My 2019 - Becoming a CEO, DeepMind, VP Offer, and 100 rejections

It's been a while. I haven't written anything here for like a year. Did you realize that 2019 is almost over in a couple of hours? How was your 2019?

This year was a big year for me, both personally and professionally, but also one of the most difficult yet. Big doesn't mean good. But it certainly means there's a lot of changes.

Last year, around the same occassion, I created some kind of a year-end review. Plus, I made the classical new year's resolution list, but this time it was different. I went and tried the best I could to do everything on it.

Today, I decided to do the same thing and made it a tradition. I am going to review my year and reveal some of my plans for the new year. Note that this is my 2019, so the usual caveats are in place. This post is probably relevant to no one but me. Thank you so much for taking the time to review my year with me regardless.

Anyway.

The year started great with my friends and I going out to Gunung Parang to do rock climbing. We spent a couple of days there and the experience was memorable. It's not rock climbing as you might have imagined/known (re Via Ferrata). Because in Via Ferrata climbing, we use a protected climbing route, built with a steel cable rail fixed to the rock, metal steps, ladders, zip wires, etc. I guess I can cross "Climb a mountain" off my list now, right?

This time, I also decided to apply for a position at Google DeepMind. I wanted it so badly in the past years, I just needed to get it out of my system. Somehow, I managed to get invited for the interview and unsurprisingly blew it off after a couple of stages. In my defense, I was so tired because of traveling abroad and was having trouble concentrating. lol. But I don't think that was the problem. I also promised to write the experience on my blog but I guess I never will. In the same month, I was appointed as CEO of Neurafarm. More on that later.

In February, I went to Bangkok to attend Global Social Venture Competition (GSVC) Regional Finals 2019 which is one of the oldest Social Venture Competition and was originally started in Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley 2 decades ago. The result wasn't that good for me, but it was ok. This month, Neurafarm was selected as Top 10 Indonesia in ALIPAY-NUS Enterprise Social Innovation Challenge as well.

In April, I wanted to flex my creativity muscle again and decided to team up with my friends for Bandung Datathon 2019, an event organized by Bandung City Government in collaboration with the City of Melbourne, Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS), School of Business and Management ITB, The Greater Hub, and Go-Jek. We created a platform called Neuratraffic to help Bandung Government cope with road accident through data analytics. Only became the Top 10, again. Oh, I supposed it was around this time I went to a Big Bad Wolf event. I bought several books, and haven't even read them. But overall, this year I read a lot. Compared to previous year.

I created a little project called "Friday Book Review" where I review books that I read. The main purpose was actually to make it easier for me to remember what I've read (and revisit them in the future). Everytime I finish a book, I create a short review and post in on my Instagram Stories. Here's a taster:

In May, after 3 years in a row (2017, 2018, 2019) of trying, Neurafarm finally got selected for The Nextdev 2019 and wins Golden Ticket for The Nexdev Summit 2019. This month, I was also contacted by an HRD Executive to interview for VP of Engineering position at a VC-backed(Series B) company. I went to China in the same month, to attend ChangemakerXchange in Hangzhou on May 24th-28th 2019. ChangemakerXchange is a global collaboration platform for young social innovators to connect and develop cross-border collaborations, co-created by Ashoka and Robert Bosch Stiftung. I met a lot of inspiring people there. Some of them are even on the Forbes 30 under 30 lists.

Oh, now I know what it feels like to be in China even just for a couple of days. The internet and language are the biggest barrier for me. Imagine you couldn't access Google Translate, but have to communicate with locals who (some of them) can't understand what you're talking about. And the food, for me it's hard to find Halal food there. Luckily, the organizer was kind enough to consider my diet.

Around June/July, we got selected to be part of GK Plug and Play family and was graduated in October. I guess around this month, I also got in touch with a Senior Vice President (SVP) at one of the unicorns in Indonesia and he personally invited me to join the company. I politely declined the 'offer' because I still have other things to do. There are several offers that I declined as well.

I was kind of lost track of what happened for the rest of the year. But in October, Neurafarm is awarded as the Best AgTech/FoodTech Company in Indonesia by ASEAN Ricebowl Startup Awards and wins 3rd Place in Create@ Alibaba Cloud Startup Contest 2019.

In December we also participated in The Nextdev Summit 2019, GAIA Impact Challenge 2019, and TINC. To my surprise, I also got invited to become a speaker in local NeurIPS event held by Bukalapak that month. That was a fun experience. Oh, I just remember that I was invited to speak at Femme in STEM event in September as well. And finally, I had the chance to visit Bali. But it's for 'work' though.

Aside from the good part, I also experienced bad things and struggled a lot this year. My phone got stolen in the middle of the year, and I lost a lot of memories (Files, Photos, Videos, etc) especially when I was abroad. I would never turn off my Google Photos synchronization ever again. I also got rejected a lot this year and collected around 100 of 'no' and failures this year. That's almost 1 rejection every 3-4 days. Still not that much. I am going to double those numbers up in 2020 :)

Ah, well...

I missed Hackathon so much. I missed building something for 'fun'. So I decided to compete again. Although it was a bit hard for me to assemble a team because my friends are practically scattered across the country and are busy with their work. Luckily, Fari and Icha are willing to give it a go. We competed in two competitions: Toyota Hackathon (Fun/Code) and Hackdata Indosat Ooredoo 2019. The results weren't satisfying but it's great to compete (and code) again.

Speaking about building something, I realized that I do a lot of design this year. Of course, starting with Dr. Tania apps:

Neuratraffic platform:

Toyota Hackathon (Fun/Code):

Hackdata Indosat Ooredoo 2019:

and, my professional Project:

I feel productive this year. There are several other things that happened in 2019, but I guess I'll keep it to myself for now.

Well, this is longer than I thought it would be. Let's wrap it up then. Following are several things I wanted to accomplish in 2019. Based on how the year goes, I am going to grade my performance.

0. Reconnect with God. (...)
1. Run my first marathon. (Nope)
2. Maintain an ongoing schedule of running at least 10 km a week. (I am going to say 1/12)
3. Visit 5 different countries. (2/5)
4. Read (at least) 24 books; Finish ESL, USLR, PRML, DL, and CV. (14/24)
5. Make writing one of the most important things I do all year: 2 posts a month. (What I had in mind was to write technical articles twice a month so that's around 24 technical posts, but in reality, I only post book reviews in 2019. And it's only 14. Does it count tho? I guess... so it's 14/24). 6.Something with my financial (income, giving, savings, etc). (I learnt a valuable lesson with these things. I made some bad investments but it's better than in 2018. I hope to improve my portfolio in 2019).
6. Help Neurafarm get Series A funding or become --- resident. (Looking back, this was stupid. There's no way I could land a Series A funding that easily. My goal for next year was a bit different :) And about become **** resident, let's see what happens.)**
7. Improve my English & Mathematics skill. (I did take an IELTS course but never did something with my Mathematics skill. But, was there any improvement? I hope so. That's 1/2, then)
8. Publish a paper; Attend 1 conference. (What was I thinking?)
9. Learn new tech stack. (I learnt several new tech stacks, but the highlight was Flutter. I built a professional project using Flutter)
10. Take IELTS or TOEFL test. (Nope)
11. Start writing a book. (Nope)
12. Learn to drive a car (get a license). (No)
13. Climb a mountain. (Checked)
14. Go fishing. (No)
15. Walk 10000 steps a day. (In total, I would say I did it for only a month, so that's 1/12)
16. Re-learn piano. (No)
17. Re-learn Deutsch and Japanese. (No)
18. Prepare for Graduate school. (No)
19. Meet with (at least) 50 new people. (Checked. I'm amazed by the number (and the kind) of new people I got in touch with)

Honestly, that's not looking good at all. But I'm glad that I put those things on my list.

PLANNING FOR NEXT YEAR

For the past 5 years, I had chosen themes of my life:

• 2014 & 2015: Year of Transition
• 2016 & 2017: Year of Learning and Preparation
• 2018: Year of Revolution

If we follow the pattern, 2019 should be a 'Year of Revolution' as well. However, I realized that 2019 is more of 'Year of Struggle'. So, for 2020.. let me get back to you 1 year from now. As for goals, Following are several thing I wanted to do/achieve in 2020. It's pretty much the same with this year, only fewer. Let's try again, shall we?

1. Reconnect with God.
2. Run my first marathon.
3. Maintain an ongoing schedule of running at least 4 km a week.
4. Visit 5 different countries.
5. Read (at least) 20 books.
6. Make writing one the most important things I do all year: 1 technical post a month. 1 non-technical post every 3 weeks.
7. Something with my financial (income, giving, savings, etc).
8. Improve my English & Mathematics skill.
9. Publish a paper; Attend 1 conference.
10. Learn new tech stacks.
11. Take IELTS or TOEFL test.
12. Start writing a book.
13. Learn to drive a car (get a license).
14. Go fishing.
15. Walk 6500 steps on average.
16. Meet with (at least) 50 new people.

Thanks for reviewing my year with me. I hope that you have a fulfilling year! New year, new feels, new chances. Same dreams, fresh starts. Wishing you peace, love, health, and happiness in 2020.