Years ago, a critique changed my life.
I want to share this story because not everyone has had the bittersweet blessing of receiving a bucket of cold water like that. Somehow, we’ve been trained to immediately reject criticism, even categorizing it as constructive or destructive, when in reality, that only depends on how we receive and respond to it. In my case, the critique wasn’t just cruel—it was completely true. Let me tell you about it.
One day, I was chatting with my friend and brother, Jonathan Solis, about an idea, and that’s when he dropped the bomb. He mentioned that “someone” (I never found out who) had said this about me when they heard about my project: “Ah, David Azofeifa… great at starting things.” I was speechless. Hurt. Angry. But as the days went by, I began to realize that this person was absolutely right.
In my self-reflection, I recalled several unpleasant truths. The first was my abandoned university studies. In 1995, I enrolled in Computer Engineering at the Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica (TEC), located in Cartago, a province and city in Costa Rica. However, my immaturity, mixed with the distance and the fog of Cartago, ultimately got the best of me. I tried transferring my IT studies to the Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR), where I had also attempted to study Economics. But in the end, I chose to work, and over the years, I couldn’t pull away from the paycheck. This situation worsened as I took on massive debts because of foolish decisions (that’s another story and testimony altogether).
I also remembered other “abandons” in my life—family, emotional, spiritual, friendships, ideas (like the incredible CRISTO.NET project that was born in a conversation with my dear friend Boris Cabezas and survived only thanks to the life-saving intervention of my friend Walter Quesada). What memories!
When I married Melissa in 2009, I was still carrying feelings of failure from the things I hadn’t finished. There I was, with no degree, married to a woman with a master’s in Aesthetic Operative Dentistry! But one day, she said something that changed my life. She told me, “David, why don’t you go back to school? Since I’m a professor at Universidad Latina de Costa Rica (U Latina), you’d get a 40% scholarship.” I didn’t think twice. It had been a desire for years, and the person I loved most in the world was giving me her vote of confidence.
I’ll never forget the day I went to TEC to request my transcripts to transfer my credits to U Latina. Every square meter, every building, every hallway of that place screamed at me that I was a failure. It felt as if the entire TEC was mocking me. It was a devastating experience I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
That was the beginning of my restoration. In 2010, I started studying Information Technology for Business Management (my wife still teases me about how long the name of my degree is), and I graduated in December 2016. Imagine my joy! Even though I was one of the oldest graduates at the ceremony, I had finally done it! I immediately enrolled in a master’s program in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, which I completed in October 2018. It felt like I had finally redeemed the lost time. Earning those degrees opened doors to my “promised land” career—the company I had dreamed of working for all my life: Microsoft.
Why am I sharing all of this? Because I know many of you have unfulfilled dreams. Because I know receiving criticism isn’t easy. Because I understand that not all of us have had the same hurdles to overcome. Because I know some of you feel resigned to the idea that your time has passed, tangled in circumstances that drained your resources, energy, and priorities. Because some of you need to hear that THERE IS HOPE, and it’s still possible to shake off what your circumstances and past are telling you.
And because I know that absolutely EVERYTHING, good and bad, that has happened in my life is meant to be shared—it carries lessons that not only I needed to learn.
I’m extending a hand because I, too, had people along the way who helped me move forward. If you want to talk about old dreams and abandoned projects, let’s chat. If no one believes in your ideas anymore or you feel like your time has passed, let’s talk. Speaking from personal experience: not everything is lost!