The Pivot Point

It has been a long time since I have written something on my own personal blog but I think it is time to write about this particular thing that I have been thinking about for a while now

I remember have this type of conversation with my boss when he arrives to the office, he would come up and ask me how the podcast is going and if I am getting numbers which I firmly tell him that things are going smooth but slow then he says the same sentence: "When you will hit your pivot point? There is a place where you hit a point that act as a pivoting phase on everything you are doing"

He is right on this in terms that I should be doing something to reach to that point or I have to pivot on what I am doing to get certain results like there is something that I have to do or change to get results

Shifting towards an independent perspective

I have been thinking about this perspective for a while and I resolved towards shifting for logical reasons but notably: I want to create content that is neutral and non-biased in terms that I want to pinpoint the good and bad in something particular whether it is a podcast episode, blog post, newsletter, and much more

What I have been seeing from content creators that they tend to be biased towards a product or company because they got sponsorship or partnership deal or affiliation in different ways but it is a marketing tactic to keep themselves floating around financially or status wise but honestly I am funding everything from my own expenses hence I am not attached to anyone or anything

It is true that I am a community builder (AWS Community Builder to be exact) and my role depends on helping others but taking an independent perspective can be beneficial because I can callout on things that don't make sense or not beneficial for the community in any form or way. This means I must cut ties on existing communities in terms that I should look at them in an unbiased way and see if they are helping the community or not (I am willing to provide consultation and support by pointing things out in how I see them as an outsider)

I have not yet seen anyone from our local community in MENA have taken this perspective and being an independent thinker in the tech space in a serious manner. This is well known in the US and Europe but not much in the Middle East, I am happy to take on this way focusing on documenting tech from all countries around the world but I am aiming towards MENA since it is not well documented yet packed with potential individuals and entities to explore with in an unbiased un-opinionated way

But this means that I might do things for the target of my own motives and perspectives even if it doesn't align with the ideologies and perspectives of others around me. As a free thinker I perceive the rights to explain and do things in any form or way that I deem reasonable where I do not represent an entity or organization than myself which I am claiming from the beginning. I don't want someone to come up and say "well he is doing things that we do not approve of" or "he has motives that we do conflict with us" which I would extend that no human being on planet earth has the rights to condemn what I can do than myself, if it affects your ego in certain ways then this is a problem that you need to solve within yourself not on the extent of others (including myself) but I have no motives or ambitions to ruin nor sabotage anyone

And I have no motives to start my own community or tribe to claim or rule on, what I am stating here is that I have certain motives and a path that I am going towards on my own that would benefit others but claiming complete ownership and responsibilities on what I am doing.

I think that it is time to consider the things that would bring me benefits in the future and to be honest here that I have a life to live and certain life goals to achieve (like buying my own apartment as an example), spreading myself thin for the extent of others might seem noble at first yet I haven't seen it bring any benefits to the people before me that tried doing it till they shift towards things that bring them benefits to their own lives and I am tired and burned-out to spread myself thin even more than before on the extent of doing things that bring me benefits directly because nobody will come up and save me when things don't go well in my life, when times get tough nobody will come rescue you than yourself where everyone will get "busy" with life events plus nobody will come up by "helping" you build your own startup/company out of free will and motivation to help others like we do in communities

I have always doubted myself and in my skills until I stood up and did things on my own, this is where I realized that I can achieve much more than I thought I would. To create large impact that can scale and help lots of people, one must remove the identity of being related to certain communities and locations then strive to accomplish things without being bound to anyone or anything in any particular way, eventually I will have to take this decision either now or later no matter the case but I choose to take it now than later when the stakes are not that high compared to the future.

There is no easy way to state this and it is a harsh reality that we have to live in but I think that I have more potential if I decided to do things on my own, I don't want to be bottlenecked by anyone or anything due to other people's ego and greed. Sure you might call me greedy in terms that I am thinking of myself but who wouldn't? Even if you are presented with this situation that you would have done the same but at least I am being upfront honest about it publicly

Embracing the knowledge worker lifestyle

I want to give credits to Cal Newport for inspiring me towards this, I have a soft spot towards research but I want to take this in a different perspective where I want to take research in a serious manner because what I am working on resolves towards utilizing and sharing knowledge to the end user

This time I want to take research similar to what academics do in terms that they write documentation, white papers, theories, and supporting ideas properly organized by theme and topic

This will influence the way I am going to write future content where I would have cites and links to everything I have used to write specific documents (if any provides). By embracing the independent mindset and the knowledge worker lifestyle that I am able to produce work similar to that of an academic, journalist, and writer where I am able to provide facts and reason into the things that I am doing.

I might reach towards writing as a side career on my own where I would write professionally similar to those who write on Substack and other mediums professionally as a source of living where there are certain writers that I aspire to be like

And I will be following a new strategy for organizing my notes and content in a way that suits the user, I had to take a break from what I am doing to re-organize everything that I am doing (the podcast has a decent amount of content more than 24 hours) plus planning on releasing my notes to the public but organized in this new strategy

Expanding on new things

I am going to try doing different things that I have never did before like creating long form video tutorial content, live Q/A, learning new programming languages, learning UX/UI, and much more

Expanding on new things might give an edge in certain situations or it might help towards reaching to a new role in my career where I might resolve one day to change my current role to a different one that fits my career and needs

When you expand yourself in different topics that you are able to help people in things that others don't. Take UX/UI as an example where my current role is being a software developer: if I am able to understand that this design is not technically doable then I can highlight this before the start of the project where the client/owner can decide on what to shift towards from the beginning of the project than telling him/her about this midway of the project where the client/owner cannot compromise nor change anything based on the contract done when doing this project

Playing different roles and acquiring different perspectives can be an aid for others if done properly and my intention is to expand on that. Sure it is nice to learn new things when a hype gets up but it is sure nice when you are able to help others in real-life problems that does provide value in life (look up for shiny object syndrome to understand what I am implying here)

Playing a long term game

I understand that it is a long road ahead hence I will give myself a 4 year timeline to achieve the things that I have planned on doing and see how things will go. While certain people might argue that you can achieve everything in less than 4 years but I don't want to rush things to claim that I have achieved them but instead I want to do what is right and build solid foundations that would last

Certain people might suggest towards delegation over obsession which is a debate I don't want to discuss now, from what I have seen with delegation that I don't have enough trust to put into people to do the things I have planned because they will not do it in the way that I see it regardless in any form and circumstance. There are things that you can delegate others to do and there are things that you need to sit down and come up with a viable solution for it, what I am doing right now is something that requires my attention to do on my own which I can delegate others to maintain it in the future but for now delegation would slow me down than speeding things up

I have set up a plan to accomplish different targets and I am giving myself a 4 year timespan to do, no public discussion on what I am doing or any of the projects that I have planned on until they are released to the public by myself

Getting out of sight for a while

As I am writing this post that I have intentions to shift away from social media as much as possible, I have important things that I want to focus on. You can always reach to me on any social media app but I would prefer email if you want me to respond fast

I think that the work that I am doing requires time and focus, after writing this post that I will be restricting notifications on all social media apps to remove distractions as much as possible, consider the fact that I will go a retreat location where I would do meaningful work

Making it clear for anyone reading this because certain people might get offended by it in a way that I am ignoring them, not ignoring but I am not going to utilize those channels hence if you want to reach out then email is your best chance