User talk:Josh Ternyak

Becoming a self-taught web developer is hard, especially when you're young. But, if you put in focused time, effort, and work, you will achieve what seems unrealistic. I'm 15 and I've been coding 20+ hours a week for the last 2 years. Here's my story.

2018: It was the last day of school. I came home, and my brother welcomed me and said, "Congratulations! Now, you'll have so much time on your hands." I replied, "What should I do with it", and he said, "You should teach yourself how to code". This was the most memorable moment of my life. And so that's what I did. I spent the entire summer watching youtube videos and reading articles on the basics of HTML, CSS, JS, and everything in between. The first few days were exciting and exhausting. I remember sitting on my bedroom floor for over 5 hours being extremely confused on how to get rid of default margin on the page. After finding the solution, I was the happiest web developer alive. All I had to do was body { margin: 0 } in the stylesheet. It was on that day that I knew I found my hidden talent and passion.

I spent the next 2 months applying my skills by building landing pages. But there was one day when I didn't feel like coding at all. I was tired of the debugging, the CSS errors, and the images not loading. So, I did what I never thought could be possible in the world of web development. I took a BREAK. It was the most important choice I had made that taught me an important lesson. To be a successful web developer, you must take breaks. What works for me might not work for you, but I usually take a 5 minute break every 1-2 hours.

2019: After 7 months of learning the basics of web development and building landing pages, I stepped into the world of client work. Actually, I took a leap into it, and texted my friends asking them, "Hey, can you ask your dad or mom if they need or want a website". Funny enough, it worked. I ended up building a portfolio for my friend's dad that showcased his photography. At the end of that project, I learned 3 valuable lessons.

1. Before you begin working on a project, plan everything you will need and do. 2. Constant client communication is critical if you want to build trust. 3. To prevent future headaches, know how to do what is necessary to get the job done.

After this project, I decided to build my portfolio. At first, it didn't look that nice, and so I decided to use a free HTML theme to save time building it. After it was nice and filled with my projects, I focused the next two months on learning backend programming. This included the basics of python and web development with flask. It was a challenging process, but in the end, I had managed to successfully build twitter replica called "BlogItPoints". However, it taught me a lot about how the web works, and was also a fun experience.

At this point in my web developer life, I finally reached a level of satisfaction. I understood how much work I put into reaching my goal, and in fact reached that goal. I taught myself the basics of code, how to build websites, and how to find people to build them for. This is when I decided to build my own CSS framework from scratch. I planned everything I would do, and I estimated that it would take me around 2 weeks to build. It ended up taking me only two 2 days. This brings me to another lesson I've learned:

It's better to overestimate how long it will take you to complete a project and finish it earlier than expected, rather than underestimating how long it will take, and not meeting the deadline.

2020: When I came back home, I was ready to build a product that would save developers and designers hundreds of hours of time so they can focus on building web products that make the world a better place. And so that's what I did. I spent 113 long hours building LoveYourLanding full of blood, sweat, and tears (I got a paper cut).

With LoveYourLanding, you can build stunning websites in minutes, not weeks. It's a custom HTML website theme that speaks for itself. For only $15.00 (with the promo code, "indie") you will get the source code for the entire project. You will be able to build modern websites in minutes and impress potential customers. The project comes with 6 landing pages, 5 app pages, and 2 blog pages. LoveYourLanding saves developers and designers hundreds of hours of stressful coding, designing, and thinking so they can focus on building awesome projects. Built with a clean code base, the website theme has a very simple design that users will be drawn towards. While carrying many pages, files, and images, LoveYourLanding stays clean and simple. Designed with the latest design trends in mind, it feels and looks modern, minimal, and beautiful. It is built to make your life easier.

I hope you feel inspired, motivated, and excited to make your own web development dreams come true. Becoming a self-taught web developer is hard, especially when you're young. But, if you put in the time, effort, and thinking, then you will achieve what seems impossible, especially if you use LoveYourLanding to give you a head start. I'm 15 and taught myself how to code and be an independent web developer when I was only 13, so don't make excuses.

Share this post with anyone you know that needs a little motivation and inspiration. My goal is to help and inspire as much people as I possibly can and to make the world of web development a more fun, exciting, and better place.

Josh Ternyak (talk) 17:58, 27 March 2020 (UTC)