Today things didn't go as expected. And that's fine.

Today I got my U.S. Tourist VISA request rejected. I prepared all the necessary documentation, went to the office on time and presented what I had. Nevertheless, with no apparent reason, I got the request rejected.

If you've been in a situation like this you can imagine how I felt. If you haven't, I can tell you: you feel like shit.

Being a no-university-degree 19-year-old self-taught developer / co-founder working outside your country is not as easy and straightforward as you may think it is, specially when dealing with decades-old bureaucracy and completely old-fashioned degree-based systems.

But today I learned that lost battles are not always something bad. They remind you that you can't take everything for granted and that actually perseverance is one of the key things that make great people great. After all, there is no single thing that's worth something that doesn't involve hard work. (i read that phrase somewhere else).

After looking back a couple years, I've come to realize that after every big downside there's always an even bigger upside.

Today I also learned that is important to keep the big picture clear and to visualize your goals. If something's not working today that doesn't mean is the end of the world.

Today I learned that life is not always fair, and that we need to do as much as we can to avoid it being that way.

tl;dr: don't give up.