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Meet Ruben

Strategic decisions expert and author of commercially published books, Data Mirage and Bulletproof Decisions.

ABOUT RUBEN

My Early Story

I have been thinking about strategic decisions ever since I was a little boy, though I didn't call it that. I grew up in Honduras, a small country in the heart of Central America, where I spent countless hours daydreaming and creating completely different worlds in my mind, the essence of strategic thinking.

My fondest memories include walking around my family’s house with my dog—a cocker spaniel named Princesa (Princess in English)—trying to understand the world around me, down to the smallest plant.

Even as a kid, I was already thinking of how to help others. I once asked my parents if I could build a treehouse atop this massive mango tree in our backyard. When they asked me why I wanted a treehouse, I replied, “to see clients.” It’s not quite clear why this 8-year old was seeing clients but the seeds for my future work were present.

The First Strategic Decision

When I was 12, my family immigrated to Vancouver, Canada. In one single decision, my world changed and I went from seeing life in 480P to 1080P. The move gave me two drastically different perspectives on the world and what was possible. These two perspectives would go on to shape my thinking and ideas.

My love of learning and the future only grew during my teenage years. I taught myself how to write code by reading obscure books in German (translated to English) over many late nights. I soon started helping organizations create websites, getting first-hand experience in the world of business at a young age.

From the Classroom to the Real World

At 19, I started my first official business with my dad, which we ran for four years and received several press mentions. Our tech startup was focused on taking educational content and putting it online, years before online courses became popular. While the business never took off (the software was eventually sold), it provided a perfect training ground for seeing the impact of good and bad strategic decisions.

After nine months of soul searching and backpacking across 9 countries and 25 cities, I found my next opportunity. I became enthralled by the world of data and the role it played in decisions. It seemed like having the right data could help organizations make better decisions.

I started focusing on decision-making, especially around strategy and innovation. I realized that decisions are the pivot points where change happens. If you can help an organization make better decisions, you can create a drastically different future.

The Present

That’s where I find myself today. I have taken the learnings from working with 90+ organizations across five continents and distilled them into essays, videos, a weekly newsletter, speeches, and two commercially published books (Data Mirage and Bulletproof Decisions).

My goal is to provoke how organizations operate by making drastically superior strategic decisions. My love for learning is still there, as I continue to understand why organizations make good or bad decisions and how I could make a difference.

I reside in beautiful Vancouver, Canada, alongside my family and a 2-year-old Golden Retriever named Remy, who maintains a regular "job" in pet therapy.