My personal review of the year 2018
This has been the most exciting year of my life, so far. This, here, is going to be my personal review of what I experienced, achieved, learned, lost and won.
In one word, the year 2018 has been “exciting” — full of memories for a lifetime, containing more travel than I ever expected and definitely laying the path for much great fun ahead.
I’m very happy and thankful for everything that happened in 2018. Especially that Lele and I have been able to come much closer through the year, getting married and starting to plan our adulthood! Meanwhile, it is wonderful that I have been able to spend most of my time following my passion of building something big. But at the same time, I have also started to realise that the time is limited (unless we go through a major breakthrough) and thus I need to focus more on getting the right things done, faster.
Now I will describe my highlights, my activities, books that I have read and recommend, accepting defeats, reflecting on my personal development and setting goals for 2019.
My highlights in 2018
We finally tied the knot with Lele on 4.08.2018 at 4.08 PM. For sure, this was the best thing that happened in 2018. It was more than 5 years ago when we first started dating and like every couple, we had our highs and lows. At some point, “friends” were actually betting how long the relationship would last (I think, they expected it to end after 6 months). But we got through it all and can now keep on growing as the two-in-one package.
It is especially cool that we did it in 2018, as my parents celebrated their 25 years in marriage, while my grandparents celebrated their 50 years in marriage. Meanwhile, I’m about to get 25 in a few days! The first in the next generation has some shoes to fill in 25 years time…
Other than that, I’m also happy for the 18 countries I was able to visit through 2018, including: the United States x4 (Albuquerque, Las Vegas, Orlando & San Fransisco), China x2, Germany x2, India x2, Ireland x2, Spain x2, the Netherlands x2, Belarus, Colombia, Cyprus, Finland, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. And it’s super that Lele was able to join me in 6 of those.
I was also able to write 55 articles, do 11 interviews for journalists, podcast and radio hosts and present on 10 stages. Plus, be nominated as one of the TOP 10 Young Entrepreneurs of the year in Estonia.
Activities 2018 — travelling a lot
In 2018 I had 347 scheduled face-to-face meetings and phone calls + attended 99 work-related events, parties and dinners with hundreds of on the spot interactions. The latter includes 26 conferences/EXPOs. These numbers are something that I will be actively decreasing in 2019, as most of those could have been replaced with an email. #Nomorebadmeetings2019
All in all, I took 97 flights around the world — on average 3.6 flights per trip as Estonia lacks direct flights — spending 359 hours in-air. Adding the wait time at the airports, I spent 555 hours, that is roughly 23 full days or 6.3% of this year in international transit. That is more than an average stewardess who works 40-hours a week! Surely, I should optimise this part of my life…
Altogether, I travelled for 136 days AKA 37.3% of this year. On one side, I loved every bit of those trips. On the other side, I do not like being away from Lele that much and thus need to change some things, next year.
As for my blog, I wrote 55 articles throughout the year. This means, I almost doubled the number of articles written, compared to 2017. Meanwhile, the articles on Medium got 17908 views and 8313 reads (46.4% of you read through them all — quite a good result!). Again, doubling the amount, compared to 2017. However, I would want to see more articles written (and read by you) in 2019.
But the awesome thing is that all this work shows first results, looking at what we have been able to achieve with Robotex!
- We managed to grow the network of Robotex from just Estonia, Cyprus and China to 16 countries across the planet with another 9–10 joining the family in the next 3–6 months.
- The Robotex Family held events in Cyprus, China, Colombia, India and Estonia with others setting up their organisations to get going in 2019.
- Robotex International 2018 was a success in every way!
- 2406 competitors from 44 countries participated in 25 robotics competitions with 43% joining us from abroad.
- 942 attendees from 54 countries joined our conference that hosted 80 speakers (from 23 countries).
- 49 companies from 6 countries exhibited at our EXPO with Cleveron using our stage to announce their new concept vehicle.
Defeats & setbacks
Not everything has been perfect though…
On one side, my other grandmother has had some problems with her health that have taken her to the hospital on multiple occasions. Reminding everyone in the family to take better care of our health, especially when it comes to feeling stress. Hopefully, she will get better soon!
On the other side, Robotex organisation in Estonia got some bad local press earlier this year, after we decided to set a participation fee for the competitions and raise the visitor ticket price. Fortunately, this helped us to raise the quality of the event held in Estonia, as well as the level for the participants competing. Which also has helped us to start attracting global partners. However, we did end up with 15% less visitors at the festival and lost a few long-time local partners. This way also not growing the local organisation as much as I had hoped. Though, everything is still positive, as we are going through a bigger conceptual change that will lead to a more global organisation.
My personal development
Getting married and making long-term plans with Lele led to the understanding that I need to find a better work-life balance. This means fewer appointments and less work-related travelling to spend more time with my family in 2019.
At the same time, I should also find more time for sports (although I have been able to go to the gym just enough in the last months) and reading, as well as develop some type of hobby…
Books to read for 2019
In 2018, I went through a lot of awesome books. But there are 26 more that I would need to go through, next year. Plus, 32 in my Amazon’s wish list.
However, based on those I read in 2018, I would recommend you to read:
“Sapiens” & “Homo Deus” by Yuval Noah Harari (learn the past to know the future)
“Life 3.0” by Max Tegmark (Artificial Intelligence and robots are coming, when?)
“Principles” by Ray Dalio (Principles are a must!)
“Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson (Who was Steve, really?)
“Finding My Virginity” by Richard Branson (Branson’s life has been awesome)
Plans for 2019
My personal plan is to put more focus on the family in 2019, while finally starting to build some robots of my own at home. Also, reading more, writing more and going to the gym more…
As for the professional plan — I’m looking to take Robotex family to 25+ countries, set up a global foundation (most likely jointly in the US and Ireland), start raising the global early-stage fund and grow the Robotex International Conference attendee base in Tallinn to 2,500+ people.
And I would like to help more early-stage frontier tech teams succeed, thus connect me if you feel I could be of any help.
That said, I wish you a quiet end of the year with a lot of family time. And a successful 2019!
