10 tips to 10X your career in 10???
This is going to be a little long, but give yourself a chance to read and enjoy. I decided to write this article in two versions, one in English and the other in Portuguese, the national language of my country (Angola), to give Portuguese speakers opportunities to access this content, which I found useful and interesting. Let start
This is the third time I’ve seen this presentation, and it’s gotten better and better, so I couldn’t resist writing what I thought of it. The first time I came into contact with this presentation was in a space on Twitter or currently X . There was someone I know (Aniedi Udo-Obong) and admire as a guest and the topic seemed interesting to me, I gave me the chance to enter the space and listen. And I don’t regret it.
The second time I had the opportunity to see this presentation was at DevFest Kigali in Rwanda, when I had the opportunity to participate for the second time in the SSA Community Summit, to give you context, I am a GDG organizer and Women Techmakers ambassador in Luanda, Angola. Let me tell you that I still have the link to the first slide and this time it was better than before. The conversation around the slide was as incredible as the first time, but this time I had the opportunity to listen and see.
This third time I had the pleasure of watching it on Aniedi's LinkedIn profile, I don’t know who filmed the presentation, but let me say thank you, after watching the video I immediately thought about taking the time to write this article, after internalizing this presentation three times. Let’s start 😁
10 Tips to 10X your career in 10 years
Here Aniedi said that we need to know the difference between wanting and needing. What we need we already have with us. I believe that to start any work we want to do we already have with us all the necessary tools to carry out the intended task. For example, if you want to have a Macbook to start programming, but you have an old HP computer with you, you have the tool at hand to start programming, and you cannot wait until you have the Macbook to start. Here he gives the example of someone who built an app with an Android phone, won a hackathon, and was able to buy their first computer. And today I was listening to a podcast and someone was sharing his experience about how he became a developer and how he started his journey without a computer as well.
Two important lessons in this part: “Everyone has their own different journey.” “The path you’re following, just complete it, completed that path”.
Here he refers to one of the problems that those who want to start in technology face. The amount of information is so much that we feel lost, often not knowing which course to take, which program to use, or which language to learn. And when someone comes and tells us that they are learning X and have done well with it, we end up following that person without finishing what we started to do. The advice here is: “The path you’re following, just complete it, completed that path”. Ignore the external noise and focus on what you started and what you want to learn.
The first time I heard “When you teach, 2 people are learning” it blew my mind, I stopped for a while to reflect on these words and they make a lot of sense. Just share what you are learning, it sounds like a cliché, but sharing what we learn is one of the best ways to learn. Aniedi here says that before teaching someone you need to review what you are going to teach and that is true, you learn from the person that you teach.
Share with video, article, post, giving explanations, just share. That’s what I’m doing, I’m sharing right now what I learned from this presentation, and this is one of the ways I found to keep this knowledge with me and help other people learn about it. Just share.
To put it in context, I looked for two short definitions: A sprinter is a short-distance runner. A marathon runner is a long-distance runner.
The idea here is not to learn JavaScript in 24 hours or master machine learning in 4 hours. Learning is a marathon and takes time (hours, days, weeks, months, and years). Building an incredible company takes years, and building a successful career takes years, it’s a long journey and we are always looking to be better than yesterday. This reminded me of a conversation I had with Alexandre Juca that ended with two pieces of advice to improve my career: “In the first years you have to be focused, deliberate, slow but learning. After a lot of practice and mastering the basics, you can reach a higher level. To master something you need to have the discipline to learn daily, and have patience not to give up along the way”. Everything we want to create, especially a career, is necessary to win the marathon, it is a daily process of small learning, practices, and actions that in the end we will be able to see the complete picture. It’s like the pixel, small units, one after the other, and in the end a set of pixels with various colors form the entire image we see.
How long have we been looking for the perfect work to show the world? I hope to learn Angular well to build a website that has 10 features and after that, I will publish it, I hope to have all my features to launch my MVP and see if my product solves any problems or not. “Done is better than perfect. Just do it!” Here Anied mentions products and companies that we know very well today and that spend their time constantly working to update their products. I followed Aniedi’s advice and googled (not chatGPT) the first version of the Google, Facebook, and Amazon websites, and the only thing I can say is wow, it’s improved a lot. But they still launched. “Finish the product, put it out there, let people see it, get different feedback, and improve it.”
This reminds me of a quote from the philosopher Seneca “If a man does not know which port he embarks for, no wind is favorable.”
Between choosing which career to pursue, and which language to learn, and living in this infinite loop of not making a decision, making a decision. Based on the information you’ve already collected, simply decide what you want to do and start embarking on the journey. You can’t put off for years something you say you want to do and never do. Choose, learn and as Aniedi says, if you realize it’s not what you want to do, then you can change. But first, make the decision.
Remember that not making a decision is also making a decision. Wasting time in indecision has consequences.
I can’t remember where I heard this phrase, but it was basically what Aniedi said: “What brought you here won’t necessarily take you from where you are to where you want to go.” To get to where we want to be, we have to make sacrifices, give up some things to focus on others and dare to make difficult decisions that we often don’t understand why. “To get what you have never gotten before, you need to do what you have never done before”.
“If you double down, you make an effort, if you put yourself into the work, if you put yourself in, if you speak up, ask for mentoring. If you do what you’ve never done before to try to achieve something, you have a very good chance of achieving something you’ve never achieved before. You have to do the best you can to elevate your game”. You will likely get what you have never gotten before.
“One day or Day one you decide.” At the end of the day, it’s your decision, it’s your life, it’s your dream, and your career. You decide what to do. Thank you!
Conclusion
I want to thank Aniedi for this incredible presentation, which I had the pleasure of seeing 3 times, and which made me reflect deeply on every word and teaching. It is not easy to create a career in technology, but with a lot of dedication, effort, discipline, commitment, and love in what we do, it is possible little by little, day by day, to build our little image. Thank you for being that person who inspires and shares knowledge with many young people across the African continent and the world.
Some links to help improve your public presentation, are shared by Aniedi.