I was growing up in my father's architectural practice, went with him out to visit building sites, made my homework in the office and on the day I completed school, I went to the office like that would be my home. No parties, no time off, just back to work. I was literally growing up in the building industry and transitioned from playful learning during my childhood into working in that industry as an adult.
While I was growing up in that environment, I never felt like it would be mine or that I wanted to be the face of this business.
My desire was to be in the shadow and just doing the work.
Once I left Austria in 2008, I started my own architectural practice, working on smaller residential projects in the UK as well as commercial projects across Europe, as that's what I used to do. The only difference was that it was my business and I was suddenly the face of it, however I was still not comfortable in that new role.
All that changed when I transitioned my profession from an Architect to a Software Developer. I am self taught, and it wasn't always easy (still isn't), but I felt "right at home" and was proud of every step along the way, no matter how inexperienced I was during the early days on this new journey.
I worked in digital agencies, as freelancer and at the end as CTO for a startup in NYC, before I decided that it would be time for me to fully invest myself into my own business, stepping out of the shadow.
Today I'm proud of my own business and the products that we are working on. I've still a long way to go with being entirely myself and freely sharing the ups and downs of building and running a business, but I am out of the shadow and feel comfortable being the face of it.