The learning never stops

Oct 26, 2021 marked my one year anniversary at The @ Company - as I look back at the last 12 months I am so lucky to be working with an an amazing team - even though a number of us have not met each other in person(thanks to the pandemic), I have made some friends for life. I get to work and interact on a daily basis with some of the most brilliant technology minds in the industry and we are building something that is going to make a positive impact in this world, which I am super proud of. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that after all these years of doing consulting and leading large engagements , I will be tasked with working with developer communities around the world and lead one the most important aspects of our business - to build our developer ecosystem. I have thoroughly enjoyed every bit of my startup life (even with the ups and downs that comes along with it) but the part that prompted me to even write this piece is the amount of "learning" I've done during my stint here. You might think I am exaggerating but the amount I have learnt just in the last 12 months probably supersedes everything that I have learnt through this point in my career. Learning is so underrated that a number of us take it for granted. I can tell you that there is no end to what you can learn, how much you can learn and who you can learn from.

Here are some of the key learnings that have had a very positive impact on me as a person and in my everyday life :

1. You can learn from anyone : In our team, I get to work with experienced founders and executives who have seen it all with more than 30+ years of experience, folks who are fresh out of college, students who are still in college but work part time with us plus partners and developers from all over the world - I am kinda caught amongst all this somewhere in the middle. Traditional wisdom would say that I would look up to people who have more experience than me to learn but traditional wisdom is not right in this case. I am proud to say that I have probably learnt as much or more from the Gen Zs on our team. Their approach to life, "Work Hard, Play Hard" mentality, unique way of solving problems and challenging the traditional way of working - after this past year, I truly believe that your work can be as much fun as you'd like it to be with the right mindset and the right people around you working for the same cause.
2. You can learn anytime, anywhere : Being open to learning and changing is a big first step. After that, there is nothing that can stop you. It does not matter which meeting or discussion you are part of. As long you keep your eyes and ears open you will always find nuggets to take away, adapt and make it your own. Guess what, someday someone else will learn it from you. It makes everyone on your team and everyone around you better. It is the circle of learning! Examples of my random set of new learnings include how to build communities, working on Discord, Twitter & other channels, Github, Agile Project Management, Running marketing campaigns & hackathons( yes, I did it!) and doing so much less email and so much more fun work.
3. It is Ok to humble yourself : I remember this one day, when the team told me that the rebranding of our developer site was up to me to lead :) I was stunned for a day or two. I had not done coding since 2004 and terribly nervous for what was about to come my way. On a 6 AM 1:1 call (which is one of my favorite ones every week), this person asks me to download the software needed to build a website, walks me through setting it up on my machine with commands that I had not heard in eternity. But after a few stumbles along the way and embarrassing myself, I was well on my way. All of this in 30 mins. I was proud of myself. Nowadays, I truly enjoy pulling out the code ( even though it is super simple) and making changes to our developer site. I consider it therapeutic.
4. You don't need a job description to do your job : When people ask me what I do in the company, it is truly a very difficult task to explain to the outside world what I do. Same is the case for most of my colleagues. We do whatever it takes. We do things that we enjoy doing, helping and supporting each other. Often times in my career, I have wondered "Why should I do that?" or "Shouldn't s/he be doing it?" but what I've learnt is that is really does not matter who does it. If there is a task in front of you that needs attention and you have the tools and the skills to get it done, just get it done. If someone is working on it, you can always lend a helping hand. You learn there as well. You might ask what do I in the company? I do "Anthony things" and everyone in the company knows what that means.
5. You can lead without titles and hierarchies : Almost everyone working in large organizations can attest to this - we always work for someone, we always work to keep our bosses happy. We worry about the different job titles and where people fit in the food chain. It all changed for me at The @ Company, we have no hierarchy whatsoever - there are no managers.Everyone works for themselves or in teams supporting each other for the success of a program or an initiative. We all understand who is taking the lead on something and support that person without necessarily having to worry about being managed and scrutinized. Leading comes naturally to me and I love to lead - I can continue to do that wherever I can and I enjoy being a supporting teammate whenever my teammates need me for help or just to cheer them on.
6. Writing down things : All throughout my college days and my career till date, I used to pride myself in remembering all my tasks and responsibilities. I never used to take notes - just the mental ones. What I have learnt is that taking the time to document the thoughts and opinions, outcomes from discussions truly makes a remarkable difference in the quality of the final output and outcome. You get to reflect on it, your mind behaves differently when you write anything down and start mapping out ideas and possibilities.I'm the type of guy who wakes up with dreams about ideas I can implement at work - wish I had written them all down :)
7. Every conversation is worth a conversation : When I joined the company, one of the cofounders told me about a theory of possibly talking to as many people as possible. At that moment, I was like "Are you crazy? why would I spend my time doing useless discussions?" But over a period of time I have learnt that when you are trying to launch something so disruptive and game changing every conversation matters and counts and so do random collisions. You never know when you might strike gold or we like to call it @magic!

For everyone in The @ Company, I am not going to call out names in this piece but you all know who you are - I am truly honored and privileged to be working alongside you.

Thank you for the wonderful 12 months of learning, growth and fun. Here's to many more and to changing the world one @sign at a time!