I've been writing these blogs for a while now, documenting projects, struggles, lessons, and the messy process of learning. But I realized I haven't written the most important one yet—the one where I acknowledge that none of this happened alone. So this is that post. A big thank you to everyone who made this journey possible.
To my parents, who let me try things even when they didn't fully understand why. When I told you I wanted to join Scaler alongside IB, you could have said it was too much. When I wanted to attend Master's Union bootcamps, you could have questioned if it was worth it. When I asked to go to Dubai for GITEX, you could have said focus on your studies instead. But you didn't. You trusted that I knew what I was learning from, even when the path didn't look traditional. You gave me the freedom to explore, to fail, to try again. That freedom is the foundation everything else is built on. Thank you for believing in my curiosity even when it led to late nights, stress, and unconventional choices. Thank you for supporting dreams that don't fit neatly into checkboxes on application forms.
To my teachers at school, especially those who saw that learning happens outside the classroom too. Thank you for understanding when I was exhausted from balancing too many things. Thank you for not making me choose between IB and everything else I was trying to do. Thank you for asking questions that pushed my thinking, for giving feedback that made my work better, for treating me like someone capable of handling challenges rather than protecting me from them. You taught me that education isn't just about grades—it's about developing the ability to think critically, question assumptions, and keep learning long after school ends.
To the team at Scaler, thank you for taking a chance on a 17-year-old who wanted to learn software engineering while still in school. Thank you for not watering down the curriculum or making it easier because I was young. Thank you for treating me like a serious learner who could handle rigorous content if I was willing to put in the work. The late nights debugging code, the frustration of not understanding concepts immediately, the satisfaction of finally solving problems—all of that taught me more than just programming. It taught me how to think like an engineer, how to break down complex problems, how to persist when things don't make sense. That's a skill set I'll carry forever.
To everyone at Master's Union, thank you for creating bootcamps that weren't just theoretical business lessons but actual hands-on experiences. Thank you for the ApniDukaan challenge that forced me to understand e-commerce by doing it, mistakes and all. Thank you for the pitch competitions that taught me how to articulate ideas under pressure. Thank you for creating an environment where it was okay to try, fail, learn, and try again. The back-to-back competition wins felt good, but what mattered more was learning that business isn't something you study—it's something you do. You gave me the space to do it badly at first and get better through iteration.
To my manager and the entire team at CuriousRubik, thank you for hiring an intern who had no idea what a Business Analyst actually did. Thank you for letting me sit in client meetings even when I was obviously lost. Thank you for patiently explaining concepts I should have known but didn't. Thank you for treating my mistakes as learning opportunities rather than failures. Thank you for showing me what it looks like to translate business problems into technical solutions, to bridge the gap between what clients need and what developers build. Every time I misunderstood a requirement, you helped me see what I'd missed. Every time I asked a basic question, you answered it without making me feel stupid. That patience and guidance shaped how I think about work, collaboration, and learning.
To the developers at UnyKloud, thank you for welcoming a junior intern who was still figuring out how React actually worked. Thank you for reviewing my code and pointing out issues in ways that helped me learn, not just fixing things for me. Thank you for explaining why certain approaches were better than others, for showing me what good code structure looks like, for teaching me that performance and user experience matter as much as functionality. Thank you for letting me struggle with problems before stepping in to help—that struggle is where real learning happened. Watching you work taught me what it means to think like a developer, to anticipate problems before they happen, to write code that other people can actually understand and maintain.
To my senior teammates on the machine learning research project, thank you for letting me contribute even though I was clearly the least experienced person on the team. Thank you for explaining concepts multiple times when I didn't get them the first time. Thank you for treating my questions seriously instead of dismissing them as too basic. Thank you for showing me what real research looks like—the iterations, the failed experiments, the slow process of figuring things out. I'm still learning, still catching up to your level of understanding, but you've made that gap feel like something I can close with time and effort rather than something insurmountable.
To the MUN community and my fellow delegates, thank you for creating spaces where teenagers can engage with complex global issues and practice diplomacy. Thank you to the senior delegates who gave me advice after I froze at my first conference, who told me that everyone messes up and what matters is showing up again. Thank you for the debates that pushed my thinking, the resolutions we drafted together, the late-night committee sessions where we actually worked through difficult problems. Those experiences taught me how to listen to perspectives different from mine, how to build consensus, how to argue for positions I might not personally agree with. That's training for engaging with the world as it actually is, not as we wish it were.
To my friends who've supported this chaotic journey, thank you for understanding when I couldn't hang out because I had deadlines. Thank you for listening to me talk about projects you probably found boring. Thank you for celebrating the wins and commiserating over the failures. Thank you for keeping me grounded when I got too stressed about everything I was trying to do. Having people who know me as just Nikesh—not as achievements or projects, just as a person—has been more important than I realized.
To everyone who's engaged with my content—watched a YouTube video, listened to a podcast episode, read a blog post—thank you for giving my learning documentation your time and attention. Thank you especially to those who commented, who shared what helped them, who asked questions that made me think harder. Knowing that documenting my messy learning process might help even one other person makes the vulnerability of creating in public feel worthwhile. You've taught me that sharing what you don't know yet is more valuable than pretending expertise you don't have.
To the founders I met at GITEX who took time to talk to a random student who couldn't offer them anything professionally, thank you. You didn't have to stop and explain your businesses to someone who was just curious. You didn't have to share the hard parts, the failures, the pivots that didn't work. But you did. Those conversations gave me a realistic picture of what building companies actually looks like, beyond the polished success stories. That honesty was generous and genuinely helpful.
To my extended family who've supported and encouraged me even when they weren't sure what exactly I was doing, thank you. Thank you for asking questions about my projects even when the answers were technical and confusing. Thank you for celebrating the small wins—getting into programs, finishing projects, learning new skills. Thank you for believing that unconventional paths can lead somewhere meaningful, even when the destination isn't clear yet.
I also want to acknowledge the privilege of having these opportunities in the first place. I'm fortunate to have parents who can support my education, access to programs like Scaler and Master's Union, the ability to take internships that might be unpaid or low-paid, the resources to attend conferences in other countries. Not everyone has these opportunities, and I don't take that for granted. The fact that I can explore different interests, try things and fail, learn from experiences beyond my classroom—that's a privilege. I'm aware of it, grateful for it, and I hope to use what I'm learning to eventually create opportunities for others too.
To everyone who saw potential in me before I saw it in myself, thank you. To everyone who pointed out my gaps in knowledge without making me feel inadequate, thank you. To everyone who pushed me to try harder without making me feel like my best wasn't enough, thank you. To everyone who shared their own struggles and failures so I'd know mine were normal, thank you. To everyone who answered my questions patiently even when they were basic, thank you. To everyone who gave feedback that was critical but constructive, thank you. To everyone who believed I could figure things out even when I wasn't sure, thank you.
I'm 17, still learning, still making mistakes, still figuring out what I want to do with all this knowledge I'm accumulating. I don't know where this path leads exactly. But I know I'm not walking it alone. Every project I've worked on, every skill I've developed, every lesson I've learned—none of it happened in isolation. It happened because people gave their time, knowledge, patience, and support to someone who was just trying to learn.
So thank you. For everything. For believing in curiosity. For supporting exploration. For teaching me that learning is a lifelong process and that it's okay to not have everything figured out at 17. For showing me what's possible when you're willing to try, fail, learn, and try again.
I hope to pay it forward someday. To be the person who gives someone else a chance. To share knowledge patiently with someone who's still learning. To create opportunities for others the way opportunities have been created for me. To be generous with time and guidance the way so many people have been generous with me.
But for now, all I can say is: Thank you. This journey is just beginning, and I'm grateful to everyone who's been part of it so far.
Connect: www.creativenikesh.com | nikeshcreative@gmail.com
Because nothing we accomplish is truly individual—it's built on the foundation of everyone who believed in us along the way.