For a long time, I thought cybersecurity would be my path.
I was interested in how systems worked, how they broke, and how they could be secured. But after finding myself on the wrong side of a very public mistake in my younger years, some of the more traditional paths in security started to feel unrealistic, especially government work.
So I chose something safer and more conventional.
I enrolled in pharmacy and spent the next several years working towards a career in healthcare. On paper, it was a sensible choice. It was stable, respected, and offered a clear path forward.
The problem was that I never felt particularly connected to it.
Even during that period, I was still spending some weekends at security events like Ruxcon in Melbourne, watching DEF CON talks, and following the security community closely.
As graduation approached, I found myself asking a simple question: what was the end goal?
The answer seemed to be owning a pharmacy one day. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that path, but I just couldn't see myself getting excited about it.
At the same time, another interest from my teenage years kept pulling me back.
I had known about Bitcoin since its early days and had experimented with it long before most people had heard of it. Back then, it felt almost absurd. The idea that a small group of developers could create an alternative to the global financial system seemed far too ambitious to be taken seriously.
Yet year after year, it refused to disappear.
As Bitcoin grew, I became increasingly interested in the ideas behind it. Decentralization. Open networks. Permissionless systems. The concept that software could reshape entire industries without asking for permission fascinated me.
By early 2017, I finally stopped watching from the sidelines.
I bought Bitcoin and started diving deeper into the technology surrounding it. What started as curiosity quickly turned into an obsession. I found myself spending more time thinking about software, networks, and emerging technologies than I did about pharmacy.
Eventually the decision became obvious.
Six months before completing my degree, while working part-time as a student pharmacist, I walked away.
There was no startup waiting for me. No investors. No guarantees.
What made the decision even harder was that I wasn't moving into software with a computer science degree or formal training. In fact, I had neither. Everything I knew about programming, systems, and security had been self-taught through years of curiosity, experimentation, and countless hours spent learning online.
Walking away from pharmacy didn't immediately lead to success.
When I first entered the software industry, I had no formal credentials and a public history that many employers would have viewed as a reason not to hire me. Ironically, one of my earliest opportunities came from someone who had already searched my name. He knew the story, wasn't concerned by it, and was more interested in what I could build than mistakes I had made in the past.
Looking back, that taught me an important lesson: the people worth working with tend to judge you on your ability, character, and what you're capable of doing next—not solely on what you've done before.
Looking back now, leaving pharmacy was one of the few decisions I made without knowing where it would lead.
It was also one of the best.
That decision eventually led me into cybersecurity, infrastructure, communications platforms, financial systems, blockchain networks, and software development. Years later, it became the foundation for HODL Labs and the companies and products I continue to build today.
Sometimes the biggest risk is not taking one.
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