52

Today is my birthday. I am not stating this so that I receive the customary congratulatory pat in the back. I am here to share a reflexion.

Here I am, 52 years old. A career. 3 daughters. A wife. A life, with ups and downs. A lot of downs and an extraordinary amount of ups. That's life, I suppose. In general. A rollercoaster.

Seems it was just yesterday I was eager to get to 9PM so that I could meet my friends in the neighbourhood cafeteria. No smartphones needed. We just knew when and where to be. Life was simpler. Our main goal was to have fun. Those were the teens.

Then I started to do some jobs, camera in hand. I got some customers and was earning good money. Still, there was a lot of teen spirit in me. I only wish I had the foresight necessary to manage savings. I didn't. Nevertheless I continued to work, and party. At the same time, destiny had a plan for me. My eagerness in sharing my photos with the world led to a new career. First self taught and then, working in a government agency, I became a web developer. I had a "proper" job. Still having fun. I screwed my engagement because of that "fun". Party on, I said!

Until... I became a father. And this was some years after. Within 4 years, my new family grew. No more fun for me. Ah, but the idea of seeing my daughters grow... What a ride! I went from a grunge long haired metal banging photographer to a short hair going bald IT developer father of 3 in less that 7 years. (by the way, although bald, I still bang my head to metal today)

A few years after, my body started to feel the consequences of too much fun. At the same time I grew professionally. Became a Project Manager and eventually discovered (or was discovered by) Scrum and Agile. Mind blown. A new path to follow. Boy, did I follow it. I was studying to take the PMP certification and immediately put it aside. I dove into the deep end without even looking if I could swim in these waters. But I managed. Books, websites and exchanging ideas with some people helped me pull through.

Because I already had some experience in teaching HTML, CSS, JS and Project Management in a portuguese digital school I started to look for opportunities to teach Agile in Portugal. It was something completely new here. This was 2013/2014.

I have to say, the best thing I did to improve and learn Agile was to start teaching Agile. I needed to do constant research and to be able to understand what were the true sources, and put all the crap aside. It also allowed me to get to know some very important people. Started with key figures in the portuguese Agile panorama but was fortunate enough to get to know some of the authors of the manifesto and the books we all use as reference. And with some (thank you LinkedIn) I kept in touch. Others I came to know via LinkedIn as well. I have had the luck to exchange ideas with some enlighten minds and learn for all of them.

Simultaneously I built a career in some of the best companies to work in and with Agile. From the biggest media and retail in Portugal to some of the biggest in the world, crossing many different businesses. Extraordinary experiences back to back.

Fast forward to today.

We live, breath, and work in a world where we aim to become as invisible as possible, meaning, as our teams become more mature and need us less and less we progressively know we have done a good job. And in which we do not "produce" anything other than providing a structure and an environment for others to thrive in. In this world, what sort of impact do we think we will leave behind? When I speak with past companies, and past colleagues, I find that often we refer to a developer or a designer or someone who delivered something palpable as being the absolute MVPs. And often we do not mention Agile Coaches, Consultants, or Scrum Masters. Because they did what they were supposed to.

I am not saying that this applies to me necessarily but how many times did your company and your managers really took a look at the impact that Agile professionals had/have in the success of your teams? And of those times, when did you went to those professionals and thank them? Specially those who have done much more than just what they were supposed to do.

I am 52 years old today and I have suffered from imposter syndrome all my life. But I know I had an impact on my teams, and my companies. And the only proof of that is that I can address many of those as friends today.

Make sure you give kudos to everyone around you that deserve it. Not just those you are hands on with your products, but also those who support them and help them move forwards.

Today, I purposely did not use ChatGPT nor Quillbot to correct my English. This is me, no help needed.