It seems fitting that before you spend the time to read this blog that you get a sense of who writes it.
- I am an Engineer: Specifically, an Integrated Circuit (IC) design engineer. I have spent my whole career around chips. From massive parallel processors to speech recognition micro-controllers to 2.4 GHz wireless radios to single chip RTLS tags. All these projects have taught me the joy and heartache of building innovative products. Every major IC project I have ever worked on has had some screw-up or major heartburn. You just can’t push the edge without screwing up a little.
- I went to the Dark Side: It’s true. No shame in it. I am a card carrying member of management. Most of my day is spent managing intelligent, highly motivated people who build incredible products. I try and stay out of their way as much as I can. Sometimes, it’s hard to hold back the inner geek. This usually ends quickly because my guys are way smarter than me when it comes to engineering. Checkout www.tagent.com for what I am up to now.
- I am an Endurance Athlete: Which means I spend a inordinate amount of time working out. This frustrates my wife to no end since she can’t figure out why I am not rail thin. The truth is, I eat like crap. I’m working on fixing that but it’s hard as hell since that is one of the benefits of working out so much. Being an endurance athlete is great training for managing innovation and technical people. Somethings its taught me so far are:
- Sometimes, it’s just not your day: There are days that seem to drag on and go nowhere. Your heart is just not into it and you want to stop. This struggle makes you stronger if you don’t let it kill you.
- Attitude is everything: I have competed with blind people, one arm people, one legged people and even people in wheelchairs. All had a great attitude. They took what life gave them and ran with it. No excuses. No complaints.
- We are all in this together: The best part about competitions are the complete strangers that cheer you on and your fellow athletes. For some reason, it always happens when I want to give up or stop. Encouraging people allows us to prop each other up. It’s infectious. Their success is our success.
- I volunteer with SCORE: SCORE (www.sfscore.org) is a volunteer organization that helps entrepreneurs with business issues. It’s a great way to help people achieve their business dreams. You will see a lot of posts about common questions I get from my SCORE clients. Don’t worry, I don’t name names or anything like that.
That’s about it. My hope is that this brief introduction gives you a sense of where I am coming from. Through SCORE and other volunteering activities, I have realized that putting yourself out there, getting involved and helping out where you can, is incredibly rewarding. Happy reading.
