Two things.

1. I got sick of people thinking I was stupid just because I was an admin clerk in the USAF.

2. One day as I sat keypunching I suddenly saw our remote mainframe printer start shooting paper across the room.

Two thoughts shot through my mind: "I can do better than this, and I can do better than that."

I still remember the satisfaction I felt a year or so later when I told the Lieutenant Colonel in charge of my section that I was going to be a programmer. He laughed and said "Your not smart enough to be a programmer."

I slapped my orders for Programmer Tech School at Keesler AFB on his desk and said "Well, I passed the entrance test and the Air Force thinks differently. You've got three weeks to find my replacement."

Nothing beats the look of a stunned ex-fighter pilot desk jockey.