Alonso Rivel
Engineer by training. Storyteller by necessity.
For more than twenty-five years, I built systems — software, infrastructure, and products — the kind that run quietly in the background and make things work.
But somewhere along the way, I realized the hardest system to debug wasn’t digital — it was human. My own mind had become a tangle of legacy code: outdated rules, untested beliefs, emotional loops I didn’t even know were running.
That’s when I started rewriting my inner architecture.
The Origin of “Choose Your Universe”
It began with a line from Marcus Aurelius:
“The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.”
That line rewired something in me.
It wasn’t about philosophy — it was about perception.
About choosing how to meet life, even when you can’t control it.
What if I stopped trying to erase what hurt,
and started replacing what no longer helped?
That question became my compass.
It became this book.
What I Believe
Transformation isn’t about reinventing yourself.
It’s about remembering who you were before fear took the mic.
Your mind isn’t broken — it’s brilliantly designed for adaptation.
You just have to learn to refactor it, one belief at a time.
That’s what Choose Your Universe is about:
how to replace panic with trust, control with clarity, and self-doubt with design.
Where I Come From — and What I Carry Forward
I was born and raised in Costa Rica, and now make my home in New York City.
My roots taught me reflection; my work taught me design. Together, they shaped a way of seeing the world — one that bridges technical precision with human warmth.
That’s the perspective behind everything I write and teach:
cross-cultural depth applied to universal questions of trust and change.
If you take one idea from my work, let it be this:
“You can’t erase the past. But you can replace what it means.”
Let’s Stay Connected
I write a short letter every week about the Friendly Universe Decision — how to practice it in your mind, your work, and your daily rhythm.
Choose Your Universe 