Keeping tabs on my friends

In this business people move around a lot.  So it gets a little tricky to keep tabs on the folks that have had an impact in you life (private and professional alike).

Rick Claus has been a great friend and mentor for many years.  We meet while he was teaching an Active Directory class about 13 years ago.  We were having lunch between running some labs when I suggested that he’d be a great addition to the Microsoft practice at the consulting firm I was working with. A few calls and a few interviews later he was a key member of our team.  When he joined Microsoft I followed suit soon after and we were again working together.

Rick has always been a mentor for me.  He pushed and helps me do my first product launch in Montreal in January 2007.  He got me hooked.  Not hooked on doing Product Launches, hooked on figuring out what relevant and fun for IT pros and talking about it.  Hooked on being a part of the IT Pro community in Canada.

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Rick is now moved on to the next chapter in his career and I could not be happier for him.  He’s truly doing what he loves and now will have even more impact.  However, keeping in touch with someone that is 3 time zones away is not always easy.

So I was very happy to view his last episode of TechNet Edge where he tells us a little bit about his new environment.

see for yourself…

As Rick himself would say….  AWESOME!!!

Cheers!

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My W5

I started this site this week, read up on the software required, how to integrate it in my own network, deployed it, and movedcopied all my posts (well ok, most of them) from the last site I was contributing to my own. It started out as an exercise in learning something new, but it grew into something else.  It’s a way for me to blend, my own stuff, home electronics discussion, consumer related issues and views and IT pro related information and guidance.

That’s not a big deal… I’ll still contribute and cross post to CanITPro. Hey I believe that anything that’s good for the IT professional community is good for me.  We’re all on the same team.  Right?

I figured if I put all my stuff out there, ( do not worry none of my “Stuff” is out there…) you’ll get to know the real ME.  not just the MS ME.

My wife thinks I have ADD…. Why else would a few hours spent learning something new would morph into an introverted reflection of my own purpose…..  Anyway..  That’s when I started thinking about my own W5.

What: I know what I do.  In my professional life, I manage the post sale relationship with corporate/public sector customers.  I help them have the most stable and efficient environment possible in the shared goal of helping the business units achieve their objectives.  I also know what I want to do. I want to help, inform, inspire IT pros to succeed.  Whether  it’s succeeding in installing a single application or succeeding in deploying a complex system… no difference a step forward is a step forward.

Who: I know who I am!! I’m The Dude Playing the Dude Disguised as Another Dude…  just kidding… (some of my friends will get a kick out of that last one… Right, Debbie?).  Seriously, I do know who I am.  My friends know who I am.  and that’s good enough for me.

When: I’ve been doing it for years now… In most cases without being conscious of it, but I realized 4 or 5 years ago when I was fortunate enough to backfill a position left open during one of my friend’s maternity leave. (She got twins…) That I’ll be doing this for the rest of my life.  As an IT Pro, or as a old retired man giving other pointers on their golf swing.  Smile

Where: That one is such a non issue now…  Years ago, when I started my career  and I had a Bitnet account my circle of influence was pretty small.  but now,  WOW, the whole world can cooperate, exchange and help. And that’s fantastic.  The where does not matter that much anymore….

Why: People don’t follow someone because of what they do, they follow someone because of why they do it.  ( read Start With Why from Simon Sinek….  You’ll get it).  I still have to really define the why part.  I have a really good idea…  But it’s not crystal clear yet.  I feel it. but I can’t explain it.

Well it’s late Friday night and I should really be enjoying the evening with my wife instead of pounding the keys on my keyboard….

that being said…

Good night!!

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