My ServiceNow Story

If you had shot, one opportunity, to seize everything you ever wanted, one moment, would you capture it, or let it slip??

Servicenow was that one shot, that one opportunity.?

I grew up on a small farm in nowhere Texas.?

People where I am from make a living with their hands.?

I never imagined as a dirt road poor kid of ever leaving the farm.?

It's all I knew.?

It's all I ever wanted.?

My great grand father bought the family farm after arriving home from WW2 for his parents who were sharecroppers and never had their own land.?

From that one shot, one opportunity my grand father changed the trajectory of his family tree.

I considered no greater honor then to take over one day.?

But if God has taught me anything in this life, it's that his plan is always better than ours.?

Things happened, loved ones passed, and with it came so much adversity and opportunity to overcome.?

At the age of 25 I was a aircraft mechanic, supporting my family the same way my great grand father did.?

Hard work, sweat, blood, and calloused hands.?

By 2019, I had transitioned from the military into the Aviation maintenance industry.?

I had undergone a forclosure, homelessness, grief, loss, trauma, and a 13 year battle for my mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health.?

I was a young man looking for an opportunity to break into Tech and willing to do anything possible to make it happen.?

An opportunity to train in ServiceNow came through my LinkedIn inbox one day.?

At the time I had absolutely zero experience working in Tech and no idea what ServiceNow was.?

I had spent a year learning all I could about front end web development through online resources such as Freecodecamp, YouTube, and code academy before the opportunity in ServiceNow came along.?

The thought of working from home and not breaking my body everyday to provide is all I focused on.?

The potential to make a life changing wage also become a motivation to succeed no matter what it took.?

Thats as far as my dreams in Tech went.?

God's plan for my life far exceeded anything this farm kid could ever even fathom.?

Every single day, I am living a life that I never even asked for because my brain back then could not think this far.?

I was just a young father trying to survive.?

I was just trying to break the chains that tried so hard to bind me

When I speak about anything publicly, I do so for one reason...??

To let others know that anything is possible.?

The reason I advocate so strongly is because I know how hard life can be.?

I know how much a few seized opportunities can mean to a family of 5 living on food stamps.?

Tech?is not just a career for me.?

It was a lifeline and way to serve and I intend on doing all I can with what little platform?I have to give that same opportunity to others.?

To be a living testimony...

I do not have a degree, pedigree, or list of awards but I do have faith and a insatiable hunger to illuminate, inspire, and innovate.

Sometimes all it takes is one shot, one opportunity to change someone's life.

I will continue to fight for others to get that one shot while proving that you can do anything you set your mind to.

Adapt and overcome,

Joseph Laudon