Do what you love and stay out of debt

I was supposed to be an immigrant. Instead, I chose to become a world citizen. Moral of this story: With hard work and stepping outside of your comfort zone, you can redefine who you are and live the life you want to live. Instead of living a life dictated to you. That's how I roll.

Year 1984. I was born in a small Turkish village in the Turkish Black Sea region. Beautiful nature but no infrastructure and on the lower end of the quality of life metric. We had some hazelnut fields that barely provided enough income to survive. Because the system is rigged. We sold our hazelnuts for pennies, then the global giant Nutella turned them into a product and sold it at 100-fold.

We did the next best thing people from the countryside do. Revol... We became immigrants.

Year 1993. Welcome to Austria, where I couldn't speak a word of German. At last, the new members of the low-skilled workforce arrived. Tourism was exploding in Austria and it needed immigrants to do the work Austrians wouldn't do so we could finally afford Nutella.

Nobody in my family had higher education. Then came the first day in school. I only knew how to say yes and no in German. And I looked very different from everybody else in class. So naturally, I was expected to drop out and join the workforce at 15 years old like most immigrant kids. I started to listen to gangster rap. I didn't understand what 2Pac said, but it somehow resonated with me. I knew our lives had similarities. We were the underdogs. The ones who were being pushed around and struggled. I understood that much.

But then I asked myself: "What's the point of all this?"

I could live my whole life working a factory job making good money. Buying a car. Maybe even a house. But then, those dreams never inspired me. I'd rather not own anything but satisfy my curiosity about the world. Seeing the whole world and plunging into adventures was always more exciting.

That's the catch. To do that, you still need money. So I began seeing money as a tool to freedom and always had so much that I could still do the things I like to do.

But I had little chance of making it big. I was dreaming international and my pocket allowed me to stay local. I wasn't able to catch up learning German fast enough and got bullied by teachers for it. I was failing to do my homework because when most kids got support at home doing them, I didn't.

I still graduated from middle school, but kept refusing to just become an immigrant labor force. School seemed to be the only way out, even if I was barely hanging on. I was interested in books and learning but not so much into getting bullied and discriminated against by teachers and native Austrians. With all my bravery, I took my chances and joined Handelsakademie, a business-focused high school. I barely passed the entrance exam and got my ass kicked for two years before dropping out. Biggest bully school ever. Note to self: don't send your kids there later.

I was so defeated I couldn't even get a job that required any sort of skill. I went from applying for an office job, to a skilled job like plumber or car mechanic, to finding a job as a dishwasher. My dreams of doing international business meetings? I would call it a miracle if I could move away from my parents and afford rent in the small town we lived in.

Then one night changed everything.

I was in my room at the Austrian mountain restaurant which functioned as a hotel, covered in pork stains from washing dishes all day. Exhausted from all day work, I couldn't stand the stunning nature anymore. It irked me. The beautiful mountains? They were strangling me. I needed a break. But I couldn't afford one.

But then, my friend who'd also dropped out of Handelsakademie called. He got accepted to evening high school in Innsbruck, almost a 2-hour train ride away from home. He wanted me to come with him. As company. Since the school was so far away, he just thought why not go with a friend.

I told him no way. The teachers were racist and my German sucks; why go back for more humiliation? Then I looked down at my stained shirt and realized: I was already being humiliated. At least school had a future in it. I told him I'd sign up.

When I resigned at the restaurant, the boss offered to put me through vocational school to become a professional cook. I figured I hated that restaurant and didn't want to see that guy ever again in my life. For the rest of my life, I promised myself to work jobs not just for money but also out of a personal drive. Whatever I do, it needs to align with my values and my purpose. Easy to say if you have skills to show for it. I didn't have them back then. Maybe I had this shot at building these skills at the racist Austrian school system. Racism and professional high-quality education go hand in hand in Austria.

Year 2003. I'm 18 and when most people my age were starting university, I went back to high school. Didn't even dream of finishing it. Each semester I thought maybe this'll be my last, so let's make sure I have a good transcript I can use for applying at McDonald's later. Somehow I kept passing through the grades. Was I dreaming? During the last year of school, I even worked as a paramedic while going to school. Worked from 6 in the morning to 2 in the afternoon, then went to school at 5 o'clock only to arrive home at midnight. Was I making it this time?

Year 2008. To my own surprise, I graduated high school at 23 and went straight to university. But instead of following the classic immigrant path into medicine or engineering, I studied what I loved: Transcultural Communication. People around me thought I was making a mistake for studying something that doesn't have a high-paying job after graduation. They also thought I was still in high school, because I was known to be the adult guy still in high school. But me? I kept having nightmares that I didn't graduate from high school only to find out that I'm going to university in the morning. 

I still had one financial principle: do what you love and don't go into debt while doing it. 

Year 2012. I finally made it! The college degree was the ticket to getting out of the immigrant system. I moved to Ireland as an expat. I landed a job at a video game company as a community manager. As a kid, video games were the escape from the hell in school. And as an adult, I was making money from video games. I could have worked there for free, it was that much fun.

Soon after, I landed a job at Twitter in 2013 and I worked there until 2023. The company literally had "#LoveWhereYouWork" as their slogan. Started as a localization specialist, worked my way to Program Manager for global training. I could have worked there for free too! It was the most amazing thing. No racism, the smartest people in the world working together to enable communication without barriers. Giving everyone a voice. I learned investing, traveled 50+ countries, lived in 6 countries, built financial security. Got married.

But then on my honeymoon, Elon fired 80% of Twitter including me. He also didn't give a rat's ass about communication without barriers. Pay for reach. And doomscroll for life.

Year 2026. I'm writing this from my apartment in Malaysia, still learning and looking out for what comes next. Started this journey alone, now continuing it with my wife and my lovely daughter.

Allah always helps at times of uncertainty.