2014: Most exciting year until now.

This year 2014 which is about to end, has been the most exciting year ever until now.   I intended to write my own version of Facebook's Year in Review, but well, this year needs a little more space.

I must explain that I own my destiny and I'm in control of my life and I won't permit that FB tells the rest of the world how my year went, that's why I won't publish their version.

As soon as the "Year in Review" snippet appeared in my timeline, I took a look at it and found that there were several things missing.

In fact, I forgot to publish my first Marathon, which is one of the most important achievements I fulfilled this year.  September 14th I ran the  Maratón de Las Flores in Medellín, a 42Km run at a 7"/km pace, about 4 hrs 57 min.  My number was the 429 which I had the chance to choose it by myself as the 29 is my favourite number.

Before the Marathon, there were a lot of stuff that happened.

At the end of March, I reached a goal I had for several years and didn't have accomplished yet.  I became the 2nd RHCA, Red Hat Certified Architect in Colombia.  We're just 3 at this time, besides what my friends in Red Hat Colombia say (sorry guys, but facts are facts).

This is a great accomplishment. Ten years ago in 2005 I took the RH300 Rapid Track and I felt in love with Red Hat principles and values.  The course, the challenge presented by the exam, and the joy and proud I felt when I got a perfect score, were enough to let Red Hat enter to my world (nowadays my company is the biggest Red Hat partners in Colombia).

All of those "Software Libre" fans which bad mouth about Red Hat is simply because they don't know what they're talking about.  Just take Qumranet buyout as example.  Red Hat paid USD107M for a closed software and after 2 years opened up completely and made the code available as the oVirt.org project.  Anyway, now I'm a Red Hat Certified Architect and well, I also have the OpenStack certification but we'll talk about that later.

As some of you may know, I founded SEAQ 17 years ago.  The previous year (2013) in March, I changed the corporate branding which has been incredibly successful (we've doubled our revenue this year), thanks to Andrés Pascuas and Oscar Rodríguez from the Fabrica de Marcas. However, I wasn't entirely satisfied because I felt too comfortable with myself and how things were going at the company.  I decided to make a change.

At the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014 I gave to my team at SEAQ the 2029's Vision, which implied a leap forward from what the company was at that very moment.  This change would require a lot of traits and ways of thinking that not all of my team members would be able to handle.  I had to push the right buttons to let those members go.  I gave the company a total turnover that let me settle the grounds needed to fulfil the proposed vision.   Today, on this great year of 2014, SEAQ doubled it's revenues as I mentioned previously, we're moving our offices near to the Parque El Virrey and our team is ready and almost complete to be able to reach our goals.  I'm really proud of this.  I prouder of those team members that stood and those new members whom entered to the team.  All of them would fly higher than they even think they're capable of.

In order to reach my goals, I knew I had to prepare myself, in fact, those inconformity I had during the 2013 was because I lacked the tools, skills and knowledge needed to manage in a better way my company.  I'm an Engineer, a geek, a nerd, even a glasshole.  I've learnt how to be a manager in the road.  I decided to take a MBA.  I analysed several options including studying abroad (I'd have loved that) but I decided to apply in the best private University in Colombia: Universidad de Los Andes.

I was admitted at the Universidad de Los Andes Executive Master of Business Administration - EMBA -, I started my studies during a intense July's week.  This was the best week of the year.  In the words of professor Carlos Dávila I started the most amazing intellectual adventure of my adult life.  He wasn't wrong at all.  I'm just starting this path and it has already gave me great satisfactions, friendships and the tools I was looking for.

But that wasn't everything, I was invited to the Open Source Think Tank where I had the chance to discuss and talk with the Open Source industry leaders at the Napa Valley.  I was invited by IBM to Austin, Texas in order to know the Power8, PowerLinux and PowerKVM advances and roadmaps. I participate in the Red Hat Summit and Partner Meeting held at  San Francisco and Miami respectively.  Even Google was kind enough to let me be a "glasshole" and gave me the chance to buy a pair of Google Glass.




But the best of all, was that I rescued two beautiful feral cats; Galatea and Felicia, Samuel and this beautiful cats give the most unconditional love you'll ever find.

Samuel

Galatea

Felicia

I must say thank you to all of you that have had patience with me, to the ones whom have listened, to the ones who gave given me advice, and specially to La Doctora Mónica who has been with me in the good and bad times for almost 14 years.

Happy New Year and I wish you the best for this 2015.