We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Daniel Bellone a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Daniel, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
After graduating from High School, I had some savings that came out of my hardware engineering gig that I was doing after school on my free time. I was passionate about opening computers, upgrading them, and fixing any issues that would arise in the early days of PCs, where you would pick pieces of different vendors to create your desktop computer. Coming from a family where my father was a very successful electronic engineer, I thought my future was going to be in the same engineering field. But after a life changing backpacking trip in Europe, traveling by myself for 6 months, everything changed. In that expansive experience, I met so many people from around the world that my sense of self was magnified beyond anything I believed possible. The deeper I went, I found myself contemplating on some existential questions about life and the innate intelligence pervading this Universe. Feeling very inspired, on my way back to Argentina, I decided to pursue a career in physics in the University of Buenos Aires, a great institution that has produced Nobel price level scientists. As an Argentinian, I could attend this University without paying, only if you are able to achieve high grades in the first two introductory years, where they make it really really hard for you to succeed. The complexity and the depth of the subjects are meant to discourage any students who are not serious about their pursuit. I remember I was consulting a physic scientist to help me out sort some of my linear algebra assignments. After two years of hard work, studying 15hs a day, I was admitted in the physics department and was ready to go into this amazing journey. On the first day I took my seat in a huge auditorium where you would see the teacher as a small figure in the vastness of the stage. Hundreds of students sitting around me. She said something in her opening statement that changed my life forever. She said “All of you need to understand that physics is a model of reality. It can be 99.99% similar to reality, but it will never be reality itself. You will always be relating to a model.” Immediately I knew that I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life looking at a model, I wanted to jump into reality itself. That 0.01% that makes this life a complete mystery and a wonderment.
I stood up and left the campus, never to return again.
This decision led me to the study of my own true nature, to the study of life itself, eventually taking me to India to study the depths of human consciousness. This is when I experienced the most profound teachings of Yoga and the Vedic wisdom, arriving to the realization that Sanskit language had an enormous effect in the brain and the way in which we perceive reality.
I can say that this was the riskiest move in my life, but I would do it all over again in a heartbeat, since this lead to the most extraordinary experiences that I wouldn’t have even imagined. As a chant artist, I toured the world doing more than 500 concerts in 70 countries sharing the power of Mantra, Kirtan and chanting with thousands of people, witnessing with my own two eyes, a wave of expanded consciousness and the mystery of life that I set off to discover.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
During my waking hours I spend a lot of time on engineering problems. I find that the human brain has some parallels to the way we relate to computer systems, where we also find logic, actions, memory, past, relationships and unknowns. My engineering career is now taking me to the realm of Machine Learning, the science behind artificial intelligence, where the development paradigm is reversed compared to OG software engineering, where we used to tell computers what to do. In machine learning instead, we teach computers how to learn, using the power of mathematics, which is the core power behind it. When it comes to the exploration of consciousness, mathematics seems to play a big role in defining consciousness, in the way we perceive vibration and frequency, really modeling the way we our brains are tuned to understand life. After all using a model in the science world to understand our spiritual nature was not so far off, but now I have gained the insight and experiences that where needed for me to get to this point with the adequate foundation. As a chant artist I perform a musical experience in Sanskit that I informally call “Awakening through music” ~ music beyond entertainment. In Chinese language, the word “music” means healing, pointing to the higher purpose of frequency and vibration and the profound consequences that it has on human beings. Today, I can say that my exploration of consciousness through live community experiences of music, becoming a parent, together with pushing my cognitive functions to the max to understand new state-of-the-art technology breakthroughs makes me feel that I’m challenging myself to discover my highest potential, revealing the mystery of life in its most broad spectrum.
Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?
I believe soft skills can get you very far. When I decided to pivot from being a full time singer and touring musician to a software engineer, it was not easy to prove myself and get others to give me a chance in a highly competitive field. I was in my late thirties without much prior experience, but I told the recruiter John in my first interview “I know that looking at my resume you would like to skip this interview altogether, but you would be surprised to know that if you give me a chance to prove myself, in less than 6 month I will become an asset to your company that will be highly valued. Honestly, all I need is someone to give me an opportunity.” He was surprised with the level of honesty and he said “I can help you get an opportunity.” And he did. I was hired and my career took off impressively after that, working with the most amazing clients in innovative projects that are shaping technology as we know it. Needless to say we developed a wonderful friendship with John after this. Soft skills again and again have given me opportunities that only knowledge wouldn’t have provided me. It’s all about human connection.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
Expanding on what I’ve shared before, a good team leader is one who knows how to relate to other human beings and fulfill what humans need at different levels. A great leader will make each person in the team feel valuable, will highlight that person’s gifts and abilities, to reinforce them and acknowledge their presence. A great team leader will never make you feel they are above you or better than you, because even if they are, they understand clearly that your highest level of cooperation and collaboration in a team will occur when you feel the most respected and valued. I had an incident with one of my clients during a meeting, when I raised a question and this highly experienced lead told me that my question was irrelevant and too insignificant to even be answered. From that day on, my appreciation for him changed completely. Even though I was able to fulfill my responsibilities and perform well, I never looked up at that person as a true leader because of the lack of human sensitivity. A true leader will never humiliate anyone lower than them. On the other hand, I have worked with other team leaders that had not only great knowledge and expertise, but also high quality human connection, and I was ready to go above and beyond to support them and push our common work forward. Can’t say it enough, in the end it’s all about human touch, even in a technical field like engineering.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.danielbellone.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielbellonemusic/
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/BelloneDaniel
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-bellone
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi19xwzpgby8eDq6khK3Y9g
- Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3C0RzoWLzH6Xh9SiXhU5xP Apple Music: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/daniel-bellone/672392532 Bandcamp: danielbellone.bandcamp.com