Toulouse, France, January 2020;
It has been almost 2.5 years now, He said.
Yes, I know, I replied. Why do you keep on insisting that I move on? I continued.
Him: You know why. I know you better than you know yourself.
Me: Yes, it has been a painful break-up, and I still think about our time together.
Him: Yes, I know. Still, it’s time to break up with this one, also.
Me: No, not again. It’s a painful process. I don’t want to go through this again.
Him: Your relationship is going nowhere, and I feel you are not as committed as before.
Me: Yes. I start to feel it again—the feeling of boredom. The motivation is going down.
Him: Exactly. So let’s break up and move on.
Me: Hum, well, the uncertainty, the fear of not finding the right one. Are you sure that I am ready to go through that again?
Him: Yes, it’s time to put yourself in mobility and find a new job at Airbus!
That is the kind of conversion I have with the voice in my head every 2.5 years where I feel the need to change jobs.
I am lucky to have such a possibility in a big company like Airbus, where switching jobs is possible with all the challenges inherent to an internal job search.
Only recently, I was conscious that I was not alone in needing to switch from one area to another. It manifests in my professional life mainly and somehow in my personal life.
Then I had a discussion recently with a friend and a colleague from Airbus, Laid Adda, who shared with me the TED talk below by Emilie Wapnick about Why Some of us Don't Have One True Calling:
I have always been a "multipotentiate", and we are legion.
In this article, I will share how I fulfill all my passions and use digital technologies and big corporations to help me achieve them.
“I am a Renaissance guy,” I tell my friends when they ask me why I do so many different things.
And what better represents the Renaissance guy than Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man?
In this representation is hidden the GLAASS that I nourish my soul with.
G as Google
Google represents my curiosity and my seeking of knowledge through its search page.
In 2003, I started my engineering studies in Aeronautics and Space at ISAE (Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace), in Toulouse France.
To do my studies properly, I needed a personal computer. So, with some other students, we ordered some PCs from a store that would assemble them for us at a competitive price.
At that time, my monthly scholarship of 300€ and my savings were not enough to live and buy myself an 800 € computer. So I contracted a loan with a bank.
You can imagine how I loved and cherished that first PC of mine. It was the first time that I had my computer. And thanks to the school, we had a free Internet connection on campus, which was a big deal in 2003.
To do my search at the time, I used the AltaVista search engine, which was a mess as a web page.
Later, I discovered the Google homepage search engine and fell in love with it.
With Google, I love that I can find anything I am looking for in a blink of an eye. Google is my Wikipedia. I spend countless hours reading and learning new things thanks to Google.
Yes, the company went from “Don’t be evil” to the Hydra we know today.
I still believe that Google is positively impacting the world as a platform to access world knowledge for free.
And Youtube has created more cinematographers, photographers, and directors than all the specialized schools in each sector combined.
I am a visual person, and watching videos on math by Mathologer would have been a huge difference when I was a student.
Google feeds my thirst for knowledge and teaches me how to be a better content creator.
L as LinkedIn
LinkedIn represents my willingness to connect with people making the change and leading in their field.
That is one of the few social platforms where most people have their real names and showcase their skills and expertise.
I joined the platform in September 2008, as I had just entered the professional area. My initial intent was to connect to people that could help me find a job.
The more I spent time here, the more I shifted from just connecting to more impacting.
Indeed with LinkedIn, I can see the people who hold jobs I would love to get. So I will study their career, which will give me a hint of my path to be in the same position as them.
LinkedIn is a source of inspiration and the possibility to compress time by learning from others.
As someone who also wants to impact the world positively, I am using this platform to showcase my view of the world and get instant feedback.
Indeed at work, I might think I am a victim of unconscious bias now and then. However, on LinkedIn, people don’t know me personally. I put out my work, and they will give me instant feedback. The diversity of people on the platform is also inspiring for me.
As a black African activist, I love seeing black people rise in other big companies. They serve as inspiration for me in France.
LinkedIn feeds my need for growing professionally and allows me to have a positive impact on a personal level.
A as Apple
Apple represents the simplicity of creation with a set of tools that are easy tools and a clean user interface that helps me focus while creating.
I did have the iPhone 3G back in 2009. However, even though I loved the user interface, I was not attracted by the constraints of always having to plug the phone into only five computers to be able to put data into the device.
Since I ditched my iPhone 3G, I have been a big fan of Android phones because I can use them as I want.
The one Apple product I love is my MacBook Pro 13’ Retina, which I bought in 2014. I am still using it today to write this article.
Apple gave me a compact laptop with integrated software and hardware to express my artistic needs.
We have Microsoft Windows laptops. I am a customer support engineer. So I am surrounded by processes and cells, Microsoft Excel cells. So I cannot express my artistic needs at work.
However, at home, I write, create excellent presentations and edit my videos using built-in software from Apple.
The user interface is easy; it’s smooth and not distracting.
Apple provides me with simple and powerful tools to feed my need to unleash my potential for creating new things.
A as Amazon
Amazon has yet to have good press nowadays. But, yes, Jeff Bezos is the wealthiest person on Earth, thanks to Amazon.
I only sometimes loved reading. Yet three years ago, I started loving reading again. Indeed I felt like my soul was dry and that my life was not going in the direction I wanted.
I was homesick, and I stumbled on the famous series Top 10 rules for success from the Youtube channel of Evan Carmichael. I was hooked.
Some days later, Youtube recommended a video from the channel Charisma on command by Charlie and Ben.
In one of his videos, Charlie shared his list of the 12 Best Personal Development Books that have changed his life.
I decided to give it a try. So I went to Amazon and bought them all. As of today, I read 10 out of the 12 books.
Thanks to Amazon recommendations, based on my previous purchases, I discovered more books to read.
Most of the world's knowledge today is only accessible in English, and thanks to Amazon, I can have any book I want to be delivered to my mailbox within days.
Amazon is the library that I have dreamt of. It feeds my needs for personal development and my willingness to iterate daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly to become a better version of myself.
S as Spotify
Spotify is the platform that provides me with brain food and positive vibes on all my devices.
I am listening to the Epic Gaming playlist while writing this article.
I would have loved to be a musician or a singer. I might explore such a career one day.
When I was in High School at Lycée Lamine Gueye in Dakar, Senegal, we were learning music, just in theory.
Our music teacher would come and write notes on the blackboard. So I did three years of music without hearing any instrument. Everything was in mind. For me, it was just like math, but in silence.
My first music tape was a pirate tape given to me by one of my cousins in Dakar, Liberté 3 district. Mountaga was older than me, and when I visited him one day, he gave me a cassette with a compilation of sounds.
At home in Dakar, from a Muslim and conservative Pulaar family, music was “haram” (forbidden in Arabic). As a result, I never listen to music while growing up with my brothers and sisters. Instead, we would listen to it at our friend's house or on the streets.
Music is my brain's food now. And this article about how to Keep Your Brain Young with Music gives even more insight into the power of music.
I have unlimited music and podcasts with Spotify for only 2.5 € a month. Yes, I am sharing a subscription with some friends. But, sometimes, we don’t always have to pay the total price.
One of my favorite podcasts is the Tony Robbins Podcast, which I love to listen to when in my car, walking to work in the morning, or getting home at the end of the day.
Spotify is the spell that awakens the genius from within. With the platform, I can focus and be in the flow while creating content.
S as Soundcloud
Soundcloud is what makes me dance. If I listen to music on Spotify, I dance to the music with Soundcloud.
In 2003, when I was in engineering school at ISAE (Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace), I discovered Rock and Roll dancing. Indeed, we could do dancing as a sports activity. That is how I was hooked on dancing.
Once again, as a Muslim and a Pulaar, dancing was even worse than listening to music. So I never permitted myself to learn dance until I was in France, far away, where nobody could judge me because I was dancing.
In my second year of engineering school, I discovered Salsa dancing, Cuban style.
With a friend, Jacques, we used to go out and dance. One thing led to another. I discovered Bachata, Merengue, Kizomba, and Semba (not to be confused with Brazilian Samba).
What I love about dancing, especially couple dancing, is the connection with strangers for the length of a song.
One of those strangers is now the partner of my life, and I am the father of her children.
Soundcloud feeds my dancing needs and helps me to express myself differently, thanks to my body. I love dancing as it is a way for me to disconnect from the world and connect to the partner in dance with whom I am sharing this unique moment.
You notice I only focused on big platforms that need better press today. But, as humans, our creations also have their flows.
Yet I choose to see the beauty in these platforms because they help me add value to myself and others.
In summary, this is the GLAASS that I eat to feed my "multipotentiate" mind:
- G as Google
- L as LinkedIn
- A as Apple
- A as Amazon
- S as Spotify
- S as Soundcloud.
Unlike Google Glass, my GLAASS has some black magic that makes it so powerful for me.
What kind of GLAASS do you eat?
How are you leveraging technology for good?
What editors inspired you the most?
Leave a comment below.
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Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash
