My personal review of the year 2019
This year has been a true S-curve for me. It started with a crash, followed by true happiness and excitement for the future.
In 2018, I started a new tradition to share my personal review of the year, covering experiences, achievements, learnings and other important parts. Read the last edition via this link.
In one word, the year 2019 has been “promising” — covering the full range of emotions, including departure from Robotex, starting Springrise, organising a protest, birth of Scarlett and revival of Shipitwise.
Overall, 2019 gave me the chance to start applying my knowledge to achieve more. But it also made me more humble. Likewise, more responsible. Perhaps even cautious, yet ambitious.
My highlights in 2019
On May 12, at 1.27 AM, Scarlett Amelia Gansen was born. For sure, this was the best thing that happened in 2019 — affecting everything around me.
The feeling is hard to describe but (I hope) that every parent understands it. This is something that changed Lele and me as a couple and as people. Making us realise what is important in life and focus more on that.
To be honest, it happened roughly 4 years later than my younger self hoped. Yet it happened at the right time (if there ever is such a thing).
Other than that, I’m happy about having the chance to spend much more time with Lele and the rest of my family. Starting a business together with Lele, spending almost the whole summer in Hiiumaa (at our new summer home) and reviving our business relationship with my father.
Activities 2019 — fewer meetings and more fun
In 2018, I promised myself to reduce the number of scheduled face-to-face meetings and phone calls, as well as to stay more put this year.
At the same time, I also hoped to spend more time on fun activities, such as playing board games, going to the gym and simply chilling.
All in all, I’m happy to say that all this happened almost as planned
Altogether, I had 292 face-to-face meetings or phone calls, while attending 71 work-related events, parties and dinners. Still a bit too many… Although, I’d say that on average they were more useful.
Meanwhile, we hosted/attended 29 pre-planned brunches, game nights and dinners. And in most weeks I managed to visit the gym at least twice.
That said, I travelled much less — only to Denmark, Finland and Germany. Perhaps this is something I’d want to do a bit more in 2020.
As for my blog, I wrote 53 articles throughout the year. This means I wrote a few articles less, compared to 2018. Which also resulted in just 14933 views and 7982 reads. If anything, I might want to focus more on that in 2020.
Defeats & setbacks
As always, not everything has been perfect though…
On one side, I got lost for the first quarter of the year, after leaving Robotex. This was not an easy time, leaving my baby after teaching it to walk very fast. Yet unfortunately, this was a step that had to be taken.
On the other side, I also lost my grandfather in late November.
It was expected to happen, as he had been very sick for the last few years. However, every such occasion is sad and makes you re-evaluate things.
My personal development
As said, becoming a father changed my perspective, for the better. There’s actually one must-read newsletter by Ryan Holiday for all existing, new and future dads: Dailydad.com.
At the same time, I got to spend more time reading and going to the gym, which is super!
Books to read for 2020
In 2019, I went through a lot of awesome books. But there are 48 more that I would need to go through, next year. Plus, 98 in my Amazon’s wish list.
Based on those I read in 2019, I would recommend you to read:
“The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing” by Al Ries & Jack Trout (Marketing — all you need to know about it)
“Conspiracy”, “The Obstacle is the Way”, “The Perennial Seller” & “Trust Me, I’m Lying” by Ryan Holiday (I love everything he writes!)
“21 Lessons for the 21st Century” by Yuval Noah Harari (Another masterpiece about who we are and what’s happening around us)
“The Snowball — Warren Buffet And The Business of Life” by Alice Schroeder (Who is Warren, really?)
“What You Do is Who You Are” by Ben Horowitz (How to build a culture)
Plans for 2020
My personal plan is to keep spending time with Scarlett — to help her learn how to become a great human being — and Lele, my lovely wife. Perhaps, we’ll also be able to travel a bit more in 2020, while I’ll keep on reading, training and hopefully writing more…
As for the professional plan —I’m looking forward to the growth of Speys, while also helping all the companies in our agency’s portfolio. Plus, I’ll keep preparing myself to soon launch an early-stage fund, targeting emerging tech.
That said, I hope you also had a great 2019, preparing for even better 2020!
