It all started with a Commodore 64

Almost every superhero and villain has an origin story. This is mine.

Learning to code as a kid was a superpower that has shaped my whole life. My 25+ year career in tech is a testament to that. But it could have been so different.

Love of the game

In my youth, I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I wasn't from a rich family and I didn't have connections to smart people. I grew up in a single-parent family in a small city in the UK. I could have grown up to be anyone; a mechanic, a teacher, an accountant.

Like most teenage boys I loved video games and many evenings were spent at friend's homes patiently waiting for the cassette games to load. Sometimes it took 5 minutes for a game to load, other times it would fail and we'd have to rewind the tape and try again. But the excitement and anticipation of adrenaline-pumping gameplay, amazing pixelated graphics and precision joystick skills more than made up for the wait.

It never occurred to me that we could ever afford a computer of our own but my mum agreed to buy one so I'd be home more often. I was from a not-so-well-off migrant family so we had no option but to buy second hand. Scouring the classified pages of the local newspaper daily I looked for computers for sale; such was the method before the internet was available. On the face of it buying an old computer might seem second best but this would prove to be a defining moment in shaping my future.

A serendipitous meeting with a computer

I found one ad that looked good and we purchased from an elderly man who no longer needed his computer for his business, a Commodore 64. He demonstrated how it worked and it came with an array of addons that I've not seen before. There was the standard brown, chunky keyboard and tape drive; but also a 9-pin dot-matrix printer and a 5.25-inch floppy disk drive. But the best bit was the 10 books on programming.

At first, the gaming at home seemed like a dream come true but the path to coding was layout out before me. I read every book and was soon coding my own basic games. I bought computing magazines that gave me more insider knowledge and tips. I was hooked. Maybe one day I'd be making and selling my own games. Little did I know at the time, or anyone else for that matter, how this would set me up for a career spanning decades working for multi-national corporations and governments.

Soon I got a reputation for being the geeky kid at school. I was already the nerdy kid because I was good at maths but I wore both as badges of honour.

From this newfound superpower will I turn out to be a friend or foe; a villain or vanquisher; a hero or heretic? Only time will tell.

Key takeaways:

• Buying second-hand brings about unique purchases. Don't overlook them.

• Follow your passion and don't think about making money. If you're good, it will come.

• Life is short, don't waste it being normal.