Where it all started, and the “Demons”

Originally Published to my Blog @ https://innovate2lead.wordpress.com on April 26, 2015 [First Blog Post]

https://innovate2lead.wordpress.com/2015/04/26/where-it-all-started-and-the-demons/

If this blog is going to attempt to bring some perspective, stories, advice, rationalization and humor to the experiences in Tech Sales & Presales – then it is probably good to know where I am coming from.  I am thankful for many things in life, and one of those things is my MAP (Stephen Covey – The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) and how it contributes to my professional career.  I look at where I am in my journey and wonder if the roads will twist more or less in the future than they have in the past.  This new adventure in blogging and the reasons for “Trying it out” have energized me & brought new light to all the things I will learn along the way.

My Purpose: after 8 years inside IS/IT,  another 15 in Sales/Presales representing technology solutions at two Major Manufacturers,  I want to share my experiences, stories and thoughts with others, broader than I ever have.

This is my method..this is how i roll.

The Hook | The Hobby of Computers

As far back as my mottled memory banks can retrieve I had a tinkering for electronics, puzzles and computers.  My first experience with a real computer was around 1981 when my mother’s boyfriend James Lush, a successful executive and founder of Sound Concepts Inc, let me use his TRS-80.  I fell in love.  Yep, before girls  – there were computers.  I can’t say it was “cool” back then to be a geek, but I’m glad I didn’t care.  I would spend hours loading games from the tape loader; my favorite – Hammurabi – a text-based game of land and resource management was one I typed in from scratch using David Ahl’s “Basic Computer Games” book.  I would tinker with flavors of BASIC there, then on my first computer that James/my mother bought me in 1982 (TI994/A), at my fathers spending countless hours with him on his new IBM PCjr  (1984) playing Wizardy:Knight of Diamonds and programming BASIC.

In 1986 at age 14 I managed to get a Tandy 1000EX and things picked up. Teaching myself Pascal, messing with Basic, finding the world of Bulletin Boards on dialup and the hacking underground.  Shortly after I broadened my horizons with business applications of the time like Wordperfect 5.1, Lotus 1-2-3, Borland Quattro Pro, MS Word, as well as building my own PC’s and fostering the hobby.

As I neared graduation from Emmett O’Brien RVTS High School (1989) my plan was to work full-time for the HVAC company I had been apprenticing at since Junior year.  Roughly a year out of high school in the trade, I realized that my real passion was computers, NOT Attics in the summer at 120 degrees, or Rooftops in the winter at below freezing.  Looking back, I wouldn’t change anything about having gained the trade – IT has saved my butt several times as a homeowner, it just wasn’t my future.  With this is mind, and not being able to leave work to get to night school consistently while at the HVAC company, I left and shortly thereafter was hired in the union at Bayer Pharmaceuticals as a line & equipment cleaner for pharmaceuticals (1990).  That move had several major impacts on my career:

1. The 9 years I worked at that company were awesome – all of them. Not to mention all the people I met  – many of whom I still connect with through time.
2. It began my 15 years of night school {OK, not the most efficient, but i finished eventually!} which were all paid by my employers.
3. It helped me conquer the “You can’t do that” demon – more on this later.
4. Around 1995, it gave me my first entry into corporate I.S.

The Critical Path Having just mentioned how going to work for Bayer changed my career, I would be remiss if I failed to mention a series of events that changed my life.  Taking nothing away from my parents who I Love dearly (divorced at my age 10)

• a father who was stern yet my buddy to enjoy the fun things in life
• a mother who sacrificed so much for her kids – who showed what perseverance with the tides against you can do and what you can overcome

there was another powerful figure in my life.  The mentor at that time in my life has all to do with my path to IT, to where I am today, to whom I owe all the Thanks and gratitude in the world.This influence, Patricia Sirowich, was a good friend of my mother’s at the time.  I had known her for several years, and as I became more proficient with the computer in the late 1980’s I would help her complete tasks for her business.  At the time she was an All-star in Sales for Express Scripts and covered the Northeast.  I would do mailing labels and mail-merges for her, banners, contact databases.  Pretty much whatever she needed help with I would try circa 1989.  As I switched jobs to work at Bayer in the union(1990), and was making good money for the time,  I got the itch to buy a motorcycle.  It’s at this point where she stopped me, gave me a bigger perspective on life and pumped me full of confidence to do something bigger.  She reasoned that if I did what she was suggesting I could still buy the motorcycle in the near future, but would be better off long-term.

Her idea: start my own small IT business on the side with her as my client.  Aka part-time consultant.

I thought she was nuts.  I didn’t have the confidence to do that, hadn’t the slightest clue, not to mention that it made me nervous as all.  I was 19 years old and hadn’t grown up to think that way.  So there I was, working full-time plus overtime, going to night school, and starting a small company that would only ever serve 4-5 clients max and mostly on the weekend or late on a Thursday night.  It was the best push at the best time I could have ever had.  And it became Computer Concepts in 1991. Designed my own logo, had some business cards printed up, and garnered enough experience on weekends the next 3-4 years doing small I.T. tasks to tee me up for the entry level I/S role at Bayer in 1995.  I thank you Pat, and while I may have mentioned it in the past, you truly changed my path.

The Demon |  “You Can’t do that”

Enter Demon 1: I briefly mentioned the demon – the one where other people would tell you what you were good at, and what you could or COULDN’T accomplish.  Well at 18 I had my real first encounter with this.  When I was attempting to go to night school while working at the HVAC company, there was one particular manager that told me i was nuts.  Basically razzed me a bunch, and if it wasn’t hard enough to get out of there on time to make class, he would make it harder.  He would ask me what was I going to do going to school for computers, I wouldn’t get a better job!  I finally decided it was time to quit and figure it out, so I did.  He told me “You’ll be back”.  I knew then it was the best decision I would ever make.  I landed a job with Bayer in the Union making about 40% more and able to go to school paid. Demon 0, Jim 1.

Arrival of Demon 2: After working at Bayer for a couple years, I saw a posting for a non-exempt job [Non-Union] – literally on the “Job Board” near the cafeteria, for Pharmaceutical Compounder.  Basically scooping, weighing and some mixing of pharmaceutical raw materials.  I was told by several people that I would never get it, that no one crosses over.  Then there were others like Tina Keating (one of my managers) that had confidence in me and who would always help my schedule when something conflicted for class.  I always made sure I did my best work and helped her any way I could – as well as others.  I prepped my references and put a campaign together based on work ethic and knowledge of how the whole manufacturing process worked given I had been working closely with one of the Master cooks that compounded many of the pharmaceuticals – and by working closely I mean that I cleaned all the kettles, pots, strainers, pumps and equipment he used.  I interviewed (with who would turn out to be one of the more difficult managers in my career), used my references wisely and was offered the job. Demon 0, Jim 2.

Demon 3 Approaches: A couple more years pass  – its 1995, and i see another job posting.  This time the challenge is even greater – it’s an Exempt Job Code, entry level Information Systems on the “other side”.  Out of manufacturing and into the corporate offices.  Mind you all this existed in the same building, but the mindset of many was that these barriers couldn’t be passed, or at least not without some major forces at work – me, I didn’t know any better. Again I had several people telling me that it would never happen, I wouldn’t even get an interview, I wasn’t qualified,  that I wouldn’t get the job and I shouldn’t get my hopes up.  Well it turns out, they were wrong again.  I prepared by leveraging all the knowledge I had built up around technology as a hobby, and with that part-time business.  I gave examples of how quickly I had picked up technology.  The small networks, centralized file services and business applications I had implemented.  This was my start in IT – or I/S as it was called back then, thanks to a great manager Charlie Newcomb who saw the spark in my eyes, my passion for technology and whom was willing to take a chance.  Demon 0, Jim 3.

Have you experienced these Demon’s?  

I am guessing that throughout your life there have been times when someone told you that you couldn’t do something as a child, into your teens or as an adult.  While sometimes it is possible you were dealing with an unhappy person, many times this is said not to hurt you, and in fact sometimes people think they are protecting you. One thing should be very clear:

Other people do not define who you are, or what you can accomplish.  

They do not know what will make you happy, productive, fulfilled.  You need to own this. You have to surround yourself with positive forces and come up with a method for how you will make your key decisions – what defines your authenticity, what keeps you in Integrity (love this saying from the great Advanced Selling Podcast.  Should you get input from others? ABSOLUTELY.  At the same time you need a way of navigating the negative energies or challenges that are called out by others and having a plan to address them.  In the end, whether you achieve your desired outcome or not, you ensure its not for lack of putting yourself out there in authentic form.If you don’t own your own path, you will never accomplish what you could have, and the Demon’s win.  Not only that, but you may have regrets.  The next time someone challenges you and infers what you can not accomplish – use that as your ammunition to conquer the demon.

What will you do next time someone says “you can’t”, or tries to define who you are?