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N=1 Overview

And Suddenly Nothing Was the Same

Written by

Janina Brechtel
Illustration: A woman with long curls, seen from behind, sits at a wooden table in the evening, working on a laptop with program code on the screen. Next to her lies the book “Programmieren für Anfänger” (programming for beginners). On the wall hangs a framed picture with the saying: “Manchmal musst du einen gewagten Schritt machen, um zu erkennen, dass hinter der Furcht die Freiheit wohnt.” (Sometimes you have to take a bold step to realise that freedom lies beyond fear.)
Image: AI-generated

It was one of the biggest decisions of my life. Everyone around me argued for security – single mother, responsible for two daughters, chronically ill and officially recognised as severely disabled. On paper, I had done everything right.

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But inside I was dissatisfied. After so many years I had reached the top pay grade – no more professional or financial development. And yet almost half of my working life still lay ahead of me. Well, so I simply quit. Because for years, this one project had been stuck in my head …

At first I wanted to learn everything properly, so I tried to get the employment agency to fund a retraining as an IT specialist. My caseworker saw things differently and turned me down at first. In the meantime, of course, I wanted to prepare as much as I could and started dipping my toes into programming.

I bought a beginner’s book on programming, which I opened for the first time on 1 March 2025. Weeks went by as I worked my way through it: variables, if statements, loops and so on.

Because I’m pretty stubborn, I didn’t give up after the first rejection, of course, and made two more attempts with my caseworker – which unfortunately also ended in rejection.

Well, how do I put this. When I got the final no, I was pretty fed up, and that’s when I decided to skip it and push my project through without the retraining.

At the beginning of August the time had come – I had booked an initial consultation on self-employment at the Chamber of Commerce (IHK) and was able to show my project on a computer for the first time. I was so incredibly nervous, I could barely use the mouse because my hands were so shaky and sweaty. Yes, I was really scared.

Ms Gopp, the start-up advisor, was so kind and genuinely impressed by how far I had already come with the development. She immediately told her colleague, the expert for health topics, to arrange a meeting for me. He in turn put me in touch with a project manager from a start-up centre and told me I absolutely had to go to the MDR Forum – an event all about the EU Medical Device Regulation.

Selfie of Janina Brechtel wearing a name badge reading “Start-up Gründerin” (start-up founder) at the 9th MDR Forum.
My first MDR Forum (9th MDR Forum, 2025)

From then on, nothing was the same …

N=1 Overview