The Roots You Cannot See

On faith, rejection, and deciding to build.

The year 2025 met me being unemployed, and the doors kept closing. The reasons ranged from interviewers believing I would not stay long because the salary was below what I was used to even with my willingness to take on the job. Others pointed to a certification I did not have. And then there was the one nobody says out loud but everyone knows, the age bias, since I am past 51. One door after another, each with a polite reason, all of them closed. I explored for a short time, working at a call center but the required effort and reward made the experience feel like a trap where I did not see how I could once again be fully on my feet, it was just a drain mentally and physically leaving with no energy to explore side projects to supplement.

I never experienced this before. I will be honest, doubt visited me often. When you have years of experience and knowledge and you still hear no, it is easy to wonder if the problem is you. It is easy to keep waiting by a door that is not going to open.

What kept me strong was my faith in God, and memories of past lessons I had. I remember how God provided for me in the past and that reminded me that the future would be the same but there was a new lesson I needed to learn from my present situation. I remembered a story told about the bamboo tree and the lesson we can learn and apply to challenging times. When it is growing, it does not look like there is any progress. There are no new leaves, no new branches, nothing on the surface to show what is happening on the inside. But below the roots are spreading and growing, getting stronger, and that is the most important thing. When the bamboo finally shoots up, fast and tall, the roots are ready to hold it firm. If the root is not stable first, the plant collapses under its own height.

I realized I had been treating closed doors as the end of the story, when really they were the unseen part of the root. The years of experience, the knowledge, the skills I had been building all along, none of it was wasted. It was the root system, just not visible yet.

I remember a story in the Bible, Exodus 4:1-5, when Moses doubted that the Israelites would listen to him and believe God was using him to lead them, God's response was "What is that in your hand?" For me it was my years of experience, the skills I had developed, the solutions I have built to solve problems, the mindset and understanding that would make me able to meet any scenario with information technology and cybersecurity so I was not limited by what I may not know because I had developed a system to adapt, understand and address any situation. I stopped waiting. I stopped doubting. I decided that if no one would hand me a seat at their table, I would build my own. I took everything I knew about cybersecurity and started building a brand, and one day, I believe, a company, but for now I am walking and will soon begin running. I called my brand Masada Hardening, after the ancient fortress that stood firm and did not fall. I liked that story and saw it as a fitting name for my vision, a stronghold, something built to hold under pressure, which is exactly what hardening a system means.

I am still early in this, and the outward growth is only beginning to show. But I am not waiting anymore. I am building, root first, and I know that what I cannot yet see is holding what is coming.

The growth you can see is held up by the roots you cannot see.