 Kim Swift steeled herself. Her team of students were setting up a presentation at one of the most prestigious games developers in the world. The pressure was on. They needed to make the case for why their little game was better than anything these seasoned professionals had seen before. Little did Kim know it, but her presentation was about to change the face of gaming forever. As a high school student, Kim Swift had a passion for video games. She liked to see how they fit together and enjoyed solving the puzzles they offered. After a while, this passion developed into a desire to understand them better and then to develop her own games. Kim started taking programming classes in her spare time to get a better understanding of what goes on under the surface in games. When it became time to think about her future, it was a no-brainer. Kim was going to be a game developer and she had a plan to make it happen. She was accepted to study at DigiPen, a prestigious computing school that would put her in a perfect place to enter the video games industry. Besides, their campus was right across the street from Nintendo of America and that was pretty cool. Kim quickly made friends at DigiPen and a small team of fellow students began working on various group assignments together. Each year at DigiPen, they needed to create a video game that made use of the new skills they were being taught. For their final year project, the team wanted to make something that would really stand out. They needed to find jobs after graduating and the best way to do this was to make a game that worked as a portfolio piece. Getting a head start on their final project, the team swapped ideas over the summer. Inspired by Doctor Who, they came up with the idea of a game about traveling between spaces and moving into rooms that were bigger on the inside. As work on the game drew to a close, a big event loomed on the team's horizon. Every year, DigiPen held a special expo where students could showcase some of their projects. It wasn't unheard of for big name industry professionals to drop by, so the expo was the perfect chance to try and make connections and hunt for jobs. Nervously, the team set up their game and awaited the possibilities that the event might bring. They didn't have to wait too long before one of the most distinguished guests of the event, Robin Walker, came over to talk to the group. Robin worked for Val, one of the biggest names in gaming, and the creators of such hit titles as Half-Life and Counter-Strike. Excitedly, the group showed off their special portal-based game mechanic to Robin, hoping that he'd find it interesting. His response wasn't exactly what they were hoping for. Robin began listing everything that they'd done wrong, from design elements to art assets. Most importantly, he said, the game was far, far too brown. It looked like quake gone horribly wrong. Politely, Robin left the team with his business card and hurried off to look at other projects. Nobody else of interest appeared at the team's booth. The event concluded without incident, and everyone headed home to begin the gruelling process of job hunting. Except, of course, there was Robin's business card. A member of the team decided to email Robin, hoping for additional feedback on ways to improve their game. If nothing else, it would be good to make a friend at Valve. To everyone's surprise, Robin emailed back, inviting the group to bring their game personally to Valve's office so that they could make a full presentation and get feedback in person. This was incredibly kind of him, the team thought. He'd probably seen so many games at the expo that he didn't know which one was theirs and needed a reminder. The day of their presentation came and the team were invited to set up their equipment in one of the conference rooms at Valve. This seemed promising. Maybe they'd be presenting their game to more people than just Robin. He might have invited a colleague or two to see their game as well. A couple of people came and took seats in the room. Then a couple more. A few at a time, the entire room filled to overflowing. Kim and the others weren't sure what was going on. Finally, before the presentation could begin, a very special guest arrived. Gabe Newell, the head of the company, squeezed past the crowd of people to take a seat right at the front of the room. Trying her best not to be nervous, Kim began her presentation, while one of her teammates stood behind her at the controls of the game to show everyone their engaging portal mechanic. After only 10 minutes though, Gabe Newell called for them to stop. He'd seen it enough. Kim's heart raced. Had their presentation really been that bad? Gabe was a busy man, so if he needed to be elsewhere, it made sense that he wouldn't sit through a dull game. I don't know who you people are, said Gabe, but I want to hire you. Shell shocked. The team stood in silence. Gabe shepherded them into another room where he discussed their new project, rebuilding their entire game in the Valve game engine. The team's near total silence continued as they thanked Gabe, and quietly made their way out of the building. It was only when they reached the car park that they erupted into joyous cheers, spending over 20 minutes excitedly celebrating and far too hyped up to focus on anything. They'd done it! They had landed jobs at one of the most prestigious game developers in the world. The rest was history. Working with Valve's writers and staff, Kim went on to lead development of Portal, a puzzle game that used their mechanic and that quickly became one of the most popular video games of the past 10 years. The moral of this story is simple. Take time to learn about the things that you love, follow your passions, and you'll soon find where you're meant to be in life. Be creative. It's important to remember that all it takes to truly succeed is just one really, really good idea. Like thinking with portals.