It is gone. 2021.
What a year.
Without any exaggeration - one of the worst and the best years for many reasons. I will share some of the highlights and what I have in store for 2022.
Health - On track.
My sister is encouraging me to share my lessons learnt with the world. This could also mix with my cooking interests. With all the restrictions I have, I manage to cook and eat pretty delicious meals and dessert. I feel too shy to do anything on video but I know I could provide a lot of value here.
Not sure where 2022 may take me with this - but I will explore it.
Career
This one had a major change in 2021.
After 15 years of working for corporate America - straight out of college, I quit on Dec 15th. I had been considering that for some time but I finally did it and left the place dancing. The very supportive family and friends congratulated me like it was a massive accomplishment.
On my own, I am learning an AI course taught by Standford on coursera and being an AI engineer sounds like a solid career path.
Being free of 9-5 has given me more time for 2 other projects that will be the highlight of what I will do in 2022.
#1. Writing my first book. Titled - Coming Elsewhere.
I have a basic outline, 40% of draft 1 and landing page complete.
www.comingelsewhere.com
Thanks to feedback from Sir Abe, the first series is titled 'Cheap Tea & Long Walks'. I would like to have the first draft completed by end of Jan. But that is when the real work begins. My edits take longer than the initial draft. I am trying to complete it by the summer and I have decided to self-publish. A lot of these decisions took time and research. Now I just write.
#2. Building my productivity app.
I have created an MVP that I hate. Redoing that.
I played with several nocode options and quickly realized that there are limitation that I need to be aware of before deciding which technology to apply.
I am also realizing that there are a lot of apps in this space. And I am taking time to validate the need for what I am thinking. I have to find what my unique selling point is going to be or I have to consider abandoning the idea.
*****
For the things I am focusing on, I have to build a personal brand. Everything I have done before has been through an alias or a nick name. I didn't want to put my face or my name out there. All that is changing.
As of today, I have put my picture on Twitter, FB and Instagram. I even wrote my first ever IG post recently. I have created a substack account as well. And I am learning about tik tok, Pinterest and YouTube for branding and building an audience.
I have also created my page - www.Keneni.com that I intend to house all the things I have been doing all in one. I also created a linktree account that does the same. https://linktr.ee/Keneni
*****
I want to continue the progress I have made regarding making time with family and friends. I find myself on the phone talking to people a lot more now. I want to invest time and energy into people I care about. 2021 is when the importance of that hit me hard. I want to keep the same urgency for such things so I can appreciate the network of great people I have in my life already. I definitely want to work on that more deliberately in 2022.
I want to say thank you for the writing family I have been a part of for 3 years now. I feel confident in my writing to dare to publish a book. I know several of you that motivate me to do more and to do better. Thank you. And I love reading some of the curated content that people share in this setting that feels more genuine that the social media madness that I am getting myself into.
May we all have a healthy and productive 2022.
What a year.
Without any exaggeration - one of the worst and the best years for many reasons. I will share some of the highlights and what I have in store for 2022.
Health - On track.
My sister is encouraging me to share my lessons learnt with the world. This could also mix with my cooking interests. With all the restrictions I have, I manage to cook and eat pretty delicious meals and dessert. I feel too shy to do anything on video but I know I could provide a lot of value here.
Not sure where 2022 may take me with this - but I will explore it.
Career
This one had a major change in 2021.
After 15 years of working for corporate America - straight out of college, I quit on Dec 15th. I had been considering that for some time but I finally did it and left the place dancing. The very supportive family and friends congratulated me like it was a massive accomplishment.
On my own, I am learning an AI course taught by Standford on coursera and being an AI engineer sounds like a solid career path.
Being free of 9-5 has given me more time for 2 other projects that will be the highlight of what I will do in 2022.
#1. Writing my first book. Titled - Coming Elsewhere.
I have a basic outline, 40% of draft 1 and landing page complete.
www.comingelsewhere.com
Thanks to feedback from Sir Abe, the first series is titled 'Cheap Tea & Long Walks'. I would like to have the first draft completed by end of Jan. But that is when the real work begins. My edits take longer than the initial draft. I am trying to complete it by the summer and I have decided to self-publish. A lot of these decisions took time and research. Now I just write.
#2. Building my productivity app.
I have created an MVP that I hate. Redoing that.
I played with several nocode options and quickly realized that there are limitation that I need to be aware of before deciding which technology to apply.
I am also realizing that there are a lot of apps in this space. And I am taking time to validate the need for what I am thinking. I have to find what my unique selling point is going to be or I have to consider abandoning the idea.
*****
For the things I am focusing on, I have to build a personal brand. Everything I have done before has been through an alias or a nick name. I didn't want to put my face or my name out there. All that is changing.
As of today, I have put my picture on Twitter, FB and Instagram. I even wrote my first ever IG post recently. I have created a substack account as well. And I am learning about tik tok, Pinterest and YouTube for branding and building an audience.
I have also created my page - www.Keneni.com that I intend to house all the things I have been doing all in one. I also created a linktree account that does the same. https://linktr.ee/Keneni
*****
I want to continue the progress I have made regarding making time with family and friends. I find myself on the phone talking to people a lot more now. I want to invest time and energy into people I care about. 2021 is when the importance of that hit me hard. I want to keep the same urgency for such things so I can appreciate the network of great people I have in my life already. I definitely want to work on that more deliberately in 2022.
I want to say thank you for the writing family I have been a part of for 3 years now. I feel confident in my writing to dare to publish a book. I know several of you that motivate me to do more and to do better. Thank you. And I love reading some of the curated content that people share in this setting that feels more genuine that the social media madness that I am getting myself into.
May we all have a healthy and productive 2022.
Can’t wait to see your endeavors prosper
Godspeed.