One crisp autumn evening at Google’s Boulder office, I, a janitor, found The Go Programming Language in the trash near the engineers’ desks. Coffee-stained but intact, it intrigued me. I took it home, cracked it open under my dim lamp, and dove into the examples. My old laptop hummed as I typed “Hello, World” in Go, the elegant syntax hooking me. I read it cover to cover, then again, each pass deepening my grasp. Nights became a ritual: me, cheap coffee, and that book, its pages soon dog-eared.

Months later, I was answering Go questions on StackOverflow, earning karma with every post. A concurrency puzzle? I’d crack it with goroutines. A pointer snag? I’d explain it clearly. I wasn’t just mopping floors anymore—I was building a name.

Then, an email from Google’s engineering team: “We’ve seen your StackOverflow profile—let’s talk.” In my janitor’s polo, I faced engineers in a conference room, acing their questions. “Wait,” one said, squinting at my ID, “you’re already here?” Laughter erupted when I admitted I emptied their bins. Word spread fast. HR soon swapped my mop for a MacBook, promoting me to software engineer with a desk overlooking the Flatirons. From a discarded book to tech stardom, I’d coded my way up—and the rest is history.