'Do not go where the path may lead, but go where there is no path and leave a trail'

Having chosen to spend some time exploring parts of Australia, I wanted to take the opportunity to collect my thoughts and experiences and share how it has helped to enrich my perspective. The above quote is one that has very much defined my life to date and continues to do so. It is written by Ralph Waldo Emerson, a lecturer, philosopher and poet. It represents the importance in life of carving out your own path. Constant adaption to new environments & evolution is the path I believe ultimately to a fulfilled life.

As I began this adventure, the above philosophy has continued to take on more meaning for me. While out to sea exploring the Great Barrier Reef, I began talking to an old man who was sat by himself on the boat I was on. He proceeded to tell me he worked for many years in the US military, before recently retiring. He then mentioned he was travelling with someone that he met 20 years ago. I asked him how they met, and he said he was stood at a bar in an airport and struck up a conversation with the man in question. Completely a chance encounter at the time, 20 years on, they are still best friends. Once we returned to the shore, he asked if I wanted to meet this friend of his. I thought, what a brilliant story and strong outlook, to maintain such a meaningful relationship with someone under these circumstances, so I agreed. 

On our return, his friend arrived at our table and one of the first things he started talking about was how he had just returned from looking to buy a beach. I thought to myself, that seems an odd thing to do. I then realised he was buying it in memory of his wife who sadly passed away. This caught me off guard somewhat. He continued to describe his life and it sounded like he had been living on fast forward. The conversation continued, until he told me he most likely had two weeks to live himself. Of course, out of respect, one does not ask questions in these scenarios. Your stomach just sinks, and it is as if someone has just flicked the ‘pause’ button in your brain.

The reason I have chosen to share this, is because the day really sank deep into me, hearing all of this. I found myself in deep self-reflection asking myself ‘why?’ Life can be very fickle. It takes an experience like this sometimes to stop you at that moment in time and remember we all have an opportunity in life, albeit with an undefined timescale, so make the most of it. He is someone that had defined the above philosophy and very much carved out his own path and still seemed unphased, despite the extremities of what lay ahead for him. He was a bizarrely calming presence, even while sharing all of this with me in short order. We wished each other good luck and parted ways after finishing our drinks.

This all happened pretty much at the start of when I ventured out into the Australian outback. From a young age, I have enjoyed getting to know people from different cultures & walks of life. My best friends continue to be dotted around different parts of the globe. This outcome I believe, stemmed from an interest in languages, leading to studies in Mandarin & Spanish at University. The real tipping point before all of this, was going off to Beijing when I had just turned 17 years old, to study Chinese martial arts.

I very much embraced this opportunity in Australia, placed the fear to the back of my mind and off I went. I have spent the last two weeks trying to lead the most organic experience possible. I have spear fished with the aborigines, hunted for mud crabs in the mangroves, learnt about indigenous bush-craft and journeyed deep into the Rainforest & Reefs. One of the more extreme decisions was to try and take a paddle board down a tributary in the Daintree Rainforest. 

The risks were explained to me by locals around crocodiles, snakes and potential flash floods. As someone with major snake phobia, this wasn’t the most comforting news. I put my life into the hands of the aborigines and off we went with a local guide. Despite the obvious dangers around this, very quickly you enter almost a meditative state. All you can hear is the orchestra of the jungle. You are largely at the mercy of the natural world and there is something strangely liberating about that. Once I paddled far upstream, I just let the river carry me back down to where I started, and thankfully lived to tell the tale.

Having shared some of this, I hope if anything it helps inspire you in the same way each of these experiences continue to do so for me. I try and apply a lot of this in my working life at Matillion (#TeamGreen.) While the natural world & digital world are juxtaposed in many ways, I can draw a line between the two in this case. A biodiversity like the Daintree Rainforest is always transforming and evolving. Matillion gives life to your data. It is the only data transformation product on the market, purpose built for cloud data warehouses. You could call it a rare species, but one that sits at the top of the food chain in the world of data transformation.

We will have a strong presence as a business at AWS Re:Invent on 3/12/2019 in Las Vegas, so please come along and have a chat to our team and let your planned journey to the cloud be your next adventure. Add life to your data with #TeamGreen.

The world grows greener.