My Year 2022 in review

The days between Christmas and new year always had a special effect on me. It is a great break between the years and they lend themselves to introspection and mindfulness. What a better date to review the past year than Silvester!

I wrote my own story..

2022 started for me like it ended, with introspection and an assessment of the current situation. I did the self-authoring suite of world renowned psychologist Jordan Peterson. An exercise that I can warmly recommend to everybody. The exercise is divided into three sections: past, present and future. During the past authoring I was asked to structure my past into several epochs and to then name the most important experiences I had during these epochs. After describing these experiences in detail, I would be asked to analyze their effects on my world view, personality and current situation in life. It’s always great to sort through your baggage and see what you should keep and what not. I learned a lot about myself, but especially that I was resentful and embittered about one particular decision I had made. Directly after my degree I had the chance to join a start-up company, however that likely would have meant an unbearably stress on my relationship. Therefore, I decided against it. I wrestled with that decision for several years afterwards. What I learned for the past authoring program was, that I made the right decision. I love my wife and my daughter above all else. However, this left me with the conclusion that I had the desire to be self-employed.

.. and I will keep writing it

The present authoring program is a personality analysis that lets you investigate your strengths and weaknesses from a personality perspective, something I have done extensively in the past and therefore, probably did not benefit as much from. The future authoring program is divided into two parts vision and plan. During the first part I was asked to meditate on my ideal future and to just write for 15 min without spellchecking or corrections. The point is to articulate before implicit expectations about your life outcomes and to bring them to life during this meditation. After that, I was asked to formulate concrete goals and plans to implement these goals. I was asked to analyze obstacles and resources that would help or hinder my goals. One of them was to be self-employed.

The birth of Gradical

There were still some key stakeholders to onboard. Luckily I have the best wife in the world, who supports me, loves me and calls me out on my BS if needed. But the most important problem was, what should I do exactly? It was not the case that I never knew that I wanted to found a company, but I always thought I would have a great idea first. Once I realized that “the great idea” never would come, I decided I was going to find something that I was good at and could feed my family. After a thorough analysis of my skillset and the current macroeconomic conditions I concluded the following.

1.??????Shortage of skilled labor is evident and will at least stay an issue for the next few years.

2.??????Medical Technology will be in high demand in the future, with increasing life expectancy.

3.??????Sustainable materials are going to be in high demand, while expertise with this topic is going to be rare.

4.??????Increase in substance regulations and resulting challenges for companies is predictable.

As a plastic material expert with experience in medical device, material testing, material compliance and sustainable plastics I am well able to address these problems with a consulting service. Soon later I pitched the idea to several friends and my family. No one told me it was a stupid idea. I took that as an indication. My dad was especially ecstatic about this business idea. He is going to retire in may 2023 and expressed that he wanted to stay on the job part time, therefore it was a no brainer to ask him to join my team. With over 20 years in quality and regulatory affairs with medical device and In-Vitro diagnostics I will have no issues selling his services.

So with the team and business model in place I just needed branding. Luckily I know someone. One of my best friends Pascal Taboas , currently CMO at Flooat and Co-CEO at Cprogress, is a marketing genius. He told me to pick a name using an online name generator and he will cover the rest. After some play time with input words like “medical”, “grade” and “plastic” one name stood out. Gradical. Short catchy and brandable. The company had a name. I love the logo Pascal designed!

Transition Period

While I was organizing all this I am still working fulltime for medmix as a technology expert materials.

At this point I want to mention that I really enjoyed working at medmix and that I never would be able to found Gradical if it wasn’t for my role at medmix. I want to thank my boss and my co-workers for the challenges and experiences we had the last 3 years. I learned so much from you all and I wouldn’t want to miss these experiences. As already elaborated above I am not deciding against medmix, I am deciding for my dream of self-employment.

It is best to openly and empathically address issues like these. I told my boss at an early stage and I made it clear that it is not my intention to immediately quit and leave them to their fate. Finding a plastic expert is a difficult and long process and therefore we agreed to set up a transition plan for me. For the reader with plastic expertise, if you are looking for a new challenge as an technolgy expert materials I can thoroughly recommend working for medmix and Jim Giger as a boss.

The challenges and joys of parenthood

My growing family is one of the biggest sources of meaning in my life. I do what I do for them and that became crystal clear when my daughter Eleonora was hospitalized in December 2022 due to a obstructive bronchitis. The two days in hospital taught me again why I am in medical technology, not for the market potential and the long term prognosis, but for the patients. It is my zeal to form a better world with plastics. For everyone who needs healthcare.

Except for the occasional hospital stay with your toddler, having children is great. Sure you don’t sleep as well, sure you get interrupted a lot, but the joy of seeing your daughter do her first steps is irreplaceable. The sound of “papi” is greater than Beethoven’s No.9. My daughter taught me so much, especially curiosity. She teaches me to be mindful of everything, she has not yet learned to ignore and for her everything is interesting. A goal I also set myself during the self authoring. I want to be adventurous, learn and try new things.

?Sharpen the Saw

I’ve deemphasized workouts and reading during the last few months, since my priority was on my child, my again pregnant wife and my career transition. However I wouldn't want to miss it. I made solid progress on weight lifting even though I’ve been stagnating for the last few months now. I’m still able to do a full middle split with proper warm up for those interested and my cold showers are getting stronger now that it's winter.

Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of highly effective people is a book I’ve read twice in my life and I think the most important habit of them all is “sharpen the saw”. Covey mentions the age old tale of a guy sawing away with a dull saw on a tree, another man comes along and suggest sharpening the saw. The sawing maniac replies: “I cannot sharpen the saw, I’m busy sawing!”. Workouts, breathing exercises, listening to audio books and cold showers all help me stay sharp. Some of the habits had to be adjusted to fit into the life of a young family. For example my snow runs fell flat this year, although I am planning of taking up my running again. I had to shift a lot of my workouts to the evenings after dinner in order to be able to spend time with my daughter and my breathing exercises had to be more flexible than I like them to. I did not half of the books on my reading list, however I did read 11 books. One of which I’ve now read the third time “Never Split the Difference” from Chris Voss is an absolute work of genius. I use the techniques described in the book nearly daily and it does not only help with tough negotiations, I think it makes me a better person.

?Connecting again

?As a extrovert I suffered under corona lockdowns, therefore I got a source of energy back this year’s making new connections. During the lockdowns I already started reaching out to people with interesting profiles on LinkedIn, networking in a physical setting was banned so what was I supposed to do? To cite before mentioned psychologist Jordan Peterson: “people are unbearably interesting if you just listen”. All of you that I’ve met on LinkedIn: it was a pleasure of getting to know you!

On top of that fairs, Tech-Days and physical events resumed. I’ve had the pleasure to attend the PharmaPack in Paris and the K-Fair in Düsseldorf this year. Two events I’ve enjoyed a lot. Another highlight was the Tech-Day of Lenorplastics . Below some impressions of the events.

?Terra Incognita

I saw a post on LinkedIn some while ago about competence. Unfortunately I couldn’t find it again, but the essence was, that the highest stage of competence isn't “I know what to do” but “I don’t know yet, but I’ll figure it out”. As Peterson would call it being on the edge of order and chaos is where the real hero stands. This deeply resonated with me. Because this is my current location. I don’t know what’s to come for 2023. The last 3 years should make an awake reader optimistic. But nevertheless I have a deep faith in the future. I’ll figure it out, we will figure it out. No problem to big, we will start small then scale.

With these words, happy new year and we’ll see us in 2023, I', sure it is going to be a fun ride!

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