As I've already done, I like doing a recap of what's going on my life. This time, instead of just recapping a year or an event, I want to recap the last decade. Not only did I realize how important this decade was. I'm sure it was for many of you as well. A decade ago, I'm pretty sure only Secra had a child and now he has 4 and a bunch of you guys also have littles ones that changed your life. As usual, it's just bullet points of the major events that happened throughout the year. I also came up with the Goals of the year or GOTY that only started appearing in the last 2 years, but that I set on January 1st every year. I basically started doing that when I finally understood what having MS was. I haven't set my goals for 2020, but I'll take suggestions ;-)
2010: Acquisio
Great business opportunity and the start of my interest in marketing technologies. Since then, I’ve now established a 10-year experience in marketing technologies. It's also the first time where I said "Fuck it, I'll break my CDI, because working with Marc Poirier seems more interesting than working at Aegis
Je sais si pas vous vous souvenez de ce manteau. C'etait un pote de Boston qui a fait voyager le manteau de son pote à travers le monde. On prennait une tof comme ça puis on renvoyait le manteau avec la tof à Boston. Je crois que c'était un pote qui était en Iraq en plus. Bon trip en 2009, j'ai pas de tofs 2010 et 2011, mais à partur de 2012 après.
2011: Started dating Heather
She changed my life the best of ways. I still think that 9 years later. Seriously the luckiest man alive to have found such a perfect life partner. I was living in London since January and I quit my job to move back to Paris and move in with her at the end of the year.
2012: Marriage, the boring one
Best decision I ever made in my life. I call it the "boring wedding" just because it was mostly paperwork so Heather didn't have to sign up for another Masters to stay in the country. I still think it's my "best decision ever" 8 year later.
La Cortille, get ready for us 2023
2013: Marriage, the best one
The best party ever in Drôme provençale. I still think that 8 year later. I remember saying I wanted to do a 10-year reunion in the same 10-bedroom villa we rented. I'm still thinking about it for 2023. Maybe Renfl, Misako & Toki will come this time.
It sums up the year in one picture
2014: Datorama
Best business opportunity I ever undertook. Was the 35th employee worldwide and it grew to 300+ people in 3 years. It had zero business in France and I built one that successfully got absorbed by a giant like Salesforce. I hired one of my best friends Romain a year later. He now has a well-paying job and just bought a house. I'm pretty happy about that.
Marriage de Jill et Blake à Beacon, NY. Tellement buens!
2015: Becky mourning
The best person in the world. She was so young and it made us so sad. It still makes us very sad more than 5 years later. It was devastating. Obviously, even more devastating for Heather losing her mom so quickly. More devastating than SEP honestly.
Where we scaterred her ashes in the Pacific.
2016: MS
Really shitty auto-immune disease that changed my life from head to toe. But maybe it changed my life in a good way? Also, totally bailed on the great opportunity to be the Country Manager of Integral AdScience for a €€€ €€€ job plus tons of perks. Just because I trusted that fuckface YR, I wasn't interested and preferred staying with the Dato France that i had built.
Petit tour de canal bien trempé avec Sam et Megan
2017: YR incident
He fired me right after I told him I had MS and had built him a great business for him with Pernod Ricard, Aegis and Publicis. I don't think he fired me because of MS, he just felt he had used up my client portfolio, so he replaced me to get someone with a new portfolio. All the other Datoramas around the world were hiring more people as they were growing. YR preferred replacing me because he's a fucking douche. First time in my life I was fired, so it hurt pretty bad. But maybe I would’ve ended up in a wheel chair had I stayed and gotten a job at Salesforce. So who knows, maybe it was a good thing I got fired before the Salesforcebuyout.
This picture sums up pretty well how I felt after being fired.
2018: Transparency
Started Transparency with a great project for Rocketer that unfortunately only lasted 10 months. I also accomplished many certifictations such as "Meditation Guru" with Surrendipity, and other Coursera certifictations from Yale and Leiden.
GOTY
1. Start meditating every day: Check
2. Start my own company: Check
3. Sign my 1st client (Rocketer): Check
Completed all my GOTY, so i'm pretty happy about that
Tellement buens de revoir des potes de Babson 20 ans plus tard
2019: Move to Aix
>Second best decision I ever made in my life.
>Started at Aix Marseille Université & other Transparency small activities
GOTY
1. Déménager à Aix en Provence: Check
2. Trouver un poste de prof à l'université à Aix: Check
3. Passe le code de la route: Check
Mes 40 ans, zero quoi
2020: Transparency Booms!
The Datorama-YR saga is finally over!! That page is finally turned 2 ½ years later. I only got a 1/4 of what I was asking for (75K€), but oh well. The Prudhomme system just sucks. At least Pole Emploi was good for 2 years. Vive la France!
GOTY
1. Transparency gets another good project
2. Get a French driver's licence
3. Ted Aix Tours starts getting more business come tourist season
I hope you like this little story, let's see if I can accomplish my GOTYs in 2020!
Zero!
