2010 in review – a year of epiphanies

by Nic Haralambous on 7/12/2010

The year 2010 will go down in my life’s history as one of change, definition and epiphanies. I have learned more in this one year than any other that I can recall.

Things that happened to me in 2010

I resigned from Vodacom SA.

I almost destroyed the best thing in my life. Fortunately I learn fast and she took me back.

Vincent Maher and I received Venture Capital from 4Di Capital and started our own company, Motribe.

I moved to Cape Town.

I’m doing long distance, again, with the same woman.

I was nominated as a Game Changer in the 2010 Men’s Health Man of the year awards (I didn’t win but a deserved Jon Cherry did!)

Here’s a little quote from my end of year blog post from last year:

“Next year is going to be about consolidation, establishing a platform and working off of that platform in my personal life and in my career. The killer concept next year is going to be mobile. There is no doubt about that in my mind. We are going to see some amazing mobile developments emerging out of Africa (I say Africa because the developed world still believes that mobile = iPhone).”

This year has definitely NOT been about consolidation at all. It’s been manic, hectic, insane and another cracking year for me. I was right about one thing though; this year has been about mobile and we did build a platform that we now work off of.

Continuing from last years list, here’s a my list of things for 2010:

Some of my favourite things from 2010

The rediscovery of 2010
Jen.

My favourite achievement this year

I STOPPED SMOKING!

Game
Bejeweled (iPod Touch)

Album
Mumford and Sons – Sigh No More

Song
Bon Iver – Skinny Love

TV series
How I Met Your Mother
Mad Men
Boardwalk Empire

Movie
Kick Ass

Book
SnowCrash – Neal Stephenson

Take out
Chef Pons Asian Cuisine

Restaurant
Fat Cactus

Airline
Kulula.com (2 years in a row)

Day of the week
Monday (Now that I run my own company)

Thing about Cape Town
Sunset arrives at ±8pm

Web application/Service
8tracks

Mobile application
miCoach (running application)

Website
damnyouautocorrect

Blog/lifestream
Blacknotes (2 years in a row)

Webisode
Jake and Amir (2 years in a row)

Online comic
Channelate

Tech Blog
ReadWriteWeb

Twitter personality
@JustinSpratt – Most interesting & relevant content of 2010.

Twitter stream
The Big Picture

Hobbies
Reading – New retro entry for 2010 with thanks to the next item on my list.
Acoustic guitar
Running

Gadget
Amazon Kindle

Night club
Movida

Drink
Lipton’s Peach Ice Tea

Alcoholic drink
Southern Comfort & Lime on the rocks in a tall glass

Coffee
Nespresso espresso

Event
The first African Football World Cup, held in South Africa. What a proud experience for us all.

_____

I’m not going to be making any predictions for next year. I’m pretty bad at being a “futurist” so I’ll stick to what I do know:

Mobile is the next big thing that is happening right now.
Music can cure any headache if you choose the right song.
Life will happen.

And finally some advice that I think we all can learn from 2010:

Write a diary (your chronicles) because you never who might want to make a movie about you someday.

nharalambous@gmail.com

There are 2 comments in this article:

  1. 7/12/2010Bevan says:

    Well said! Agree about auto correct! That is some funny stuff! Spud movie grossing a record r2.9 mil at box office according to data released today is
    Is also something worth mentioning for sa movies. And, how good Afrikaans music is becoming more and more relevant and noteworthy… Well, in my world anyway!

    Great post – thanks.

  2. 13/12/2010Wezz says:

    Awesome, glad to know someone else other than myself is hooked on Blacknotes for a second year running :) . Where the hell did Mumford and Sons come from? never heard of them before, checked out a few songs and it’s one fine band!

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