When I was 16 I had to redo my year in high school because I flunked 10 out of 12 classes that did not interest me (languages and economics, I only passed my native language course and sports). I was forced to change orientation and I chose electronics/ICT because "I spent a lot of time on the computer (playing games)" and that was the only computer-related orientation that was available. That year I discovered C++ and labview, figured out programming machines was my thing, suddenly passed all classes without having to study. Around that time (circa 2004-5) I got hold of those Ubuntu disks, messed up my only desktop machine trying to install it (wiped drives, broken Xorg, that kind of stuff), learned a lot trying to get everything back up and it snowballed from there.

Fast forward a few years to college, still passing classes without studying because I had to "understand it" instead of "study it". Moved on from Ubuntu to Gentoo and learned a lot more.

Fast forward 12 years and now I'm a freelance backend/devops guy working mostly for healthcare companies, trying to use my skills for good after I got sick of money-chasing in ad-tech companies.

Also, I was really lucky to have a couple of good senior mentors during my first 5-7 years of working. (Thanks @gbin if you ever read this). Now I'm mentor to some junior devs.

In hindsight, flunking all those classes in high school due to lack of interest was necessary for me to discover my true calling.