This is very similar to my story. I moved to America from Ireland in 2007 after graduating with a degree in cs. I did a year in grad school before working in tech in the Bay Area for more than a decade, including at two companies from FAANG. I also ran a consulting business and for the last 3 years worked at Coinbase.
I don’t consider myself in anyway special. I know many people from Europe who went down this path.
The sad reality is that in Europe software engineers don’t get paid very well relative to the value they create. It’s a lot better today in my home country Ireland than it was a decade or so ago but salaries and opportunities are still nowhere near as good as in the USA.
Unless you are very lucky, if you want to make a lot of money and work with the top people in your profession, you will have to move. This will likely involve risk and personal sacrifice. If I was to distill this guys journey into a high level formula it would be as follows:
1) Pick a fast growing industry you are interested in.
2) Move to the area which pays you the most and where the most opportunities are.
3) work with top people and adapt your career based on what you see them do.
4) live reasonably, save and invest.
I see a lot of people from Europe in the comments saying this is unrealistic or that it would be hard to replicate this success doing the same thing today. I disagree.
While the specifics of the plan might be different for todays 20 year olds. I.e specialize in cryptocurrency or machine learning or fintech. The overall approach is still valid, it just involves a lot of sacrifices and risks you may not be willing to take.