Driving Digital Transformation Since 1959

I just had the privilege of celebrating my Mum's 90th birthday with her and 20 of her closest friends in Belmopan, Belize. She surprised us by giving a magical fifteen minute speech. She spoke clearly and never hesitated as she mentioned events, places and dates from across nine decades and many different places. I shouldn't have been surprised, as she still adds the prices for every item when she writes her grocery list and totals everything mentally to the penny.

She began by talking about her early childhood in pre-WWII Jamaica. Then she told us about her first job with Barclays Bank in Kingston in the late1950's. She spoke about how she took a tour with her best friend across 28 states in the US in 1960. Under a program that President Kennedy set up to encourage tourists to come to the US, she paid $90 USD to travel by Greyhound bus for 90 days. She shared how she met and fell in love with my Dad and how they migrated with their young family to the young country of Belize (then, British Honduras) in 1973 to start an exciting new business.

Then she talked about moving forward when their business failed, working together to build a surveying practice, raise a family and create a new life in Belmopan, which was one of the world's smallest capital cities with a population of only 5,000. Belmopan back then had no bakery or hairdresser, and no television. But its people had grit, a "can do" and a community spirit that filled the air with vibrancy, optimism and friendly worlds.

I've always known that Mum was an amazing person. I knew she was a strong and fantastic partner to my Dad. I knew too that they raised their three kids under extremely difficult circumstances. Her support allowed one of my brothers to become the first Belizean to go to West Point and my other brother to become one of the finest surveyors in Belize. And, I could never have gotten to or through university and afterwards on to and through graduate school without her steady guidance and support. Also, of course, I have always seen elements of her in the characters and personalities of her five grandkids, all of whom are great readers, learners and thinkers.

All the same, many of the details about how she had worked and her perspective on what she thought as she lived through these times were eye opening for me.

It was inspiring to hear her describe how she approached challenge after challenge. She told us about how when things were at their toughest in Belize in the early 1980's, she became an entrepreneur and started a successful marmalade business 100% from scratch. I knew about that, of course. But I had always thought that making marmalade was something she'd done previously. Instead, I learned how she taught herself to make great marmalade on her own (with no internet, obviously).

She did this by measuring everything, keeping careful records and then analyzing how each batch compared to the previous ones and with the marmalade her family had made in Jamaica. She told us how, when she arrived at a good set of repeatable recipes, she'd often work until 2 am to make enough product to satisfy the demand that she had created.

Before her speech, I also had never realized she'd also worked in digital transformation. But, when she told us about being among the early pioneers who learned how to automate accounting using the precursors to today's computers, I realized this was so similar to what the world had gone through in the Dot-Com Boom and then the rise of Digital Media.

I loved hearing how she studied and mastered early NCR ledger posting machines (like the one in the picture). She worked hard on these machines and was selected to study abroad for an intensive accounting program by the bank she was with.

I was really proud of all she'd accomplished. Reflecting on her words, I felt thankful for all she'd taught me, by example. Reflecting on her stories I realized she had developed and used powerful approaches I've since seen in some of the greatest mathletes I've had the pleasure of working with. Learning the tough stuff was then and still is very much about putting in the hard work to learn difficult things the hard way instead of cutting corners. And, always thinking about numbers and trying to understand what they mean, while making careful measurements and always taking good notes.