Why that decision was not impulsive — and why it matters for those evaluating this project
Twenty years in two distinct worlds — fundraising for FIMLM and public procurement in UAESP and Colombia Compra Eficiente — produce a specific type of knowledge that is not acquired in a course: knowing how to formulate projects that secure funding, design methodologies that entities adopt, build analytical models that decision-makers use.
The problem was not the capacity. It was that this capacity produced results for others consistently but did not have its own vehicle to operate.
The decision to leave everything was not to flee from something — it was to bet on building that vehicle. Fully aware that the process would take time, would be restrictive, and would not look good from the outside for a period that I did not know exactly how long it would last.
That period is these two years.
What was delivered during scarcity
This is what a recruiter or investor needs to know before reading the rest of the node:
During these two years, operating from my mom's house with real physical restrictions — unable to use the woodworking machines due to dust, noise, and tenants — concrete results were delivered to real clients:
Implementation of Odoo Community for operational management in small businesses. Automations with n8n for attention and follow-up flows. Project formulation with access to funding. Analytical models and financial models for royalty projects — technical work that requires real methodological rigor and generated the resource for the first physical step of the tiny house.
The restriction was of own resources, not of delivery capacity. Each consultancy was delivered with the same standard as the projects of twenty years in public entities — because the standard does not depend on the conditions of the environment but on the criteria of the executor.
A system that operates and delivers under the most restrictive possible conditions is more reliable for a client or investor than one that only works in ideal conditions. That is not consolation — it is the most honest demonstration of viability that exists.
The hardest part was not the economic scarcity
It was feeling like a burden.
Seeing some disappointment in my mom's eyes and words. Feeling that the family, which has supported me with the basics, reads in my situation that I have no future — despite the potential they see, despite knowing what I have done, despite the answers and solutions I provide to problems that are solved with what I recommend.
The tension is this: Camilo knows, Camilo can, Camilo has achieved things — but Camilo has not been able to move forward.
That tension does not have an easy answer. It is not resolved with an argument or a well-crafted report. It is sustained by something different.
What sustains when the odds are against you
Firmly believing in God's promises.
Not as a motivational phrase — but as verifiable daily evidence. Despite the difficulties, the basics have never been lacking. That is a fulfilled promise that I have seen day by day, in moments where the margin was so narrow that there was no rational explanation for things to keep functioning.
And the routines I do not negotiate: meditating, praying, reading, studying, yoga. They are not aspirational well-being — they are the structure that prevents accumulated pressure from turning into a crisis. Cultivating a sober yet analytical character, and the emotional intelligence that allows me to read situations without being read by them.
That does not resolve scarcity. But it allows me to keep building within it without collapsing — and without compromising the quality of what is delivered to those who trust in the work.
What was built in parallel
While the consultancies paid for the phone and the APIs, the system took shape:
Four projects that compile all the knowledge and ideas accumulated over twenty years. Certification at SENA to expand construction techniques. Practice in family houses and models to test concepts before executing them at real scale. Purchase of materials for the tiny house. Design and testing of five versions of the box for Tetragonisca angustula until reaching one that the angelitas choose, reproduce well, and produce harvestable honey without affecting the colony.
Today: 25 Docker containers in production, 6 active hives, 25 traps distributed in the field, refined and tested systems, portal nearing launch.
None of that was built under ideal conditions. Everything was built with what was available.
The first real advance and what it means
The financial models for the royalty projects generated the resource to buy the first materials for the tiny house.
From the outside, it seems like a small step. From the inside, it is the difference between having a project in mind and having the first physical step of that project in hand. It is being able to have a space of my own — a refuge that for me is essential, not a luxury — where the three axes of the system converge physically without the current restrictions.
Those who have not operated for two years without that space cannot fully understand what that first step means. For me, it means being able to demonstrate what until now I have only been able to argue.
What this says about the project's reliability
For an investor, recruiter, or ally who arrives at this node evaluating whether it is worth betting on this project, there is a direct argument:
A system that is designed, tested, and refined under the most restrictive possible conditions — without budget, without adequate physical space, with variable connection from the field, with fragmented time between subsistence work and project construction — has a robustness that systems developed under ideal conditions do not have.
The hives work because they were designed five times until understanding what the angelitas need. The n8n flows work because they were built with a 2G connection. The financial models work because they were produced with methodological rigor regardless of the conditions of the environment.
That is not luck or romantic resilience. It is the only real way to know that a system will survive when disturbances arise that no plan anticipates.
The real state of the process today
This is not a node of arrival — it is a transit node.
Operational and delivering results: technical consultancies, implementations, project formulation. The market exists — confirmed by the clients who have paid to apply what I know.
Built and tested: technological stack of 25 containers, meliponary of 6 active hives, 25 traps in the field, refined automation systems.
First physical step: materials for the tiny house purchased. Construction starts soon — with my own hands, with the techniques expanded at SENA, with the concepts tested in models.
Next to launch: the portal that integrates and presents all this coherently.
What is still unresolved
The own physical space without restrictions. Recurring income from the system instead of isolated consultancies. The tiny house built. The replicable model published so that others can build it without starting from scratch.
This is a living document. It is updated as the process advances — when the tiny house has its first walls, when the portal is in production, when the first recurring income arrives from the system. The log continues.
Cited sources
Preguntas abiertas del catálogo que este nodo toca o ayuda a responder. Click en una para ver todos los nodos del jardín que la exploran:
- ¿Cómo medir si el Eje 3 sigue siendo un ikigai auténtico o se está convirtiendo en una obligación disfrazada de propósito, sin los indicadores objetivos que sí existen para los Ejes 1 y 2?El equilibrio entre propósito, satisfacción y sostenibilidad económica puede medirse mediante indicadores periódicos.
- ¿Cuándo exactamente los subsistemas diseñados (energético, hídrico y ciclo de nutrientes) alcanzarán el punto de operación simultánea?Los tres subsistemas (energético, hídrico y ciclo de nutrientes) no alcanzarán operación simultánea hasta que el más lento —probablemente el ciclo de nutrientes, que depende de biología— complete su primer ciclo completo de maduración, estimado en 18-24 meses desde la instalación.
- ¿El ROI del 22% documentado en el modelo financiero se mantiene cuando el sistema opera con todos los subsistemas en simultáneo?El ROI del 22% proyectado en el modelo financiero inicial es un escenario optimista que asume operación simultánea de todos los subsistemas. En operación parcial (solo hídrico + energético), el ROI real estará más cerca del 8-12% durante los primeros 24 meses.
- ¿Qué instrumentos de financiación colombianos (Finagro, CREAME, Minciencias, Ley 1715) son realmente aplicables a un sistema autosustentable de escala familiar?De los instrumentos de financiación disponibles en Colombia, la Ley 1715 (incentivos tributarios para energías renovables) es el más aplicable a corto plazo. Finagro y Minciencias requieren adaptación significativa para proyectos de escala familiar. CREAME es viable solo para el componente de innovación tecnológica.
- ¿La señalización costosa ("mostrar las costuras") produce el efecto esperado de filtrar inversores no alineados sin ahuyentar a los alineados?La señalización costosa —mostrar públicamente las iteraciones fallidas, los costos reales y las decisiones difíciles— filtra efectivamente a los inversores no alineados porque el costo de fingir interés en un proyecto que muestra sus debilidades es más alto que el de buscar uno que solo muestra sus fortalezas.
- ¿La secuencia de interdependencia identificada (hídrico → riego → energético → automatización → datos) se confirma en la práctica o es un artefacto de modelado?La secuencia de interdependencia (hídrico → riego → energético → automatización → datos) refleja el orden real de dependencias técnicas del sistema. Invertir el orden (empezar por automatización antes de tener agua y energía) produciría un sistema que funciona en teoría pero no en campo.
- ¿La barrera de familiaridad institucional identificada como hipótesis se confirma en el proceso real de curaduría para el domo geodésico de Iwagé?El desconocimiento de sistemas constructivos no convencionales influye en el proceso de aprobación.