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“Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.” —Yoda

One might find the title and quote an odd way to start an article about one of our community heroes, but I have a feeling he won't think so. Because us 'nerds' really can appreciate the other 'nerds' around us. Maybe this is part of what inspires me about George Finney. I speak "cyber nerd", and now through his best-selling cybersecurity books, so many more fellow nerds and nerd-wannabees do too. So let's get to know George and what makes him the amazing cyber community leader he is.

Let's just say it didn't start so auspiciously in Terre Haute Indiana. I grew up in Vandalia (Dayton) Ohio and I surely had less of an uphill climb from that blue-collar GM/NCR life trap than George did just one fly-over state away. Tornados and trailer parks were a reality for families of us poor suburban kids and after being electrocuted by an exposed live wire while riding his bicycle around his condemned apartment complex, which eventually simply gave up and burned to the ground, George and his family escaped to Arlington, Texas.

Now one might ask why we need to know about the challenges that George experienced in his youth, but he says that his childhood struggle for safety and security is what inevitably led him toward his cyber career. "There are biological components, as expressed in Maslow's Hierarchy, just beyond basic physiological needs that are addressed by being safe and secure." George believes this had a large impact on his professional direction and his commitment to the community in his writings.

One of George's most formative experiences, and incredibly entertaining stories, was about his first job at Toys R Us.?No one wanted to touch the Barbie isle for cleanup at the end of the night. ?Barbies, and many other toys in this aisle, were super collectable and every day they were ransacked for the collectible pieces.? But George decided to start cleaning the Barbie isle first (as opposed to ignored by everyone until as late as possible) and that decision led to everyone getting out earlier at the end of the night.?"Our lives were better because of the decision I had made. That is my way of helping the world is by tackling these problems."

Later on, when making the larger decision about where to go to college, George received a flyer from St. John's University in Santa Fe, NM that convinced him that it was well-suited for his interests. After listening to him champion their discussion-based egalitarian culture, as well as the beauty of the surrounding area, I am convinced that St. John's should be on everyone's list of schools to consider. No Tests. No grades. Just great minds discussing ideas, in the style of Aristotle and Plato.

He did an internship with the SEC after school. "I thought I was going to go be stockbroker.?Cold calling people was not about helping people and so I changed paths.?I knew some people at GTE and got a temp job there deploying DSL.?Most temps give you a 6-month contract and then they may renew or hire a few.?A VP at GTE, who knew my parents, called me into his office one day and fired me.?He said I had way too much potential to work at the DSL office and told me reach higher."

He decided to learn Unix, got his Cisco certs, went to a startup in Denver with some fiends he had grown up with, and replaced a Linux security member on their team. He moved back to Dallas a short time later and did some VOIP work.?"They fired the execs and asked me to take over the CTO role.?I said thanks, but went to law school at SMU instead."

During his education program at SMU, George joined on to SMU's technical team as a full-time contractor. Eventually SMU made him an offer to stick around after his degree.?"I was burnt out after my education and full time work.?SMU asked me to lead the security program as a director and I earned the CISO title through years of effort.?It is a different skillset to be somewhere 20 years, as opposed to just one or two budget cycles, like modern CISOs often experience. Being at such an incredible place like SMU, I feel like I have become a better person than had I chased roles I the corporate world."

Early in his career at SMU, George had firewall issues and those were quickly remedied by a vendor going the extra mile. This taught George the value of building strong relationships with your partners and opened him up to regular engagement with the cyber solutions community as a whole. He started attending Secure World events and eventually joined their board for community engagement. Soon after he did the same with BSides, another popular cyber event organization. "There was a real shift that happened in the cyber community and we started all working together around 2010."

About this time in my Interview with George we started discussing his books and what he was trying to accomplish for the cyber community. I challenged him that perhaps his books were meant for the layman and whether a highly experience cyber leader would need get as much value from them. He answered rather deftly, "I wrote well aware to help people with the how.?If you tell people what to do all of the time, they don’t want to hear that.??The 9 habits are a good lubricant (Though he doesn't prefer the word) between people and the security program. They are like habit recipes. I have set down with numerous CISOs in town and their teams and done some habit review exercises.?(Through these efforts) I would love to provide value to the cyber community like Steven Covey has for business leaders."

"It’s been really eye opening, particularly since the Zero Trust book came out.?I have received a lot of great feedback for my speaking engagements and I love being able to demystify security for folks. I am being asked to consult and advise numerous organizations and I am pushing the limit of my time and commitment capabilities accordingly. ?It is really amazing to be able to make a difference like this."

"Being a CISO can be a thankless job.?Binary like IT.?Taken for granted or blamed.?But my keynote presentations and follow-up book signings are the most affirming experience that I am making a difference for people. Attendees often wait in long lines just to tell me how much they were impacted and wanting selfies and valuing the book so much." George assures me that his ego is kept in check by his even more brilliant wife and I can attest, he is the genuine artifact.

"What drives me in my career now is making a difference.?We make security too complex." George is really making the effort to change that for all of us. He has just offered his "masterclass" on the 9 Habits free on Udemy. Follow George on LinkedIn and look for the post with the offer. I have already signed up, because I think George's brain only takes second place to his commitment to the community in everything that he does.

I hope you enjoyed this perhaps overly long issue of Engage and Inspire, but I think the subject really deserves the praise. If you know anyone else that deserves to be highlighted please let me know. I want to shine a light on all the great things people are doing to build a better cyber community. Thank you for your time George and for all that you do.

See you all next week...