What is a 1000X Consultant? Good consultants are a rare breed to come across. But they exist. They are punctual, client-oriented, and excellent at what they specialize. I despise mindless classifications. They are rarely useful, and exceptional cases always fall through the cracks. But in the curious case of consultant abilities, “Good” just doesn’t cut it. “Good” in its entirety is a stepping stone, not a destination. Unfortunately, most good consultants do not recognize it. They become “good” and they get complacent. They stop improving, or worse: they improve at the pace of an average ..read more

In 2013, I struggled to get new clients into my funnel. My resume wasn’t getting enough attention it came to enjoy. I was targeting Program Management positions with no luck. My connections drained up. This happens to everybody as they move up the promotion pyramid I had two choices: Either I needed to up my game, or tune down and do something that’s more on demand (i.e. development, technical architecture, etc.) The first approach was the obvious winner for my career goals. But how would I go about it? I had the experience. I had the certifications. There were jobs on the job web sites ..read more

Fired from my job, what do I do? I was working as a consultant at a startup. One of my team members was a brilliant manager named Jason (not his real name). Jason was not a 10x manager, but he was diligent and interested in his craft. He did everything right and he enjoyed his job. His projects were on time and his metrics were solid. Until one day, he was called into the CTO’s office He was told that his performance was sub-par and he was given his 1-month notice period. We were all baffled So was Jason. He couldn’t help himself thinking that he must have done something wrong. You ..read more

Michael began his swimming career at the age of 7 He started swimming with his sisters. He would never go underwater because he was so scared. So, what did he do? Quit swimming, or stay where he is? No: he decided to swim backward. Interesting enough, the first stroke that he ever mastered was the backstroke At that ripe age of 7, Michael had no idea that he would grow up to become the greatest swimmer of all time. Over time, he tried and mastered this stroke. After years of training, Michael became an Olympic gold medalist. Michael Phelps started with what he did best  And he beat it ..read more

I had a coaching call the other day with Jason (not his real name) He’s an ambitious Solution Architect but he doesn’t like how his ambition is consistently overruled by his managers. He’s great at solving deep technical issues but he also has a broad experience in various parts of Tech World. He has both a specialist’s and a generalizer’s point of view and it’s constantly getting lost by having to fight in the trenches. And he wants to have a say in more strategic decisions that create the technical problems he eventually fights during the day. When he brought this up with his manager, t ..read more

I used to be a book worm  When I was 7, I would finish two 300+ pages a week.  When I was sick, I had lots of homework to do, that is.  I’m quite an extrovert person. Reading books were feeding my introvert side. I felt like I’m escaping into someone else’s world that they had the trouble to create. Reading books made me feel sharp and articulate.    It went like this for about 10 years.  Then something (the Internet) happened And suddenly I was spending all my time in front of computers, and then smartphones.  One day I realized, if I wanted to be sharp again, I got to back to re ..read more