Reflections on 2019 !!

Reflecting on the year 2019 that was, I accomplished most of what was achievable by me, made a few changes personally, learned much from experiences, enjoyed many blessings and to top it all, welcomed a new addition to the family. Looking forward to new beginnings, new opportunities, new friendships and also to being a better person. Sharing a few thoughts that I learned the past year.

1. MOVE AHEAD

Started focusing on this new journey called Lausdeo, just after leaving my previous venture. I realized you need to keep moving on, and after all, failure is the stepping stone to success. I had to upgrade my skills, from being CEO to managing onsite teams to doing administrative work to managing accounts considering how weak I am with numbers, and I finally learned to stand on my own two feet.

2. BALANCE

My job mostly involves travelling and so when we were expecting our second baby I was not sure how well I could balance family and work. But to my surprise, I was able to manage deadlines, timelines and project deliveries for multiple projects, simultaneously, making sure both clients and family were happy. I learned that its best to have a wholesome life rather than losing your joy without balance. If you are running on your track in life then everything should fall in place. Project deadlines, hardware deliveries, site limitations and family commitments may not be in your control and are not foreseeable but everything can be managed well if you are in the right physical, spiritual and mental state.

3. RECREATION

When I go abroad for onsite work, it is usually all about work. Even when I have an off day, I laze around watching TV or get that much-needed-extra sleep. But from last year, I decided to explore places rather than working all throughout or wasting a weekly off. And just like that, I saw dolphins in the ocean, did a road trip all the way up a mountain, saw the world’s biggest indoor waterfall and visited places of historic significance. When you have the opportunity to travel to different places of the world, why not make the best of it!

4. STRESS MANAGEMENT

My expertise is technical and so I am supposed to be well aware of the technical aspects of projects that I handle. Last year, for one of my projects, I did not do a proper plan up and arrived onsite only to find out that I did not know how to do a certain proprietary software programming though the language was a general purpose language. I obviously ended up in a soup, escalation after escalation, my worst nightmare! Later, the client was able to get the software for about a week and I spent some time learning it. I finally did the programming well and to my utter amazement, the manufacturer mentioned, after reviewing the final source code that even certified trained resources could not program better. So I realized that planning and preparing well, saves you time.

5. BUDGETING

Money makes the world go around but when you are self employed, you need to be good at financial management and accounting, to keep everything going strong. When you dont have a regular income, its essential that you stick to a budget so the operations of your company is not interrupted. In my case, I need to make sure that my employees are paid on time and also I can draw a certain salary, regularly.  When financial management is a priority, it does not matter if clients don’t pay on time or project schedules delay, the purpose of running your own firm is met.

Well, that’s a gist of what I went through in 2019 and it has been a steep learning experience. A bit of a roller coaster ride but when I look back, I would not appreciate the gain unless I went through the pain. Looking forward to greater victories in 2020. It will be a blast and I clearly don’t want to re-learn these lessons again!

Comment below on what your thoughts were on 2019 and what you are excited about doing in 2020 !