My success story starts like many others, with a failure.

I was 16 year old and had a strong desire to study at a high school in California. As a boy from Slovakia (Central Europe) it was an amazing possibility. I looked for opportunities but none of options got me really excited. I could pay around $10k (that’s way more than yearly average wage in Slovakia) to an agency but none were able to guarantee that I would end up in California.

I knew it could be done better so I created a small website called Host Me In California. On the site, I was seeking a host family for my next year of high school studies in California. Looking for a feedback I sent the site to few friends, and by the time I took a shower, my friend had passed it along and the first article about the site was published online. And that was just the beginning.

My other friend, posted the site on YC Hacker News with a title: “This 16yo boy from Eastern Europe has a better sales page than you”. The site started trending and soon became #1, and that was the moment when it all started. Paul Graham thought that was misleading and renamed it to: “Host me in California” and messaged my friend warning him: “Don’t rename your post!”

In one night, my website was seen by about 30k people, liked by more than 800 and tweeted by around 300. It got huge media attention all around the world and was on a national TV station [SK]. I got lots of emails with offers to host me and it was starting to blow my mind. I was young and made a lots of mistakes.

Mistake #1: From all offers I got, I chose a family in the Bay Area. He was an entrepreneur and she was a director of a startup in San Francisco. They seemed to be very excited to host me for the next year. We talked about what school I could attend, numerous things I could learn, how I’d go every to school every morning…

And then they simply changed their mind and told me it would be better for me to come to the US for my university studies. It was just about time to sort out paperwork, insurance and VISA. I gave up.

Mistake #2: Cutting out communication with other families while I talked to the best option. I learned it is better not to rush things while excited and wait with final agreement until everything is sort out. It’s still taking the same risk, but more coordinated even though it would require more effort on my side.