The Sh*t You Give Up and Take On Makes Who You Are | June, 2018
A Letter to My Future Self
Dear Zake,
I’m the 24-year-old version of you from 2018, how have you been?
Since 2015, I decided to take a day every month to reflect on work, life and thoughts, sharing with you.This is the 31th mail I’m sending to you.
June — The Sh*t You Give Up and Take On
Let’s talk about the sh*t I gave up and took on during the past month today.
Good things happen to those who hustle. — Anais Nin
I came across the quote above right before the writing, and it makes sense to all the good things that happen to me in June. Free paragliding camp opportunity, new role at OnePlus and a paid video editing project…
I have always been a fan of photography, and starting from last October, I’m taking video shooting and editing more seriously. That’s where I made my first short film and every thing begins to be different.
Work
As you may know, I’ve been switching jobs twice this year, due to some reasons, from the VR startup to ByteDance/Faceu, then now at OnePlus. But when I look back at all the choices I made, things I decided to do and managed to do, it all connect with each other and make sense.
For every decision we make in life, there’s no right or wrong, only how you see it and what you’re going to do about it afterwards.
Giving up a job with less stress, good pay and reputation may sounds silly for other people, but as long as you are happy about your decision, that’s a decision that’s worth to make.
In the past 3 weeks at OnePlus, there’s more challenging tasks, more working hours and less free time, less “losing myself” moments. I’m happy about this, because it is what I’m looking for. Surrounding myself with a group of people who actually do stuff and create stuff, not wasting time as everybody else’s doing just for the sake of getting some titles or highlights in the resume. My resume is not a piece of paper, but the results you will get in Google search, podcasts, blogs, videos and other’s words of month.
Time is priceless, and it never come back.
So far I’ve been adjusting myself to the new environment and new teams every day, with the resources and platform we’ve already had, I believe we can make big progress in camera & image quality.
One thing I need to remind myself every day is that, instead of working on daily product management tasks, aka things that are urgent but not important; I should focus more on mid and long term product roadmap and goals.
This is what will make a product manager stand out, separate from the rest of the product managers, and become the product lead or the ability to start their own business.
Other than my daily job, I also took a part-time video editing job. This is something new for me, so I consider this more like a challenge, not a chance to earn that extra money.
For me, it means a lot because I’m transforming my passion/hobby into a side job that giving me an extra way of income. And the task itself is not easy at all. Why?
There’re 322GB video footages, all in English.
Deadline in 4 days, plus I work full-time during the day.
There’s no scripts and they don’t know what they want in the video.
It’s about a new innovation in blockchain, you need to teach yourself the basic background knowledges of the technology first.
And when you combine those 4 things together, it’s really hard for them to find an ideal video editor, especially in China.
I took the challenge, because I think it’s an opportunity to practice all my skills with much higher standards. After hearing they are satisfied with the final video, this experience becomes one of the moments that I’m most proud of.
Maybe this is my niche, to edit English tech startup promo videos as a second job to get extra money and pursue my hobbies.
You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.
I think time works in the same way, but you also need to take care of your health and exercise more.
Life
My June is kicked off with a paragliding training camp, which I never thought of doing it before. Back in May, I was recommended by one of my couchsurfing friends who hosted me at her apartment last year, it’s a free paragliding training camp experience for content creator or social platform KOLs. I applied without thinking that much, since being super bored at Bytedance at the time.
Then surprisingly I was selected after they reviewed my blogs, short films and podcasts. And I decided to join the camp in June, here’re 2 episodes of my journey to be a paragliding pilot, it covers the whole experience schedule as well as my personal thoughts:
In the mid July, I was also invited to a private music event in IKEA by my friend. She introduced me to a lot of people who are passionate about photography, cinematography and music, by the way, these people also have their daily work, however they manage to find the group and keep their hobbies on a high level.
The positive vibes are contagious, and I should hang out with them more on weekends.
There’s also a fun thing happening on that day. I found a girl in the audience, beautifully and quietly sitting in the crowd and enjoying the music, sometimes even singing with them. The stage lights perfectly moved back and forth on her face, and it’s just like in a movie, she’s the one I need to know and ask out for a date.
I didn’t went straight up to tell her, instead I was trying to be talkative and open with every one around her. Finally we left the event together, and she’s trying to point me the way getting a taxi, since she would be driving with her friend.
I thanked her and asked her name and Wechat. I told her my feeling about her later that night, but she stopped replying. And I respect and embrace the results. Or, maybe she’s just attractive to me on that single night.
For me, the meaning of doing this is more than successfully asking her out on a date, but being bold and confident enough to take action and seize what you love. It’s about finding the beauty in our life and never regretting.
At the end of July, I went to Taipei, Taiwan for team building and a short business trip. There’re a lot of similarities between Taiwan and Japan, since the Taiwan is colonized by Japan for 50 years.
I enjoy the living pace and people there, but the food might be too bland for me. However, the coastal road are superb, it could be great for a road trip or a paragliding ride by the coast.
My new job at OnePlus will provide me a lot of opportunities to travel, Taipei, Bangalore or Europe, which really suits my need at the present.
What I’m Digesting
1. The Alchemist — Paulo Coelho
I bought a copy because Lebron James was reading it on the bench and I was also recommended by a friend from Bytedance. I’ve read it twice and now it becomes THE BEST book I’ve read in 2018, period.
The secret is here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve on the present, what comes later will also be better.
2. Aubrey Marcus: How to Get The Mental Willpower to Know What is Best and Actually Follow Through On It
3. The Most Important Skill Nobody Taught You
4. Agile Makes No Sense
5. UNDERSTANDING HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY FROM THE MASTERS
Hey Zake from 2050, or whatever year you are, I hope you will find this email helpful and bring your some great memories. LIFE IS A DRUG, LOVE IT, LIVE IT.
Much love,
The 24-year-old Zake 😎
