Every so often I decide to make what could visually be described as “cutting the fat” in my life.
Taking out elements that make me heavy, that do not provide any enjoyment, that drag me down, that I probably used to enjoy in a past life, but that do not bring any pleasure anymore.
Developing apps for third parties was one of them, definitely, and this is what motivated my decision of stopping that part of my business, giving me the energy and CPU time to concentrate in the parts that I’m enjoying the most: consulting and training.
I’m not going to jump into a rant like those I’ve wrote in the past, because I think I’ve been fortunate enough to participate, albeit in a small, probably inconsequential way, to the 3rd or 4th biggest industrial revolutions known to mankind. First the web, now the mobile; I’m happy to have been at the right time, at the right place. I met incredible people, many of which have changed my life forever in subtle, uncanny, and sometimes even earth-shattering ways.
However, there are factors in the services business that are, simply put, unbearable. Getting to sign NDAs to discover later how bad some ideas are; having to explain once and again that the sale price of an app has absolutely no connection whatsoever with the development cost; dealing with non-technical middlemen who will weigh their political influence to get their mindless input into the final product; und so weiter.
I am tired of all that.
What now? Well, the future. The bright and beautiful future. I am going to expand my teaching operations; simply because that’s the thing I enjoy the most. I enjoy being able to transmit to others what I’ve learnt. And, of course, writing more books is part of the deal. I simply need to write, I need to feel my fingers on the keyboard, sewing stitches of knowledge, all while sipping a maté or listening to some good old progressive rock. I’m also going to work on my own apps, of course.
Maybe at some time I’ll dive into other kinds of writing, like fiction or comedy (I’ve been wanting to write a one-man show for a while), write books in other languages too, start a podcast, star in a movie, play the piano again. Who knows. I’ve got a right side of my brain that’s mostly underexplored, and it’s screaming to get out.
I’ll be around, of course; it’s just that, well, from now on I’ll have a brighter smile on my face.