Year in Review - 2024
- Muxin Li
- Jan 31
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 31
2024 was a big year for me personally and professionally. If I had to sum it up in one word - it's "AI."
Just kidding.
It's "clarity." I feel as though I know what I want for the first time.
It took a while to get here. Along the way, I made a lot of new connections, learned a lot of new skills, and discovered things I didn't expect to.
Leveling Up
Never stop learning - there's never a better time to start than now. I was late to the AI party but I wasn't going to let this opportunity slip by!
Alongside AI, I upskilled on product growth, executive leadership, and developing my personal brand.
AI Projects
Building products is something you learn through experience - doing matters more than theory. Getting to reimagine the world with AI and LLM's potential was incredibly fun and led to interesting side projects to flex my product skills.
Coaches & Mentors
It's immeasurable how much growth and clarity I got from working with my career coaches. Ironically, it taught me to lean into my own intuition and lessen self-doubt - instead of leaning on experts to give me the answers.
I'm so grateful to these coaches for their support, knowledge and energy - I highly recommend each of them. My advice is to ID what you are looking to fill - each coach specializes in an area.
Or you can do what I did, and have multiple coaches at a time. I found their skills very complementary (albeit challenging to juggle!)
A big shout out to my mentors - taking time for a phone call just to help someone takes a special kind of person who's both generous and knowledgeable. If you are looking for product mentors, I highly recommend ADPList to get started.
Meetings
It's dangerous to go alone! Take this - a community to go with you.
It's better to journey with others. I'm glad I was able to meet so many great people this year - a lot of inspiring role models, and many kindred peers.
It was also fun reconnecting with some old friends - more grey hairs, but some things stay the same! Seeing where people went after our time in grad school reminds me of how far we can go.
Challenges
Houston has been in the news a lot this year for weather related power outages. Let's just say we've gotten used to the idea of planning an evacuation with each weather warning. We were very lucky to have options, many aren't as fortunate.
This was also the year I was officially diagnosed with ADHD and MDD.
It answered a lot of questions, and I'm happy to have found a better happy baseline.
We also suffered a loss in our family. We leaned on each other to make up for the loss with support and just... being there.
Unfortunately we weren't able to visit China to pay our respects in person. We hope the political climate will improve soon.
Highlights
Saving the best for last.
We journeyed to Ohio to see our second full eclipse in our lifetime. Even seeing it a second time was awe inspiring.
I got accepted to attend Lenny's Summit - what a fun and energizing experience! Met so many great product leaders, and I got to help create Lenny's Line.
Biggest news - my little brother got married! Sparing photos for his sake, but they look so cute together.
Life Moves On
We decided we want to start a family in the near future. I surprised even myself - I thought a fulfilling career was the biggest thing I wanted.
Thanks to everything this year, I'm more in tune with myself and my intuition than I ever was. I'm thankful for realizing what I wanted while I still had the chance
I think we'll take our kid to see the full eclipse in 2044.
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