Beyond any reasonable doubt, everyone can say that the world is moving rapidly fast. Even for folks like me (Gen Z) who grew up in a fast world, currently, it seems things are much faster now we are in the age of Gen Alpha. Especially since the recent Artificial Intelligence boom. Currently, we have Devin, an AI tool built by software engineers to replace software engineers. Who would have thought that? I think it’s time I look into farming or maybe become a full-time vigilante, as it seems AI is coming for all of our jobs. Chuckles in hysteria.
I grew up with access to the internet at an early age for someone in my country and despite not having a guide per se, I surfed around the internet, looking for pieces of knowledge that fascinated me. Some were perfectly okay for someone my age, while some, I admit, were not too great. I was pretty much in the know about recent trends, from when smartphones began to make waves, to smart homes, which I grew up wanting, to 5G connectivity.
One thing was sure, things did move fast and broke fast. This was quite evident in work culture too, as when I joined the world’s workforce, startups were the hot thing, and they still are. Working in one meant one thing and one thing only, “move fast, learn fast.” It became a norm for the hustle culture to creep in, after all, we all had bills to pay. However, I won’t be speaking for everyone because I know some people have different experiences. For me, I had to work if I didn’t want to go hungry (I might go hungry soon, send help).
My current reality.
I entered 2024 with high expectations. Who wouldn’t want the next year to be better than the previous one? And I did have plans for it, plans I have executed, plans on pause, plans that have been updated and even new plans that have been added. One thing is evident, the world is moving fast and if you do not find a way to keep up, you might get shifted to the background.
We live in a world where visibility counts so much more than quality. There’s a saying here that says, “The empty vessel makes the loudest noise.” Also, one that says. “Closed mouths don't get fed.” Now coming across both statements is bound to keep you in a dilemma of making noise to get fed or risking being discovered to be an “empty vessel”. However, you can be both, loud and also a full vessel. I knew what to do but bringing myself to do it has been the difficult part. I am very good at what I do and I knew I just had to market myself much better and the magic would happen. The problem however is I suck at that very much.
Talking about one of my plans which came up this year, I decided to execute some projects in February. I pretty much make crazy and odd decisions, because who decides to embark on highly capital-intensive projects in the early part of the year? Although I plan on writing an article discussing this part, here is a little glimpse of what happened. Electricity in my area is piss poor and sometimes I go for 4 days without any sign of electricity from my provider. I installed a small solar inverter setup and I get an average of 10 hours of electricity daily, which lasts longer on days I have supply from the grid. But obviously, this wasn’t enough and because electricity greatly affects my productivity, if I was going to execute most of my 2024 plans, I needed as much electricity as possible, I needed an uninterrupted 24/7 power supply. So I decided to liquidate 95% of my savings from last year into this and some side projects too.
Giving you my get rich or fail trying plan for free.
Now, I am sharing this with you and you might wonder, why do I do this? I just happen to have a habit of sharing, despite being raised in a community that has a strong silence culture. Which I find weird because, despite us being a loud society in terms of things like weddings, birthdays, house warmings etc. things I find more important like, guidance, salary band, job description etc. are met with silence most times.
Back to my plans before I lose track of my thoughts. I plan to do a LOT this year. I do have some doubts about the possibility of achieving all of them but something I have learnt over the years with me is to always trust my gut especially when I want to take gambles like this. I have had a good 5-year career run, which has revolved around community building, project management and operations. As much as I see myself as a generalist, having read Range: Why Generalist Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein, I still try to tailor my job description around the intersection of those roles above. I happen to find out that people and friends find me very dependable, especially when it comes to my work ethic.
Something else I like and enjoy doing is what I am currently doing, writing. I find it my easiest and natural way of expressing my thoughts with a lot of people. Words are very special, it could be the difference in making someone have a beautiful day or a horrible day. This is why I am always careful with what I say, mindful of the effect of my words. As they say, words are like toothpaste, once you let them out of the tube, you can’t put them back successfully. So I do not over-promise or say things I don’t do, my word is my bond. Sorry for digressing.
I have been learning Webflow for some weeks although at a slow pace. It’s a no-code platform I have been interested in and I see it as a good skill for freelancing. I also want to start writing and get paid for it too. So for the coming Q2, my goal is to upskill crazily and start reaching out to potential clients. I need to have more sources of income because the inflation my country is facing is one that just one or even two sources of income won’t be enough to sustain an individual, talk more of a new family. I’m also going to be doing some bit of gambling by trading in some coins for the first time. People think I trade but in reality, all the money I have made from the web3 community has been from jobs and gigs. Lambo or Okada, it’s just Day 1.
I look forward to speaking on these developments sometime in the future. I could be a madman or a fool, who knows?
Cover Photo by Randy Tarampi on Unsplash
