1/2 I’ll be 40 in March, and I’ve stuttered my whole life. Like everyone else, I have my share of burdens; in many ways, our fates are much the same. Ten years ago, I hit rock bottom. I was burnt out, working bad jobs mainly for the money. I was drinking on the weekends, followed by hangovers and depression. I had a string of failed job interviews behind me. On top of that, I felt guilty about wanting to leave my company—I was a co-owner, and there were only three of us in total. I believed that if I left, they would lose their jobs and their livelihoods, and their families would suffer. My work was varied and I was good at it, but I felt like I was failing, sinking the whole ship because my stuttering was blocking me. It was a vicious circle. Then, something happened. My childhood home—where my parents, grandmother, and sister with her daughter were living at the time—burned down. I had to help them. I sent my colleagues an email saying I had to take care of my family and build them a new home. They understood. For the next few months, I helped the workers with clearing the site, demolition, and building a new house. In the evenings, I checked my emails and realized they were getting along just fine without me. In fact, it was quite the opposite—instead of missing my work, they managed to outsource many tasks and actually get the same amount of work done at a lower cost. I, on the other hand, learned how to build houses, manage people, and get things done, simply because there was no one else to do it. Even today, many people tell me how well I handled everything back then and how the family wouldn't have made it without me. When we showed my niece her new room and the Christmas tree with presents in the new home on Christmas Day, it was just wonderful. I realized that you can't just wait for things to suddenly change. Without making a change in my life myself, I’d just be waiting for something else to explode or burn down. I applied for a job. For my qualifications, it was a lower position, but it was well-paid. During the entrance test, I far outperformed the other candidates with my knowledge. The company decided that my stuttering was just a minor detail compared to the value I would clearly bring them. I left that company after six months. It wasn't the right fit, but with my newly acquired confidence, I knew I could do the job. I realized it wasn't "beneath me" as I had once thought; I enjoyed it and saw a future in it. I just wasn't in the right company.