1- Never burn your bridges.  You’ve all heard this one before, but it really cannot be understated.  You never know when you might be put in a position to reach out to an old colleague, an old boss, or really anyone you used to work with in order to help you out.  It’s said that time heals most wounds, and so whatever may inspire you to burn a bridge at the moment probably isn’t worth it in the long run. 

 

2- Don’t sink by sunk costs.  Even if you have a rich and deep history working with certain colleagues or working at a certain job, don’t feel obligated to stay there just because of the time and effort you’ve already invested if you’re not happy.  It’s okay to scope out other opportunities, know your value in the market, and pursue something you’ll actually enjoy.  The friends and colleagues you’ve made along the way will encourage your growth and happiness if they are at all friends and colleagues worth having. 

 

3- Keep in touch.  This is difficult for me personally.  I always feel that because everyone is a few clicks away to send a message to, I don’t have to put any effort to reaching out to people to stay in touch – THIS IS WRONG!  Genuine friendships and relationships are built on the back of some degree of effort – even if it feels effortless as you do it.  Nurture those relationships with those you enjoy being around and speaking to, and you’ll find that they’ll always be there for you. 

 

4- Always be getting better.  Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it was eventually built. Apple wasn’t instantly worth a trillion dollars, but they did slowly but surely make their way there.  And you didn’t suddenly become great at something you’re great at, you worked at it and got better every day.  In my opinion, a life worth living is just that, always building to be a little bit better than I was yesterday to be even better tomorrow.  And that doesn’t mean you have to be hyper-productive all of the time, that just isn’t sustainable.  It’s important to take breaks, to have a lazy day, to recharge how you must, but always make an effort to be trending upwards in the long run. 

 

 Postman – This is a tool that companies and people alike use to build, test, design, and learn all about interacting with APIs.  I got introduced to Postman as someone that didn’t know anything about APIs or integrations, but it’s easy to use interface and support for major API standards allowed me to further my technical expertise by making calls to systems I was already familiar with (like SurveyMonkey, Twitter and other sites that have an accessible API).