We recently had the chance to connect with Juan Palomino and have shared our conversation below.
Juan, we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: What are you most proud of building — that nobody sees?
Overall, I am proud of the person I have become, today. Approximately around when I was twenty-eight years old, I had a vision of becoming a type-of-character where I continue to learn a great many skillsets because we are slowly but surely, if not, already, living in a world of exponential change. In the workplace of the world, or at least in the USA, the “iron rice bowl is thinning”. Therefore, implementing your workmanship with continual development of a wide span of knowledge is not just of high value, but nowadays, also of high importance. For the most part, taking the “jack of all trades, master at none” saying to “master of many trades, continual development at all”.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Juan Palomino. I am a person of extensive knowledge who converts that into interesting life and professional experiences. As a person who believes that we are living in a time of exponential growth and change, I seek to continually learn skillsets that I find interesting. Going into 2025, I am developing skillsets in international leadership, information technology, quantum computing, etc. And this is my life story.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
Perhaps what you are exposed to at an incredibly young age may ultimately define how you will tackle, experience, and cherish every life chapter you see for yourself.
During my pre-teens years in the early 2000’s, perhaps earlier, I remember my computer experiences with a Gateway desktop computer (if I recall correctly, before Gateway was bought by Acer in 2007). At that time, I thought it was a great invention to see for myself. Now, fast-forward to the mid 2020’s, I take that experience and continually grow it like an “infinite tree”, now I’ve gain knowledge in security, cybersecurity, risk management, information technology, quantum computing, and I keep that tree growing.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
The thought of a time where I felt about “giving up” has crossed my mind, but I didn’t let that define me.
In my high school years in the United States, between the nineth and twelfth grade, I’ve heard many times that it was “nothing” to earn a high school diploma, and when encouraged to go to college, it “wasn’t enough” to earn an associate’s degree; so to put it, the indoctrinated teachings were, you had to get a bachelor’s degree, minimally.
I won’t go too much into it, but the viewpoints of college are changing, and for starters, more and more people nowadays are taking charge of remote learning. After the 2008 recession (a piece of American history that I believe many forgot nowadays), you can research online that American families had less children, and perhaps a big part of that has resulted in some college school closures in parts of the United States.
Where the culture shock started to hit me, when I was old enough to be employed into the working world, I use to work at a pizza location where I’ve had at least one co-worker that had zero understanding of what it means to get a college degree. At the time, I couldn’t understand how does that individual not know about that. With that, that’s approximately where my view of life very slowly but very surely shifted.
Ideally, you grow up in the United States, you go to school, earn your bachelor’s degree, you find your career, and that’s it, you live out the rest of your days from that point forward?
I’d rather encourage, as long as you’re continually growing in a positive way, whatever your choice-of-character speaks to you, keep going. You don’t have to grow up in a way where others tell you to, just because they say so. That’s not at all to say that earning a degree is a bad thing; it’s undoubtedly an added bonus to your profession, and if engaging in that genuinely speaks to, ONWARDS.
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
I’ve committed myself to what I would define as a life-long project, and that is pursuing continuous learning; learning new things, both professionally and personally. You commit to that long enough, you may never know the advantages that may otherwise “fly over your head” that you can take charge as you continually move forward with your life experiences.
After pursuing an associate’s degree in college, I found myself wanting to take that several steps forth but in a different way. To this day, I’ve gained knowledge from remote learning provided by Dartmouth College, Copenhagen Business School, IBM and eight different universities around the globe. Proudly, I still find the time to keep that growth going. The learning of things never truly stops.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. If immortality were real, what would you build?
Hypothetically, of course, with or without immortality, I would ideally perhaps build a society of “infinite knowledge”. When you feel you have mastered one skillset, you don’t have to stop there; you can always move on the next skillset, visit the “old skillsets” before your time, or revisit a past skillset you’ve already mastered and keep the knowledge fresh in your mind.
With that, one thing I would extend on, what would you do in a world where money does not exist?
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jpsofficialphotography/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juanpalomino/
- Other: Online Shop Collections: https://www.cafepress.com/shop/jpsofficialphotography
Coursera Portfolio: https://www.coursera.org/learner/jpalomino
Image Credits
Denisse Palomino
