Background

In February of 2011, 8 months after graduating from Lycoming College, I packed my bags and decided to move west to navigating my own path. I wanted to get into the tech world in hopes of eventually building my own company and figured I could be most competitive in Seattle, plus I had visited during the summer of '11 and really loved the city. After 2 months of working landscaping jobs and attending every tech event I could find, I got my big break in the form of an interview with a small consulting agency in which I felt under-qualified for the position. 5 years later and 10x growth with the agency I had the tools to move onto my next adventure where I am looking to build the company of my dreams. This brings me to today; where I have been independently consulting and working on my new product since January. 

Key Tenants

Know your goals: Life > Year > Quarter > Month > Week > Day This is something that I have struggled with a bit, it took a lot of soul searching, but I was sick of asking myself on a task by task basis: "Am I doing the most important thing?". I was constantly questioning my decisions to the point of not being able to get anything done. Just recently I forced myself to write down my "life goals" and start from there. These are high level goals and I broke them out into 5 buckets: Health, Family, Professional Development/ Growth, Finances, Fun/ Leisure.  You can read more about my 2016 Goals in my blog.

Values

I expect that my chosen values will slightly change over time, but I currently find that the values community, continuous improvement, and humility closest in depict the experience I would like to rest my journey on.

Community: The most important of the 3 values to me; I believe we all have a core responsibility to  be a positive member (purposefully vague) in our community as we define it. I first start from looking within my friend group and family to my Ballard neighborhood, to the city of Seattle, my country and the world. 

Continuous improvement: To quote Ernest Hemingway, "There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self." The biggest internal struggle is knowing that I can do more.

Humility: It's not about feeling less than you are, but having the courage to admit when you are wrong and learn from your mistakes.