2009: My year in review (or what I remember!)

It’s inevitable that at the end of every December one starts to think about the good and bad things that happened during the previous year.  Like many, I find myself thinking about 2009 and making plans for the New Year.  Yes, the famous resolutions, but that’s another blog post.  What I can tell you in advance is that one of my New Years resolutions is to write more, maybe on this blog, maybe on another, or even in another medium.  So, I’ll start acting before the year ends and write about the past year.  These are my 2009 random thoughts, some personal, some business, some nonsense. Nothing comprehensive or well researched, but fun.

Twitter goes mainstream

Without a doubt this was the year of Twitter.  I can’t start to tell you how many times the issue of Twitter (and social media in general) came up during meetings with clients and new business presentations.  Some people don’t like it, others don’t feel confident with its transparency; while others talk about it as a salvation for marketing professionals and businesses.  Who knows? I have my personal opinions, most positive, but time will tell.  Maybe in a future post!

However, for me the great thing about Twitter was getting to know interesting people from Puerto Rico and having direct contact with colleagues or marketing professionals abroad.  So far I’ve had the opportunity to meet some of the members of this cast of characters in real life, such as @hramos, @sumares, @nativiris, @mmontalvo, @nopatria, @bpanisse, @consultantrc and @lucymfel.  It was a pleasure.  Also, it was very interesting to follow the tweets from @gabopagan, @afreytes, @withduerespect, @miguelrios, @eldifusor, @redod, @meebits and other more outlandish characters such as @nerdote @alkarajosehiran, @matuzalem, @pedroheimlich, @macetaminofen and many others.

LessConf shows fat is sexy

One of the best experiences of the year was attending LessConf at Jacksonville, Florida.  I already wrote about it here, so you can read that post for more details.  It was great to learn about starting new ventures and developing applications from a few of the most successful entrepreneurs in the industry, such as the founders of 37signals, Contrast, Freshbooks, Grasshopper, Wufoo, CdBaby, WineLibrary.tv and others.

Once again I commend Allan (@lessallan) and Steven (@stevenbristol) for such a great idea and the execution a conference sans all the unnecessary stuff, just great speakers and attendees.

A new venture begins

I am very glad to be in the midst of starting a new venture with a new set of business partners.  I have been thinking about this specific idea for a long time but it wasn’t until this year that I shared it with a long time friend and started to set the wheels in motion.  Actually, one of the reasons for attending LessConf was to find a third partner to deal with the technological aspects of the venture, and although we ended up finding him in Puerto Rico, LessConf opened our eyes on the ideal team composition we needed.

More details on this coming soon. Ok, not soon, but you’ll be one of the firsts to hear about it.

Welcome Entrepreneurs

I love entrepreneurship.  There is something I can’t resist about coming up with a new idea, making into reality and taking huge risks to make them work.  So I have to commend a few of the new entrepreneurs of 2009.
Congratulations to @cacoperez and @goprint.  Guys, if you are looking to print anything at the right cost, with incredible quality and small quantities, call Carlos Arturo or Viviana first.

I also want to wish the best of luck and success to @lbenitez and @gloripoll at Pio.mu.  They have a great concept and are promoting a great cause by selling safe and creative toys, not only to Puerto Rico but to the whole world.

Last but not least I want to commend everyone that works with @vayabroqui, @redod, @hramos, and @onedgepr for your innovation in developing native iPhone applications.

Ignore Everybody

I didn’t read a lot this year by the way of books.  Yes, I read a lot online, via magazines and blogs, but my heavy reading was scarce.  So it’s hard (or easy) to choose the best book I read all year and that must be Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh McLeod (@gapingvoid)

If you want to start a business read this book.  By the way, Hugh draws cartoons on the back of business cards and he uses the word “fuck” a few times.  So that’s great.

Other books I can recommend are The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes, Ace of Cakes by Duff Goldman, Born to Run by Christopher McDougall and War by Gwynne Dyer.  I am currently reading the four of them, at the same time, it’s crazy!

The Economy & Business

I don’t want to write a lot about the business right now (I’m in the middle of an imaginary Christmas vacation), but do expect to write more about Viviré on the next couple of months.  What I can tell you is that we started 2009 with the bad news that one of our bigger accounts wasn’t going to continue but we hustled (to use @garyvee’s favorite term) during the year and we ended in a much better condition than we started. Way better! Looking back, 2009 was great for us and I bet 2010 will be better, we’ll make sure of that.

My Family

I have been blessed with a great family and what I consider to be the best of 2009 is the time spent with my beautiful wife and daughter.  There’s just no substitute for that.