5​ ​things​ ​I​ ​learned​ ​in​ ​the​ ​past​ ​5​ ​years

• People are far more important than anything you are dreaming about

I spent most of my years trying to convince people to do things my way. It’s not only time and nerves consuming, but also a stupid egoistic strategy. You see life is all about connections and collaboration. If you think you can go through life alone, then go ahead, do it alone. But if you really want to do it with people, find a way to communicate with them, acquire empathy, and be open to any reaction or feedback you may receive your way, be it negative or positive, as people will help you grow! Bottom line, get outside your comfort zone.

• There will always be new opportunities, new technologies and new ideas

When I first started my so called career, I wanted to learn about well, pretty much everything, so I can create anything from scratch without relying on anyone but myself, constantly on the run to catch up with technology advances. Hold on, tiger! That is absolutely nonsense! Specializing in something you are passionate about is the most important thing someone can do. The result: 1) It will create abundance so you can learn everything later on 2) Allowing the mind to focus on one thing and one thing only, you’ll be giving it your best performance and thus a great outcome. While you can never stop time, and while new things will so very often be created by others, do not think for once that you’ll be missing out on anything. On the contrary; by specializing, you’ll very simply be setting up the base for you to be able to hang on to and build on any opportunity you get.

• You don't need a fortune to start and grow an idea in your head

You have a brilliant app idea. First thing you look for? A programmer to develop it into a functioning app. Few accept the fact that starting up a project is simpler than one might think. Just like when you buy a car, you ask people about it, test drive it, research about it on the internet, or cognitively gather all prior information you know about it. Developing a simple business model and prototype of your idea is the first step in bringing your idea into reality. Do just that for your idea before any other thing, and you’ll see you are good to go! Not only that, but it’s also the simplest and cheapest way to go about it. You can start here.

• You will never have a killer project without user research & validations

I have created at least 10 fully functioning projects in the past few years, but none of them saw the light of day! Oh but why?! On a mechanical level we are all the same, but through experience I’ve noticed that each brain has a way of thinking based on past situations it went through. For instance, asking my brother and even my closest friends to do things and think similarly was challenging enough, so how did I expect a million other strangers to do the same way an idea creator does it! (even if those are 10 people!) It is not really logic! And yet, indeed, I’ve allowed this one thing to happen to me more than 10 times, and I am here to tell you to think differently and to know that everyone sees something in a different way. With ideas and innovations, look for feedback and aim for user research EVERY STEP OF THE WAY. Adapt your idea based on individuals’ needs and feedbacks.

• Getting Lean in UX and other areas in your life is very beneficial

I have spent my life thinking and planning most of my ideas and projects. I spent most of my time relying on people to complete the work for me. Lately, I realized how that habit killed my doing powers. Overthinking is as bad as Overdoing. We must balance the two in order to get the best results. It was honestly a hard thing to switch to a balance, but with the help of the FOG method things got much easier for me, and I started growing again step by step. Yes I used a method, but didn’t stick to it at a 100%, I made work based on what I need. This is a pure example of how getting lean in everything we do, is far more beneficial than sticking to a specific process, and getting frustrated when things don’t work out. Being lean simply means being flexible. If something is now working out, that doesn’t mean in the future it will.

Cheers, Steemers & Steemians!