Reflecting on 20 years...

This month marks 20 years of my career at @Adobe and @Omniture.

As this date has drawn closer, I've reflected quite a bit on my journey, where it has taken me, and all that I have learned.

I first joined the earliest version of the company, founded by @JoshJames & @JohnPestana in 1996, at that time focused on web development. I later left and returned in 1998, as the company began to focus on Analytics and Marketing tools (soon becoming Omniture), thus officially beginning my 20 years in this industry.

Nearly nine years ago, Adobe acquired us. I remember the day my boss called us in to tell us about the acquisition. I didn't know a lot about Adobe at the time, though I had tried and failed a few times to learn Photoshop.

When I began this journey, I was writing Perl scripts and building servers on a fold-up table. Today, I am blessed to work with a team of nearly 700 of the best Engineers, Technologists, and professionals I could imagine across the globe.

The early days of stringing power strips together to squeeze more Engineers into our tiny Provo startup office space on card tables are gone. The all-nighters are (mostly) a thing of the past. I spend more time on a plane to visit HQ, my team, and our amazing customers, than I certainly would have predicted 20 years ago, but I love to engage with each of these groups to solve problems together.

While I could share experiences and stories for hours, what really sinks in with me are the lessons I've learned through experience and working with others, so I thought I would share a few things I've learned over the years...

• Put people first. Life is all about people. The time we spend and the experiences we create are irreplaceable. This includes family and friends at home, as well as at work. I'm grateful to have made great friendships in the people I work with and have also had support to put my family first, especially in times of need, loss, and personal trial. Now, as a leader of a large organization, I hope that my team feels the same support.
• Give it your all. Through my own experience and through watching others, I've seen the rewarding feeling that comes from success. This occurs when you give a challenge 100% of your effort. This is often easy when you agree with a decision or project, but it can be much harder when you don't. "Disagree and commit" is an important principle that I hope more can learn, as I know that we are truly only successful when we give something our all.
• Stick to your values. Adobe's core values set a high bar for our employees. Being genuine, exceptional, innovative, and involved is not always easy, but it is always worth it. Always be honest (that includes admitting mistakes), strive for excellence, think creatively how to solve problems, and get involved--whether it be a work project, something in the community, or your passion. I'll share more in a future post on Adobe's core values and what they mean to me.
• Learn that mistakes are OK, but do learn FROM your mistakes. We learn through both success and failure. Not every decision is the best one. So, while we should do our best to make smart decisions, we are all human and we will make mistakes. Admit your mistakes, learn from them, move on, and don't repeat them.
• Be positive. This is so valuable. We've all been around the negative perspective. While recognizing problems is an important aspect of being able to fix them, just going around pointing out problems isn't going to get you far, professionally or personally. Recommend solutions! If you don't have a solution, offer to go work on it, or partner with someone else (even better), and come back with a solution later.
• Find an amazing partner/support system. I'm so lucky and blessed to have married an amazing woman nearly 25 years ago. She is supportive, listens when I need to vent, attends countless work events where I engage in nerd-talk and she is, I'm sure, bored to tears, but she's always positive. She encourages me to challenge myself, takes care of the family when I travel, and is always there. A support system outside the office is crucial to your mental balance.
• Take care of yourself. Take time to take care of yourself, physically, mentally, and spiritually, and the investment will pay off. Early on, I pulled late nighters, drank countless cans of free soda, and sat at my computer. A few years ago, I realized how important my physical health was and how it impacted my mental health. Now, I make time to work out and be active, which improves how I feel physically and helps provide me important time to think and reflect.
• Combining this with your partner/family is even more rewarding. This week, for example, I woke up in Bucharest, Romania on Wednesday morning. I had 4 hours of meetings, flew to Paris, had another day of meetings and flew home Friday, landing at 1pm. I arrived home, packed the car and drove four hours with my wife, sons, and dog to Zion National Park. On Saturday, we woke up at 6am and my boys and I, with some other family, had the amazing opportunity to hike 10 miles down the famous and beautiful 'Subway' route in Zion. We arrived home after 10pm Saturday night. While exhausted, it was a great experience and allowed me both the physical and mental time I needed for myself and with my sons, making great memories, and allowing me to 'recharge'.
• Focus on the customer. This one could come first, or last, and probably should be at both ends. It's easy, especially as one in technology, to get distracted with business or technical metrics. While important and healthy to measure progress, don't lose sight of the customer in all the data. I love to use technology to solve business problems. That's why our customers come to us--to help them do their jobs better. Delighting customers should always be the goal.

What's next in my journey at Adobe? I don't know for sure. Will I be here another 20 years? Who knows. However, I do know that this company and the people here will continue to do great things and I hope to be part this community as long as I am adding value and learning new things. I love to leverage technology to solve problems and help others do their job more effectively. This is the passion I have and I look forward to whatever comes next!