My current status: CTO of an online education company.

How did you get your current job or startup?

> Friend's recommendation.

Did you go to college? Dropout?

> Yes, top 1 university in China. And yes for dropout, I quit my master when there was about 3 months close to my M.E. degree.

If your did go to college, have you ever failed a course?

> No.

Did you have to move to a different country?

> No.

How did you manage that and what was (in general) the biggest obstacle/low-point of your journey so far?

> I worked for a U.S. based company for almost 8 years and they kicked me out for bad performance when I didn't work as much as before (at least 12 hours per day, 7 days a week) because my son got seriously ill and I needed time to take care of him. Then I did some freelancing but got a really bad agency (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10433237). I lost my job, my savings and almost my son too.

During then, I was close to lose hope of life for several times. But my family kept me up. We lived a very low cost life for about half a year, during when I did some work for a friend who runs a small business and used that income together with my wife's (totally a little lower than 3000 USD per month) to support a family of four. You may think that was not a small amount but Beijing's living cost is very close to SF. That barely covered the rent, food, clothing and tuition.

I kept doing the contracting job for my friend and I did it well. I worked 20 hours a day and managed to get one of his projects done within 1 month instead of 2 that we agreed on. I had to because that was the only way for me to generate enough income. I kept this performance and workload. He was impressed and later on when a friend of his asked about a candidate for CTO position, he recommended me. Now I have built up a team and work very happily. I am paying off my debts month by month.

I think I may have been slightly off topic. It's just I feel I need to tell someone my experience. Life had been tough on me for the past 2015 but I am glad I never gave up, and have a supportive family.