Meet Giovanni Giardina!
Alumni Profile Interviews Series
Giovanni Giardina, MIT Bootcamp Alumnus from Class 7 (Brisbane 2018 cohort) is originally from the northern part of Italy near Venice, and currently lives in the middle-eastern region of Spain in the city of Jaca, close to the Pyrenees.
“You don’t know me until…”
“… you have had a conversation or exchange of ideas with me on topics of interest.”
Life Before & After Bootcamp
“Before the Bootcamp I had a lot of activities but without a real focus. After the Bootcamp I feel I am more focused, and have precise goals that I am trying to pursue.”
Best and worst moments at Bootcamp (and why)?
“I enjoyed one of the first activities when I had the opportunity to speak with other attendees in small group talks and understand their ideas and why they had come. Worst moments were when I left in the evening, I wasn’t sure what to do or not.”
Did you have a real “nightmare moment” during Bootcamp?
“No I did not experience any real nightmare moment. I enjoyed all the various activities each day, and did not reflect on what was next, therefore I did not experience disappointments. I always stayed totally open to all possible outcomes.”
What made you decide to attend Bootcamp?
“I took the online courses and got into a certain type of mindset. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, indeed there I met people who were much more skilled than me. I welcomed the opportunity to see how the ideas learned could be put into be practice. There was a gap in my understanding that I wanted to fill.”
What’s your current daily occupation?
”I am taking online courses and micromasters, on a daily basis.”
Did someone or something in particular inspire you to embark upon the entrepreneurial path?
“I remember reading an article and did not know how the online courses worked, and I tried. I found it very engaging and started to attend and study.”
Was there someone who believed in your capabilities and gave you support?
“I started without a real support, I felt it was a great opportunity, and then I built interest day by day, and the activities gave me the motivation to delve into them.”
What’s your personal definition of success?
“I feel success is doing something that creates the interest, the joy to do it, in any situation, whether the moments are good or bad.”
What does a typical day in your life look like?
“It really depends. I like to wake up and start the day early. Recently I’ve started to do some physical activities before starting my day, and then I do the online courses and micromasters. I find them engaging, I also enjoy webinars. I adapt and fit my day around these: I dedicate a large part of the day to learning online. I tend to have lunch late. In the afternoon I continue my online studies, in the evenings I take a walk, and then the day is over and I go to bed. I prepare what I eat, I try to eat healthily, and experiment with different approaches to see what works. I like to eat foods that will give me energy and a sense of feeling good.”
What do you think is the most important skill that you have developed over the past few years?
“The capacity to better focus on objectives: I plan and build the ground to tackle an activity.”
What do you consider to be the greatest challenge on your path?
“To change my mindset and be more able at multi-tasking, and to see any activity through from beginning to end.”
What’s your biggest failure to-date?
“There isn’t one big failure as such. I experience small fails when I don’t perform well in an assignment, or I get badly graded in an exam, then there is something more that I feel I need to master. It makes me regret not having done enough to prepare. But every failure teaches me a sort of lesson, a new point to work from and improve upon, and an opportunity to ask myself questions.”
What have been your most helpful resources?
“My savings and the desire to make a change have been my resources. The goal was clear, but not the implementation. Every day I find a stimulus to go ahead and pursue.”
What do you feel is your mission / goal / objective?
“I feel I need to improve what I am doing, and the main purpose comes from what I do every day. I ask of myself to be better each day. This is how I approach activities or questions that come to me.”
Is there a technology that you can’t live without?
“There is not one in particular, they are all supporting me in what I am doing, I’d say that in general I just appreciate the tech revolution.”
What’s been your greatest reward from the choices made?
“Improving.”
What’s your wildest aspiration or dream?
“I would like to climb a mountain. (I don’t actually do any climbing… yet.)”
What’s your definition of gratitude and how do you express it?
“A feeling of happiness in terms of knowing that someone has felt some emotion towards you. I’m not very good at giving expressions or gestures, I try to use what I can to express it.”
What would you like to learn from this community of peers?
“I’d like to engage with them in something that uses our different experiences and backgrounds, to create something that would not be possible singly, working each on our own.”
Watch the videoclip:
Giovanni’s GIVE:
Get in touch with Giovanni if you need any insights or tips on online courses — he’s very knowledgeable!
Giovanni’s ASK:
Giovanni welcomes insights from readers about this article. Feel free to comment below.
