Rowan Spazzoli

Strategist. Lecturer. Consultant

We all fall down We live somehow We learn what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger

“Rowan wake up! We’ve been broken in to”

That’s how my day started out. The lovely beach cottage we were staying in has been ransacked in the night. They removed a glass pane in the door and stolen everything while we slept.

The scary thing is that they took my phone, which was lying next to my bed. And they left a large kitchen knife just outside my room, which we think they might’ve come in with.

I lost my phone, laptop, wallet, credit card, bag, medicine, notes and books. Additionally, they took my car and house keys, leaving us stranded, 200km from Cape Town.

Luckily they hadn’t taken my friends phone, and so were able to call the police and make contact with friends and family.

One friend then got off work to come and fetch us. And we grabbed breakfast while waiting for her.

And just before she arrived, she hit a slippery patch on the road and rolled her car.

The car is written off but by some miracle she came out completely okay. We borrowed a car from the wonderful people at Abalone house and picked her up

Finally my friends mom came through and we managed to get a ride back to Cape Town. The rest of the night we spent in the hospital doing precautionary scans.

The most important thing is that we’re alright. We didn’t get stabbed. The car accident didn’t cause any harm. And all the stuff is replaceable.

Got a lot of admin to do, but we’ll be okay 🙂

Image was taken last year and is the laptop that got stolen. Title of the post is from the lyrics of the song below

Blog:163/365

Song of the day: Sharp Edges – Linkin Park

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Delicate

Over the past four years I’ve been fortunate to experience a variety of fine dining experiences. A close friend of mine brings me along on his escapades, and I get to participate in some incredible adventures. And the thing that stands out for me is how delicate they are.

It’s easy to over emphasise stuff. A massive steak, a big glass of wine, an extravagant ice cream. But the thing that has stood out on these adventures is restraint. The ability for the chefs to make phenomenal experiences with few ingredients.

This speaks to more than just food. Being outrageous and loud is one way to attract attention. But there’s something much more special in making a craft out of the delicate and the subtle. The noise may bring the people, but the gentle craft is what keeps them there.

Image was taken today at Wolfgat, the restaurant we were at. If you’d like to follow my friend you can find his instagram account here

Song of the day: Taylor Swift - Delicate
Blog 162/365. Read more about my #365of25 journey here
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Birthday Shoutout: Fabio

I’ve spent most of the day working and sleeping and I don’t have anything particularly insightful to blog about. So instead, a little birthday shoutout to my little brother Fabio.

Happy Birthday Fabs! Hope you got to play computer games to your hearts content today 🙂

Image was taken in Italy in 2011 🙂

Song of the day: Ten Feet Tall - Afrojack
Thesis update: Some of my research is getting presented at a conference on Monday :)
Blog 161/365. Read more about my #365of25 journey here
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The Friday Shoutout: The School of Life

In school we learn a bunch of practical and technical subjects. Maths, science, biology, accounting etc. And in university, many people choose technical paths: accounting, law, finance, economics.

A big component of our life learning is left out of this. Understanding basic philosophy and psychology concepts, learning about the self and relationships.

A channel on YouTube does a great job of doing this. They’re called the School of Life, and they post videos on various critical life lessons and discussions.

They’re a great resource, and I’ve learnt a bunch of stuff that I would never have learnt in the formal education system. So do yourself a favour and check them out 🙂

Song of the day: Tom Petty – Free falling

Blog 160/365. Read more about my #365of25 journey here

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Right where I want to be

I’m absolutely exhausted and have been struggling to find the energy to write my blog post. So instead of writing anything insightful, I’d just like to take a moment to appreciate where I am right now with regards to my work/professional life.

Today I worked in four areas:

  • Behavioural economics and psychology
  • Teaching strategic thinking (applied to development outcomes)
  • Market analysis and strategy formulation for green economic development in Cape Town
  • Social entrepreneurship

The first was done in relation to my thesis. Despite it not being quite finished yet, some of my preliminary results will be presented at a conference on Monday.

The second was done at UCT when we met to plan the exam for this semester. It’s going to be an incredibly interesting exam.

The third was in relation to my consulting work on my green economic development project.

The last area was assisting with the submissions for the Oxford “Map the System” challenge. I’m the organizer of the South African leg of the competition.

I honestly am in awe of how fortunate I am to be working on all these exciting projects at the same time. I’m exactly where I want to be and I couldn’t be happier 🙂

Image was taken at Babylonstoren a few weeks ago 🙂

Song of the day: The Quiet - Roald Velden
Blog 159/365. Read more about my #365of25 journey here
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Childs Play

An important part of personal development is the concept of play. It provides a practice ground to learn social concepts and experiment with different ways of doing things.

As kids we learn through playing in safe environments, with a classic case of this being the playground. Although there is room to hurt yourself, there are no real consequences. If you lose or win, you’re still able to return to the classroom when you’re done.

Playing as grown ups

As we grow up, there are less and less safe environments to play in. University is a temporary safe environment, in that there is some room to fail some tests. But definitely not as much as when you were a child.

And as we leave the tertiary education environment, our actions have an even more significant impact on us and the world around us.

With this in mind, we have less room to play and experiment as adults.

To get around this, we have a choice spectrum, somewhere between “stop playing” and “find ways of building a safe environment for yourself“.

Either extreme is not ideal. We don’t want to stop playing entirely but we also can’t have a perfectly safe environment (unless we move home and go back to preschool… which would be weird).

So the solution is finding the right mix for what you’re trying to do. Find room to play, to experiment. Create the safe environment, whatever that looks like for you. And as you continue to play, you’ll continue to learn and grow.

Image is of a Murano glass penguin that I got in Venice in 2008. 

Song of the day: Beyoncé - Halo
Blog 157/365. Read more about my #365of25 journey here
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Not that big a deal

When I was in grade 7 I looked at high school kids and wondered how the hell they did it. Their world was so vast, so scary, yet they still managed it.

The same applied at the end of high school. I saw the students at university and wondered how they coped. Their lives seemed unbelievably complex, and they didn’t have parents around to help them navigate that.

In both cases, the move across from junior school to high school and high school to university were terrifying. It was a whole new playing field. It was a big deal.

But in reality it was only a big deal for the first few weeks. After that, I got into the rhythm of things and it was manageable. Suddenly, the most complicated looking environment was my natural habitat.

Not that big a deal

This pattern repeats itself throughout our lives. Every next step seems unsurmountable until we get there. And once we’re there we adjust to it and it becomes the new normal.

At the moment, things like marriage, owning my own place and having a job with significant responsibility seem incomprehensible. But I know that one day I will potentially have all of these. And I’ll realise that they’re not that big a deal.

Image was taken on Friday at the Waterfront 🙂

Song of the day: Walmart Yodelling Kid
Blog 155/365. Read more about my #365of25 journey here
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Snapshots from the past

Part of the reason I enjoy writing is because it affords me a snapshot into the past when I rediscover what I’ve written. In other words, writing is both a bookmark and a communication to my future self of how life is in that moment.

This evening I spent some time going through my writing from 2007. I found these while tidying my room this past week. What’s interesting is that I knew 2007 was a tough year for me. I struggled with a lot of things that now might seem minor but at the time were a big deal.

But I didn’t realise how tough 15 year old me found that year. Every week the writing gets darker and darker. And it is only interspersed with brief moments of motivation.

I wish I could go back to that kid and tell him it would all be okay. That most of the things I was worrying about eventually passed. And that now life is pretty wonderful.

Forward and back

I wrote a post on a similar topic a few months ago, which explored looking at yourself 5 years ago and looking 5 years into the future.

This experience gave me a chance to look 10 years back. And despite being a bit melancholic, it was also so special.

I wonder what 35 year old me will think when he reads this post.

So, to 35 year old me. Hi! I hope you’re doing well 🙂

Image was taken in 2010 at our house in Lonehill 🙂

Song of the day: Carl Hauck - Refraction
Blog 154/365. Read more about my #365of25 journey here
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