Néstor Gandara - The Art of Building Your Resilience and Adaptability: How new practices can improve your performance in life after COVID-19

The Art of building your resilience
and adaptability

How new practices can improve
your performance in life after COVID-19

Nstor Gndara Fernndez

The Art of building your resilience and adaptability
How new practices can improve your performance in life after COVID-19

Primera edicin: 2020

ISBN: 9788418548581
ISBN eBook: 9788418548109

del texto:

Nstor Gndara Fernndez

del diseo de esta edicin:

Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial
(Caligrama, 2020

www.caligramaeditorial.com

info@caligramaeditorial.com)

Impreso en Espaa Printed in Spain

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I dedicate it to all the people who have been affected
by the pandemic in some way.

It is impossible to beat a person who never gives up.
Stand strong, work hard, and keep going.

Nstor

Acknowledgments

I want to thank the people who inspired me to be better in my life. They helped me write these words, because I learnt from every single one of them. I hope I can do the same for others.

Thank you to my Harvard teachers, especially Bill George. One of his books, True North can greatly impact your Leadership path and I totally recommend it to you. Of course, thanks to my teammates, the best team in Harvard ever: Laura, Hui, Vctor, Pedro, Greg, Peter, and especially Henning, for the great conversations about his experience during the pandemic in China, the different culture, leadership strategies, etc. Thanks buddy, for these amazing moments.

Thank you to my friend, Carlos Abella. He has been my unique professional mentor, and my reference as an executive leader. He showed me the happiness wheel and how important is to balance your work-life.

Thank you to Ali, Wayne Saxe, Marcelo Royn, Luis Cisneros and Manuel Lpez. Outstanding people, brilliant and friends.

Thank you to my fantastic Steve. Wisdom, genuine and fabulous, I hope you write a ton of books that could inspire all of us.

Thank you to my family who gave me the twin gift; a love for learning and a love for people. Thanks for instilling the value of helping people in me, love you so much. I am grateful to my brother, one of the best and most hardworking people, with the biggest heart, that I know. To my brother-in-law, thanks for your bounty and positivism.

Thanks to my family-in-law for giving me everything without expecting anything in return. They are the kindest and most generous people I have ever met. To my other brother-in-law, thanks for your loyalty and for being an exemplary person that always stays true to their principles.

Thank you to my wife, she is my path. I do not have words to express my gratitude to her. Everything makes more sense with her, she inspires me every day with her passion, creativity, loyalty, values, love, tenderness and her amazing smile. I can say 100%, that I am a better person because of her.

I want to sincerely say thank you for being in my life to Julio and Ben. Thanks for all your advice. You are wonderful and intelligence people, brothers. I miss you all the time.

Thank to my sisters, Naza and Susy, for always taking care of me.

To me close people from my life and work, they deserved to be here. Thanks to David, Hctor, Carlos, Laura, Vicente, Rosa, Ximena, Elena, Julia, Fernando, Fer, Jorge, Fran, Aroa, Conchi, Tamara, Paco, Javi, Leyre, Edu, Roberto, Bernat, Jose Enrique, Jose Angel, Bernardo, Dani, Rafa, Patxi, Jacinto, Mriam, Csar, Mattia, Raquel, Quique, Matias, Arturo, Sergio, Raimon, Teresa, Jaime, Kus, Carmen, Mara del Mar, Abel, Pablo, Roco, Diego, Thomas, Emilio, Gabriela, Javier, Cris, Miguel, Jose, Marta, Maria del Mar, Adri, Silvia, Alex, Ana, Flix, Alfonso, Ryan, Diego, Joao, Rodrigo, Berta, Alvaro, Elena, Vanesa, Enrique, Angel, Alejandro, Oscar, Ivan, Iban, Rubn, Ari, Amude, Carla, Mahesh, Katrena, Joaquin, Paz, Amador, Alfredo, Francisca, Maria Eugenia, Raquel, Carla, Rob, Amelia, Guillermo, Chiara, Ray, Lorena, Mariana, Juan Luis, Dario, Francesca, Natalia, Mariabel, Fedy, Samuel, Gabi, Bea, Rosa, Jose, Carolina, Baran, Jesus, Angela, Nacho, Jose Maria, Toms, Antonio, Toi, Jose Luis, Julian, Cris, Maria, German, Bill, Amador, Josh, Pedro, Viyu, Cesar, Abel, JaPerez, Victor, Punish, Lola, Francisco, Senthil, Sebas, Bego, Caroline, Olivia, Aura, Nick, Naushad, Akshatha, Sirish, Hussain, Raja, Rob, Nav, Pierre, Elaine, Aaron, Les, Chris, Jonathan, Eric, Vikram, Mani, Matt, Yolanda, Suzana, Esther, Emmanuel, Craig, Angel, Mnica, Dicle, Juanjo, Juanan, Mike, Onur, Fabian, Lukasz, Lynn, Sreejith, Prerana, Sam, Kevin, Andre, Becca, Juan, Juan Pablo, Pablo, JuanEn, Andrs, Ruben, Fabian, Michael

To my many friends, unnamed and unnumbered but not unremembered, who have contributed and helped form my ideas, I say THANK YOU from the deepest parts of my heart.

I look forward to hearing and learning from you soon.

Yours Truly,
Nstor

Table of Contents

Introduction

This book is a personal project for me. I want to help and inspire people to adapt smoothly to the new post-Covid World, the new normal, as well as other aspects of life that can help them improve.

Ive asked myself countless times, How can I help people improve their current situation after this crazy pandemic? How can I contribute? What is the best way to do my bit for people?

After careful thought, I decided to write this book. I realized that I would be able to reach more people that can benefit from my personal and varied experiences.

I work at Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the Cloud Computing side. AWS is a subsidiary of Amazon that provides on-demand Cloud Computing services. So, currently my life is around the Cloud. Basically, I help companies with their digital transformation, cloud adaptation and in shaping their future using Cloud Computing. I am what we call an Amazonian; a term used for an employee that works at Amazon.

We dont mind being called peculiar. We have our own way of doing things, which was chosen to recognize and celebrate the fact that much of what qualifies as conventional wisdom at premier schools and other companies, does not apply at Amazon. We are obsessed with customers; we see beauty in simplifying the complex and we are comfortable with being misunderstood. We say we are builders.

In this book, I am going to share things that I have learned during my personal and professional experience. Most of my experience comes from Amazon, and the reason is; in this company, I have the luck to interact with hundreds of amazing people around the world. Thats awesome.

I have investigated, asked questions, reviewed my personal notes and interviewed many fantastic people for their personal insight and experience. As the reader, you will be able to directly apply some of this to almost any situation. While some parts may be less relevant to your situation, I hope you will find them enjoyable nonetheless.

I am super excited to share all this work and personal experiences with you so that you can take something that can impact you and improve any situation in your work or even life for that matter. I will be more than happy in case you improve that, because this is my personal goal. You will be surprised how much more you could accomplish in a short period of time, giving you the momentum that you need to keep setting greater goals in your life.