Bye Bye 2000s
A ton of stuff happens in a decade. Really, I started as a little kid recovering from an accident and now I'm a wannabe entrepreneur (because you only turn into one when you succeed). So here's a quick recap of my life in the last 10 years. Yup, I was 12 now I'm 22. (pretty obvious way to start right?)
2000: It started with me getting into Form II and the girl I had a crush on for the rest of my high school life arrived (she never knew and if she ever get's to read this then she knows). It was a pretty fun year. As a kid you've got nothing to worry about. 2001: The first hints that I didn't like some rules showed up. I got into some trouble in school (minimal) and also it's the first time I participated on the Inter House Football (Soccer) tournament. 9/11 came during Math class and Mr. Willis explained us some thing about what was going on, came home and watched CNN all night just to be updated. Yes, in 2001 we watched TV for news. 2002: The year were my life started to change. I realized that being a shy kid (barely speaking) was not going to take me anywhere so I made a huge effort to try and open myself to other people. I went to the confirmation retreat (I was a catholic then. Religion Status at 2009 = Pending) and met lot's of friends. By the end of 2002 I ended up joining the group organizing the retreats. (I think here is where I discovered I may like to put conferences together). 2003: The year started with an epic visit to the beach with my school friends.Last year of High School. I decided I was going to study Industrial Engineering got into University of Lima. Finally got my own computer (not shared with anyone) and I fell in love with the Internet and Playing games. Became a Hardware geek. Year full or parties. While Web 2.0 was in the making I decided the web had a whole lot of potential. 2004: First year of University, didn't like it. Got into a relationship that supported me through that transition year. Decided I was going to change colleges and major. Ended up in UPC studying International Business (much more close to what I liked). Discovered lot's of fun videos on the internet. Got my first iPod (and decided I could be a Mac someday) 2005: New Major, New University, New Life. Realized I liked sports (after being the kid that hated P.E on School) became a Cetified Spinning Instructor (just to prove everybody wrong). Became part of major Forums on the internet about the web, wrestling and cycling. Spending New Year's Eve at the beach with my friends became a habit. The internet allowed me to be in touch with my highschool friends. 2006: My grandma died on the first week of the year. She was very close to me, almost as my second mom. I realized I was ready to start doing big things. Had the usual crisis of thinking if I had chosen the correct major. Signed for Globalization class at university. Read Tom Friedman's book and my life changed. I confirmed that the internet had a huge potential and started liking it a lot. 2007: The year was calm I discovered Epic Fu (then Jetset) and there was this thing called Twitter (WTF is that?). Decided to take a break from the internet to enjoy offline life (5 Months of break) On December 31st while at the beach Samuel, Javier & me decided to form JGD Consulting (to make things fit). 2008: Realized I couldn't life without the internet. Joined Twitter and started discovering awesome people. What started with Epic Fu followed by the discovery of Diggnation and Wine Library TV. Got inspired by this people and decided to start a company other than my consulting firm. Found Horse Pig Cow and fell in love with the concept of Whuffie and learned a lot about it in that year. Made new friends that will eventually become my business partners again.Starting to shift my thinking. JGD went on standby and Samuel's first child was born (I've know Samuel since kindergarten and this was a shocker to me as I realized suddenly we were not kids anymore) Another high school friend Luis joined JGD, while he was still at the university in New York City. Decided that opening a coworking space in Lima was a possibility. 2009: Theme Word: Change. My career was pointing towards something boring, decided not to do that anymore. . I still could't move on to another relationship after the one i had ended. Realized I was still young so stopped worrying about that. JGD was reborn with a new logo and a new spirit. Changed what I wanted to so and started learning lot's of stuff around technology, business and marketing in this new information age. Discovered Project VRM and loved the concept. Started building a couple of startups that will launch in 2010 and 2011. Met Michael Cummings and Kristine Gloria that came from Texas to Peru, they encouraged us to open the coworking space in Lima and made good friends with them. Finally met Bradley Joyce that also came from Texas and jumped on board on a project that it's to start operating next week. I've changed a lot this past decade. How have you changed? What do you expect this new decade to bring?For me the 2010s will be even better! Let's go for them!
