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Hello everyone! This will be a slightly longer post than usual, as I will discuss my goals for 2023, what I've achieved and haven't achieved and why, the current state of affairs, and my objectives for 2024.
# What were my goals for 2023?
## Achieve at least €25,000 in my bank account.
## Develop a SaaS and have at least one buyer.
# Unexpected successes of 2023
# Current Status
Currently I work full-time as a Data Scientist, have a YouTube channel, and am working on the MVP of my SaaS that facilitates the job application process.
## Career
## YouTube Channel
# Goals for 2024
## Career
I need to find a job as an ML Engineer as it will allow me to learn skills such as deploying an ML model to production and monitoring it, etc. This skill, in my opinion, will gain increasing value in the job market, allowing me to have high salaries but also helping me in entrepreneurship as AI models already solve many problems and will solve many more in the future. Therefore, being able to implement AI in one's digital products will be a considerable advantage.
## Side business
Develop MVP and have at least one buyer. One is enough for now to live the sensation of being able to create something useful for people. Once the spark happens, the rise will be unstoppable. Just the first customer, only one for now.
## Mindset
Understand what my fundamental personal values are. Sometimes I feel like I am constantly running and doing things but never stopping to consider if I am satisfied with what I am doing. I took inspiration from THIS THREAD and intend to dedicate more time to myself to understand what is important to me so that I can know in advance whether a particular life or business choice is aligned with these values and whether it will make me feel good or bad. I understand that as MJ says, one needs to be altruistic in a world of egoists, but living miserably every day doing things completely outside your values, I'd say no. I seek balance.
Of course, I have already proceeded to divide these goals into measurable sub-goals, don't worry.
# Goal for next week?
---
Thank you for making it this far; I hope I've been thorough. A special thanks to @MJ DeMarco , @Spenny and @fx.lukasx
If you're wondering about my goal for 10 years from now, I invite you to read my first post in THIS THREAD. **My mother passed away a few years ago, and the least I can do is establish a foundation in her name.**
I will update this thread weekly, keeping you posted on what I have done, what I will do, and any thoughts I might have about it.
See you soon, guys— seize life!
# What were my goals for 2023?
## Achieve at least €25,000 in my bank account.
- Why this goal?
- This amount allows me to support myself for at least 2 years if I decide to stay in Barcelona or anywhere else in Europe (except for countries with a very high cost of living, such as Switzerland), and thus pay for rent, or for more than 2 years if I decide to return home to my parents, where my expenses would be nil. In Barcelona, my monthly costs including rent and groceries are about €1,000-€1,200, and I have a saving power of over 30%. I track all my earnings and expenses, and having studied personal and behavioral finance, I feel quite robust in this regard.
- Achieved?
- Yes, I'm slightly above the goal and very happy about it. You can't understand the freedom I feel in having this amount of money and not having to submit to anyone. If I want, I can resign; otherwise, I stay. Clearly, it's not a vast sum that allows me to stop working, but it's still a small portion of freedom.
## Develop a SaaS and have at least one buyer.
- Why this goal?
- I have a bachelor's degree in computer science and a master's in Data Science, and have always been ambitious entrepreneurially. The SaaS business model aligns well with my technical background, and I find it very appealing due to its scalability advantages.
- Working on a SaaS project not only allows me to build a side-business but also to learn marketable skills that enable me to increase my salary year by year. Two birds with one stone: I develop something of my own that could potentially earn me money and, simultaneously, I acquire technical and soft skills that are valuable in the job market. The salary I earn will finance my entrepreneurial climb.
- I enjoy building, sharing with others, and improving my product.
- Achieved?
- Unfortunately, no, for the following reasons:
- Despite my background in computer science, the skills I had at the beginning of the year were insufficient for developing a SaaS MVP, and no-code programs provide me with few real and marketable skills and are not suitable for my needs. I am now developing these skills, but to summarize, it's more challenging than I thought. However, I am learning many new things. My progress after work has been very slow. Of course, the start is slow, but then I'm sure my next MVP will be super fast, as I'll already know the whole technology stack needed and I realize I'm much faster than before. I need to have patience and focus on the process.
- Sometimes I preferred to invest time in learning Spanish and networking by attending events with other entrepreneurs. I have acquired a good level of Spanish and met strong entrepreneurial individuals, which I don't regret.
- I moved to a new country and I needed to invest time in understanding how the healthy system and all the burocratic things works.
- I invested a lot of time in making video for my YouTube channel.
- Unfortunately, no, for the following reasons:
# Unexpected successes of 2023
- I was invited to give a lecture on networking at a private business school where I explained how I managed to interview millionaires and famous people on a podcast that started with a zero budget. This allowed me to come into contact with the school's director and discuss with him the problems schools have and how to solve them.
- I have reached a level of Spanish that allows me to live comfortably in Spain and Spanish-speaking countries, listen to, and understand everyone and everything. Clearly, I'm not a native speaker, but thinking that I can now talk to a couple million more people is pretty great.
- I received several job offers that literally doubled my salary after just under two years of work experience (I graduated in 2022 on schedule) and considering that with each job change, my salary increased and currently, I definitely earn well above the Spanish average.
- What does this mean?
- The skills I have are valuable, I'm good at selling myself in job interviews, and the improvements to my personal branding on LinkedIn are having their effects; recruiters appreciate it. If I fail as an entrepreneur, I can find another job.
- What does this mean?
- I reached a thousand subscribers on my YouTube channel, and many young people contact me asking for advice and more. I could think of selling them consultancy on how to get into a FAANG company and increase the chances of passing a technical interview. I've undoubtedly improved my communication skills.
# Current Status
Currently I work full-time as a Data Scientist, have a YouTube channel, and am working on the MVP of my SaaS that facilitates the job application process.
## Career
- After the first 5 months, work started to get boring. The upside is that I manage my own time as I want and have a lot of freedom; the downside is that I feel like I'm dying inside doing the same stupid tasks every day (no, they can't be automated as they require a lot of human interaction), and I feel like I can do more. I've talked to my managers, but until the end of 2024, they can't give me other tasks because business plans must be respected.
- Positive aspects
- Saved money that will pay for any months without work that may come in the future if I decide to fully dedicate myself to entrepreneurship.
- Benefits: a private insurance that allowed me to have free medical checks, free shoes, and a GoPro received as a prize for winning a hackathon. I will use this GoPro to shoot videos for my YouTube channel; currently, I use the company phone, which I will return when changing jobs.
- I've learned a lot about A/B testing; this will serve me for my future projects, as A/B tests are essential for measuring the effects on a certain metric of a change to one's product.
- Several very strong colleagues who I'm sure will make a career in the future.
- I've learned a lot about myself, how to manage priorities and anxieties, how to talk with bosses, how to sell my ideas.
- They did the paperwork for me to be able to work legally in Spain. This means that I can now work in two countries (Italy and Spain) without any problem. In case I can't find another job in Spain, I'm covered.
- I've already developed a plan to become an ML Engineer so as to change roles (a bit more technical) and companies (I need fresh air and lively people around, perhaps a startup).
- Positive aspects
## YouTube Channel
- With 1k subscribers, I tried to sell consultations on how to use Obsidian (a note-taking program) but had little success, and I suppose the reasons are as follows:
- The problem is not felt; people don't care about creating a digital archive that allows them to connect information. The majority are too lazy and want the magic formula. Obviously, I don't take it personally; 99% will never achieve anything, and the methods I teach allow me to study better and faster, always having an advantage over them.
- The target has little money; my target audience would be broke college students.
- I've learned a couple of things about business, anyway, I haven't spent money, and I've gained contacts since many of these people work in large tech companies and if they don't work there, they will in the future as they are very intelligent and ambitious people.
- Currently, I do weekly live streams in which I work on my MVP, so not only do I create content, but I also work on my side business.
- The idea is to solve a personal problem: finding a job faster. My SaaS allows having a single space in which to converge different jobs uploaded on platforms like LinkedIn, then handle showing the user the jobs they are most likely to be selected for and automatically write a cover letter and contact the recruiter via email.
- My web development skills are limited; I've been programming in Python for 6 years but know nothing about Django. I'm learning Django, React, GraphQL, and other useful stuff. I am very happy because I'm learning new and marketable skills, and they will also facilitate my future entrepreneurial rise, allowing me to rapidly develop what I want on my own.
# Goals for 2024
## Career
I need to find a job as an ML Engineer as it will allow me to learn skills such as deploying an ML model to production and monitoring it, etc. This skill, in my opinion, will gain increasing value in the job market, allowing me to have high salaries but also helping me in entrepreneurship as AI models already solve many problems and will solve many more in the future. Therefore, being able to implement AI in one's digital products will be a considerable advantage.
## Side business
Develop MVP and have at least one buyer. One is enough for now to live the sensation of being able to create something useful for people. Once the spark happens, the rise will be unstoppable. Just the first customer, only one for now.
## Mindset
Understand what my fundamental personal values are. Sometimes I feel like I am constantly running and doing things but never stopping to consider if I am satisfied with what I am doing. I took inspiration from THIS THREAD and intend to dedicate more time to myself to understand what is important to me so that I can know in advance whether a particular life or business choice is aligned with these values and whether it will make me feel good or bad. I understand that as MJ says, one needs to be altruistic in a world of egoists, but living miserably every day doing things completely outside your values, I'd say no. I seek balance.
Of course, I have already proceeded to divide these goals into measurable sub-goals, don't worry.
# Goal for next week?
- I don't work, so I will have plenty of time. First and foremost, I need to send out at least 21 well-written CVs per week.
- I need to implement features for my SaaS, specifically developing the task that will synchronously and independently find new job offers and update the database.
- I will take different personality tests and compare them to understand some of my characteristics. Additionally, I will dedicate time to ask myself what my goals are and understand the real motivation that drives me to pursue them.
---
Thank you for making it this far; I hope I've been thorough. A special thanks to @MJ DeMarco , @Spenny and @fx.lukasx
If you're wondering about my goal for 10 years from now, I invite you to read my first post in THIS THREAD. **My mother passed away a few years ago, and the least I can do is establish a foundation in her name.**
I will update this thread weekly, keeping you posted on what I have done, what I will do, and any thoughts I might have about it.
See you soon, guys— seize life!
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