I've been thinking. Not just today, or this week, but all of this year and a bit of last - and to my knowledge I've never done it as much as now. The real question on my mind is no different than any other just-turned-thirty year old: where to go next.
It's taken a small meander away from this path but I've hit the open trail and found a bit of a stride working with startups! I had an inclining that it would be the case when I first entered the working world at a small startup back in my home city of Cape Town. It took a bit of time working the phones of a support centre and then moving to London but it feels like I've found the perfect balance of the things that I'm most in to.
Innovation & Curiosity are at the core of what drew me to this wonderful world. I'm endlessly curios and every day I get scratch the need to learn more. I get to meet companies that are changing the world & using innovation to accelerate it. Just this year, I've encountered technologies I'd never imagined: the fascinating world of implantable devices; biotech companies building new forms of organic materials; deep GPU technologies to render and simulate massive datasets for cinemas and drug discovery, optimizations using quantum computers. I've got a mirror that let's me see around corners and what the future looks like.
Economics, Money & Finance are here too. Who doesn't love some numbers and trying to figure out how humans behave. I'm slowly learning an appreciation for the art raising capital, calculating a valuation, quantifying risk & reward. I'm seeing first hand how the economic environment can mould or shape the behavior of investors & founders and how they can be wiped out in a matter of months or weeks. Even trying to understand ecosystem locally, globally or on any dimension requires deep understanding of things like complexity theory, psychology, game theory. There's so much to learn before you understand how talent, capital & ideas can combine and re-combine into ventures that build value and have impact.
Amplification & Impact are what I'm looking most forward to pursuing as I head into my thirties. Understanding how we can leverage technology to tackle some of the biggest challenges out there. Global supply-chain issues, climate change, restoring oceans, building better transport systems, feeding populations that are ever expanding the cities & driving economies towards prosperity. The only way to get there is to search for those things that provide a non-linear return on involvement and have scale.
Luckily this industry has the kinds of people who are all constantly reaching for the clouds at the same time. The optimism is contagious and i can't help from diving deeper into the industry and ecosystem.
It's going to be a challenge despite the all the inspiration around me - but it's something that has been fuelling me in a way that I've never really felt before. I'm eager to learn, pick up new skills, make mistakes and navigate the path towards my own little slice of success.
Hoping for one hell of a ride!