2020: the year I decided to start writing

Internet is awesome! You literally can find anything you need, don't need, want, or dream of, with a browser and a device. It is mind blowing. It can be use for bad, but when used for good, it is amazing. For me, in addition to my professional world, it is becoming an instrumental part of how I learn (more to come on next posts). I found myself more and more watching motivational, videos on YouTube, TedTalks, conferences, podcasts... and this question started to come up: who are these people and why are they doing this? They are crazy! Where is that passion coming from? What does Bill and Melinda Gates, Brene Brown, Warren Buffet, Ray Dalio, Michelle Obama, Rafa Nadal, Pau Gasol, Kobe Bryant (RIP), Regina Barzilay, Elisabeth Rosenthal, Simon Sinek, or Will Smith have in common, besides being human beings? They could be at the beach having a drink or doing 1000 things other than writing blogs, giving inspirational interviews or jumping to philanthropic projects or building their foundations. Why do they feel the need to do this? I thought about it over and over for the past months. Listened to their answers to those questions. And they all came down to the same fundamental human being purpose: to help others and give back to the community. They all are, in their own way, trying to inspire others to be the best version of themselves. 

Ok, got it. Makes sense. I can buy that. Wouldn't it be nice if I did it too? I also want to help, give back and inspire people! But come on David, you could not be more different from them. They are the best of the best among their careers and lives. They have plenty of stories to tell, but you? Who are you? Nobody knows you and probably would not care what you have to say. Those demons we all have kicked off back and forth, yes, no, yes, no. But wait, there are a lot of other people who follow the same principle and you are getting a lot from them. You are learning from their skills and the way they do things and think about them. Are you really that different from them all? Who knows, they may even like doing it and is actually fun. Ok let's try, why not, what is the worst thing that can happen, other than social media humiliation... :) 

So I decided to give it a shot and write a LinkedIn post announcing this was coming, thinking it would not be a big deal, at all. This is what I was expecting: "Sure, yet another person among the millions of people writing and telling their stories, hoping to either satisfy their ego and become famous or make money, or if we are lucky, someone trying to do the right thing, in a poorly way". That is fair, and it is how I feel about a bunch of people and things I ran into in the Internet knowledge pond (that is not what I will try to do, I can promise you that). Even worse, I am not a writer, I am not serious enough to be academic and I know very little about just a few things that in the broader scope of the world, don't really matter much. David, your life as a writer will be over pretty soon. But then something magic happened. 100 reactions and 8000 views in 24 hours. 150+ and 11.000+ by the end of the week. People sending me DM and emails saying they felt really inspired by that and they are thinking on writing their stories too... Wait, what is going on? There may be something here. Oh gosh, I guess now I can not back off, I better come up with something that does not "suck", soon!

Well, here we are. Last Monday was my 39th birthday. Or how I usually joke with my friends: "Thirty and all". Getting very close to THE year, according to "Friends". Reality is, I feel better than ever. I am healthy, found the love of my life, have friends and family and an amazing community supporting me, and having fun career wise. I am so privileged and lucky that sometimes I have to halt, pinch myself and stop worrying or getting annoyed by a simple, stupid, minor issue, while saying to myself: "first world problems"!

So, in summary, what better than a new decade to start a project like this! Here is my first try. Take it as an introduction and please assume positive intention! Here we go!