I've always been told how smart I was. How "lucky" I was and how "easy" things would be for me because I was so smart. But, at 28 years old, I was broke with no real plan on how things were going to work out for me. It took a long night in a hotel 1,000 miles from home and my wife and kids wondering where their next meal was going to come from for me to finally get it through my thick skull that it didn't matter how smart I was.

Here's the story and the hard lesson I learned about what it really takes to be successful... in life and as a developer.