My Learning Journey

Welcome everyone to this week's edition of Never Quit on Growing Yourself. I wanted to take a step back in time for our newest subscribers and share my story.

I have always been curious and in possession of always learning. I am the middle child (older brother and younger sister). My mother and father always impressed on us to never quit and keep learning.

I literally took that within me. We had a small bookcase with every edition of the World Book Encyclopedia and several years of the annual Year Books from the same company. I read those constantly. So much so that my younger sister would complain that I was staying in the bathroom too much when we needed to get ready for school or church or work.

That appetite for learning continued into High School and College. Learned about physics, Anatomy and Physiology, Biomedical Engineering, Optics, Electronics, and of course the core curriculum of English Lit, Physical Education, and other subjects.

While going to college, I worked at a small business company repairing calculators and electronic cash registers. All of that learning played very well into that job.

Joined the military and learned about who I was internally, what a team really looked like, and how to help others when they needed it.

After that, went to work for a hospital fixing electronic equipment used in Surgery, Labs, ER, and Cardiovascular Surgery. All using that knowledge I had from college.

Soon that translated into a job working for a medical equipment company. Did a lot of traveling. Got to see a lot of places I might not have ever seen if not for that learning while at that company.

Then I transitioned into Media. Worked at a local CBS affiliate in Jasckson, MS and Nashville TN. Learned more about computers and video tape machines and news cameras and such. Worked the 1988 Democratic and Republican National Conventions for a group of TV stations.

Then went to work at TNN: The Nashville Network as a uplink operator, then video maintenance engineer, then assistant supervisor. Built edit facilities, remote television production trucks, uplink facilities, data centers, graphics facilities, and such.

I learned computer programming, database architecture and administration, how to set up firewalls, internal and Internet networking, streaming audio and video, traditional project management, and a thing called Agile. Did a lot of work on events like the CMT Music Awards, MTV VMA's, MTV EMA's (European Music Awards). Taught classes on Portfolio Management, Resource Management, Project Management for the company I worked for.

In 2014, started learning about professional coaching, and have coached individuals through career transitions, becoming more productive and focused at work or life in general.

So if you have read this far, thank you. As you can see, I've moved from job to job to job, from place to place to place. The common thread is that I have never quit learning and growing myself.

Until next week,

Charles Cain