. My business partner and I split the cash.

So who are the real entrepreneurs? Who are the wealthiest people you know? I’m not talking about money. I’m talking about the people who do what they want to do when they want to do it. Who are they?

Now here comes the hard truth. I know a lot of wealthy entrepreneurs. None of them had new ideas. Very few of them raised VC money. None of them were on shark tank. They all did common things uncommonly well. Regular old businesses just a little better.

BORING STUFF.

Most of them have a few things in common: They worked really hard doing something not fun for 5+ years. Many times 20+ yrs. They started out trading their time for money. They did things that weren’t scalable. Many of them offered services.

They all had to talk to people. Most of the time face to face. They had to sell themselves and their ideas. They didn’t take a lot of risk. Most of them hired coders but few of them were coders.

The main point:

Stop buying into the hype. The click bait. The sexy stories of overnight success and mega riches. Entrepreneurship isn’t that complicated. Do something with good odds, low risk and moderate rewards. Don’t master your craft, master leading other people.

Think with your head, not your heart. It’s not about you and what YOU love or what YOU want to be doing. And lastly.. Start SMALL.

Biz is about momentum. I started 10 yrs ago carrying boxes up spiral staircases. Now I’m buying millions worth of real estate.

And the best part. When you’re successful, experienced, wealthy and you have a killer network...

It’s time to change the world with something BIG.

[Jena Wolfy 💋 @jenasspeaking]

Before you talk - Consider
Before you pray - Believe
Before you speak - Listen
Before you spend - Earn
Before you react - Think
Before you play - Work
Before you laugh - Cry
Before you take - Give
Before you run- Walk
Before you quit - Try
Before you die - Live

[Janis Ozolins @OzolinsJanis]

4 loops that cause creative struggle:

[Frontend Mentor @frontendmentor]

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[YK aka CS Dojo 📺🐦 @ykdojo]

The life of a software engineer is that of endless learning

[Nikolas Escobal @nikoescobal]

@ykdojo Awesome 👍 cheers

[YK aka CS Dojo 📺🐦 @ykdojo]

How to get out of tutorial hell as a software engineer:

[Pratham @Prathkum]

8 websites that will make you a standout person from 99% of people:

[isabella @9001sabella]

At @routerprotocol, we’re super looking for a talented DevOps Engineer with ownership. Experienced in K8/Azure to do the following:

- set up environment for massive scaling
- equipped to suitably config of replicas & pods
- analytics, billing, monitoring, etc.

🏎💨💨 1/3

[Nikolas Escobal @nikoescobal]

Random musings pt. 3

Creating habits that lead to virtues, which are then practiced automatically and autonomously, will definitely allow us to become freer, and to have more time to create more meaning.

[Nikolas Escobal @nikoescobal]

Random musings pt. 1

In a sense, we are all programmers of our own selves -- our body, mind, heart, and soul. The virtues and vices that we choose to live out are reflections of the kind of life we program for ourselves.

[Nikolas Escobal @nikoescobal]

Random musings pt. 2

It's possible to program ourselves for greatness by simply following the design of the creator, and living virtuously