As Steve Jobs said, you can only connect the dots looking backwards

My mom just found this old cover letter I wrote in 2014 and it's a perfect reminder of the Steve Jobs quote, "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future."

It was early December, I was 23 living in Boston, my best friend gave me an internal referral for the job, and I thought I'd be a perfect fit for the AppNexus role. I poured my heart into this cover letter (or so my 23-year-old self thought). They were in NYC and my dream was that as soon as I got an offer letter I'd move back to New York City—maybe even be home by Christmas!

I didn't get the job. In fact, I didn't even get past the initial phone screen. I was super bummed, and felt even worse that I had to stay in Boston to endure the coldest winter they'd had in 40 years...

BUT here's where the universe kicks in — only because I was still in Boston two months later, I met my now-wife, Bruna Martinez and our journey together has surpassed any life goal or dream I could've ever imagined.

A year after that rejection I was getting ready for my first day at Meta here in Austin, TX where I would spend almost 5 years growing revenue and programs at a scale I never thought possible. And with Bruna's partnership since the night we met, we've both re-architected our life several times, we own a home decades before either of us thought was possible, and our careers have evolved in ways that it never would've had I gotten that job. Like giving it all up years later and becoming a software engineer!

Sometimes, when things don't go your way the best thing you can do is focus on the step right in front of you and trust the dots will connect in their own unique way later on. As Ryan Holiday says, "the obstacle in the way becomes the way."

#thisisyourlife

With sonder,
Ruben