I have been thinking a lot about this post mainly for two reasons: it is about a complex topic, and it is some kind of a tricky thing to talk about. Bear with me if I ramble too much. 

During my sort professional career (almost 9 years) I have been involved in various tricky situations, I have been working with different kind of people’s profiles and I had the luck (I believe) to work and know several parts of a company; even to know ins-and-outs of how to manage an organization. With all of this I was able to get, not only a great professional and personal experience, but also to being able to experience and create my own vision of what “work” means and how to do it.

Talking about work, normally it is though that it is something “mandatory” that we must do to pay bills, taxes, buy things to eat and being someone in life… And this makes people to do their daily tasks as they have been told to do, barely covering the expectations and that’s all; probably also, giving that extra mile from time to time (but only if there is an extra payment or some kind of compensation).My approach about his is different. I see the work as place where you either are the real “owner” of what you need to do, or you will never be able to take control of it, learn, grow up and, eventually. succeed.

But… what means to own your work? The answer goes beyond being the owner of the company. Really the most important key for this is to be aware of what is really your job, understand very well what you need to do and take it as your own. This may sound very obvious and that we have all heard about but… how many people do this really? Take your job as your own is not an easy job; you cannot achieve it in months, neither by having big responsibilities within the company. Basically I would say it is a state of mind; a vision of how things work in general: if you do something, DO IT. But do not do it because your boss tells you, because you have been told to do or because the society tells you to do it… Do it because you really want to do it; like if you had created the job and it is your product. If you ever get that conscience, you will be able to control everything around your job and take better decisions. 

I know this is a very controversial topic and not always it needs to be this way. I understand very well that there are cases where people have to work to subsist and they do not have any other option than work in something that they do not like, but it gives them enough to pull forward. Only I am trying to explain what I have learnt until now and I believe that this positive and ownership approach in your job (at any level) is the key to keep growing in your professional and personal life.

And I am very much looking forward to knowing what I will learn within the next years. Until today, as the CTO of EthosData, I have been able to realize this and I think it is a path I must follow. In this job I had the luck to see all the layers of a company: starting as an internship until work side by side with the CEO and management. Is it possible that this flexible environment has been crucial to learn this?

Finally, I would like to make it clear that I am not an expert on this (if ever experts really exists in something…). Only I am talking from my own experience, from what I can see around me and from what other people tell me with more experience. At the end, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, merely I have 9 years of working experience.