2022: Rollercoasters, with lessons
It’s about time again, when we all write our year in reviews and have our various experiences and moments documented for the future, and accountability purposes. For my 2022, there’s a lot to share, as it was a surreal year, both on the positive end; and well, the other too.
All in all, it was probably God’s will to take me through the various lessons I learnt, while he made sure I was sustained throughout the course of the journey.
On to 2022…
I was enthusiastic, and energised, with hopes for a perfect year, having had a beautiful experience in 2021. I mean, after hitting those insane figures, what else could I hope for, but for some more figures in the coming year?
I started with this enthusiasm, while at the last stages of this long overdue contract I took on in 2021, alongside my team.
It didn’t take long before my energy got wasted. Almost not practically, but yeah; I lost motivation early.
For 2021’s year in review, visit here
I had exams at my school, in late January, which was enough to drain me, already. I somehow had enough energy to begin my Web3 journey during the same time and started chaos.
I had enrolled in The Nirvana Academy earlier and was at the completion stages, when my school exams started. One thing led to another, and I began taking builds at Buildspace early in February, to prepare for a hackathon I registered for, a few days prior.
Combining a hackathon (in a field I was just exploring) with school exams was total chaos for me. At one point, I’d be reading school books, and the next minute, I’m back to developing and fixing bugs, as the only front-end developer on my team.
Of course, we went on to win a prize, amidst the whole drama and trauma, and the year began properly.
The whole story above describes my year, in a way. Starting with Vigour, losing my energy, getting drained, and finally, winning something (getting my feet/energy).
The wins:
Tbh, I probably wouldn’t have recalled any win, since I was not excited after the whole year, but my conversations with Joel taught me otherwise. I could have a pretty horrible year, and still end up making impact, somehow.
In no particular order, here are some things I consider as wins, for 2022:
- Got serious with Web3 (as a developer)
- Gained knowledge, plus money
- Participated in 10+ hackathons (unsure about the exact number, but I’m quite sure of 10+)
- Won prizes in almost every hackathon I participated in (started declining later in the year though, but I had won some considerable amount)
- Increased my tech swag collection (not a feat, I guess; since I now wear tech swags every single time)
- Got a guitar, and started learning to play (Aiming to be good like TY, hopefully in 2023)
- Ran broke, but survived
- Took on a number of contracts, which turned out to be mostly good
- I attended more Dev events in person. This was a goal I set back in 2021.
- I was part of the organising team for GDG DevFest Abeokuta 2022, an experience that I enjoyed a lot.
- I gave a talk, virtually.
- I got connected with a number of important names in the tech community
- I began building Cryptea (a Crypto payment startup), with my team at one of the hackathons I participated in
- I got into Buildspace Nights and Weekends Season 1, with Cryptea.
- Cryptea got to 90+ waitlist signups
- Got into Buildspace Nights and Weekends Season 2, also with Cryptea
- We launched a testnet beta, with Cryptea
- We got a functional MVP, ready for mainstream usage
- I improved my reading habits, with more books read than in 2021
- I invested more, even though I made crazy losses too 😂
- I improved, as a developer/designer. Even though this is almost a doubt for me, personally.
- I helped a number of people in tech, both as Frontend developers, and Product designers.
-Got an admission to study Computer Science, at the International University of Applied Sciences, Germany.
-Binance estimated my yearly trading volume somewhere close to $6 digits, and my total income for the year was in multiples of last year’s.
That’s as much as I can recall right now. Quite an eventful year, one may think. Having this number of wins could be really intimidating, but I had my fair share of losses too 💔
The losses:
- Got rejections all through 2022, job-wise. Most companies either ghosted or sent the good old rejection emails.
- Didn’t make as much progress, on my guitar journey.
- Ran broke. At a point, I was actually so broke, it didn’t make any sense 😂
- I was a horrible person, at keeping friendships
- Due to my horrible friendship performance, I lost a lot of good friendships (I hope to rekindle these or be better at friendships in 2023)
- I lost a lot of money to the stock market BS. Elon’s company had me on this one 😂💔
- I lost a lot of money to various Crypto storms
- I got a lot of rejection emails, from various accelerator programs.
- I didn’t muster enough courage to launch my startup. For this, I let my introversion take the lead. I’m launching Cryptea though, in the new year. Our public beta would be out by Jan 2.
- I got distant from God, at some point in the year.
- I tried so much to fit into some specifics. I hurt myself doing this, and it didn’t make any sense.
- I lost touch with my sense of direction, career-wise. Thankfully, God helped me regain this
- I had no stable source of income, for the major part of the year. (I probably would be on this streak for 2023 as well, but the instability this time would be in large figures)
Takeaways:
With all these, I definitely got to learn a number of things and would take these on to the new year, and beyond that.
- Build in public. Farza always emphasizes this, and it has made so much sense and given me more exposure than I expected/thought possible.
- “Get the f**k off localhost”. My close friends have heard this a number of times. I actually got this from Furqan, co-founder of thirdweb. This was during one of the sessions we had, at Buildspace Nights and Weekends, Season 1
- Build friendships. This was important in 2022, even though I realised it after being a bad friend.
- Love, and allow yourself to be loved.
- Get closer to God. A lovely person always reminds me: “There’s only satisfaction in JESUS CHRIST”. It keeps getting clearer and truer, with each passing day
My Goals for 2023:
- Get closer to God
- Launch Cryptea
- Make more money
- Make more impact
- Speak at more than one event
- Travel out of the country
- Read 24+ books
- Be good at the guitar
- Be a better friend/person
- Save more.
Happy New Year, and have a great 2023
