My story
Hi, my name is Omar.
Im a digital creative and business developer.
I was born almost at noon on April 26, 1986 in Cancun, a paradise on the shores of the Caribbean Sea in Mexico.
Had I been born the same day at the same time in Chernobyl, Ukraine, the story would surely have been very different.
I came to this world in the midst of the action and revolutions of the 20th century to grow during the explosion of the internet, personal computers and the boom of MTV .
Since my childhood, I was always attracted towards creativity and technology, video games, video and animation.
I remember that my first PC was an Intel 386 with 500 kb of ram memory and 80 mb of storage.
Since that time I learned how to assemble and disassemble computers, I slowly became the technical service for my family and friends and discovered my love for video games at the time when DOOM 3D amazed the world with graphics never seen before.
In my quest to understand everything and find new ways to interact with the digital world that began to engulf us, I found myself learning different programming languages, using the first programs for graphic design and discovering 3D modeling at the time of dial-up internet connections.
Internet came into our lives faster than adolescence, bringing new communication tools never seen before.
Chat rooms went from IRC in text mode to ICQ with color emoticons and avatars, meanwhile downloading an image sent in an email took several minutes, sometimes the connection was severed and you had to start over.
It was during this stage of discovery in which we witnessed the birth of giants like Google, who came out of nowhere to put before us virtually unlimited knowledge instantly and answering every conceivable question.
Or Apple, radically transforming the hardware and design of computer technology and popularizing the use of new ways of interacting with machines using devices nobody had seen before.
I was always a self-taught person, in the same way that I learned electronics by disassembling all the appliances in my home, it was how I learned to move within the digital world.
I used reverse engineering for everything, looking at things from a different perspective, discovering all the pieces that made up a problem, step by step.
I continued on this path with hobbies that every day became less unknown and more valuable, before I even realized this and even before I started my university career, a lot of passions had become sources of work.
I did maintenance and software updates on personal computers, installing networks and telephony, surveillance systems and virus cleaning , a lot of cleaning since people apparently loved getting infected with viruses.
Before finishing high school and even before deciding what I would do with my life, I was already building a career into the digital world and integrating the management of new technologies into my non-existent curriculum vitae.
While my friends had fun sending buzzes in MSN Messenger and sharing spam via email, I was learning to design and program websites, modifying video games and “testing” the security of different programs and local networks.
It took me a few years to decide on a professional career, it made a lot of sense to continue working with computers, so I started studying systems engineering.
At this stage I was able to learn new programming languages, learn about computer standards and processes and realized that it was not for me, because many of these “new” things I had already learned on my own, the spark of creativity and discovery was missing from what seemed to be my future profession
I took a sabbatical, traveled a little, learned languages and was able to expand my horizons a little more.
I realized that one of my great talents was to communicate, tell stories, share new ideas.
I was willing to find a way to do it, I was inspired.
Coming home, almost by accident, I found the career that seemed perfect
“Animation, art and digital design”
A new university degree that covered everything from education in plastic arts, painting, sculpture, writing and theater; to new technologies such as digital design, 3D animation, video editing, special effects and development of video games.
I had never thought of being a designer before, there was already the stigma towards graphic designers at the time.
The influence of “baby boomers” was even stronger, convincing us that was only found studying administration, law or medicine.
I had already given up on having “respectable career” as an engineer and even my parents reproached a little bit me for not having continued studying to get a “real university degree”.
However, there I was, happy and hopeful, sure that the future would develop into digital media …
And you know what?
I was right.
This was probably one of the best stages of my life,
I met many people with similar interests, but also very different ones, for the first time I didn’t felt like a stranger.
I learned to do proper research, about the value of teamwork, to develop business projects and presentations, to evaluate weaknesses and how to asses risks and opportunities.
I learned about classical art and modern art currents, about aesthetics and color theories, the mayor schools of graphic and industrial design, as well as the influences of French cinema or Japanese manga in today’s popular culture.
Those were moments of discovery, I found talents that I did not knew I had and faced challenges that made me realize everything I still had to learn.
Some time later I graduated and prepared to conquer the digital world, only to realize that the job offers were scarce, salaries were low and knowledge demands were exaggerated.
The path was drawn many years before, this was not going to stop me, after all, I had always found ways to create value from my knowledge and the quality of my work.
I would love to tell you how the road was short and led me to professional and economic success, easily, quickly and without major obstacles.
But it was not like that.
