So I was flooded on linkedin the other day with “Congrats on your work anniversary” and it always makes me feel weird.
I was also at a potential client’s location a few weeks ago and the comment was made “I heard you died”.
All the congrats were for 19 years of working for myself – It’s more like 15. Which means I’ve done this for as long as I was a federal employee. I sat on this business for 3 or 4 years before diving in full time. I always take some time and reflect on the insanity. What currently dominated the the entire reflection is January. The “almost dying thing” has changed my thought process on a lot of things:
So what has happened over 19 years:
- Started a business not necessarily having a direction
- Became an ESRI BP. Got it in like 2008 and dropped it in 2013 I believe. For some that’s a great partnership. For me it never worked quite right.
- Became an ESRI certified instructor…or Authorized. Got that in like 2009 and dropped that in 2014.
- Been to way too many Conferences
- Been on way too many Conference Committees.
- Been on way too many boards.
- Sorta figured out a “product” with this 911 stuff which has left me trying to perfect the process.
- About Died.
- Moved Twice.
- Divorced Once
- Became an instructor for QGIS..I guess I’m an Authorized Instructor or something – I forget.
Places I’ve been that I can remember:
- Boston Mass
- Dumas Texas
- Providence RI
- Nashville TN
- Knoxville TN
- Kingsport TN
- Atlanta GA too many times.
- Savannah Georgia
- Jacksonville Florida
- Orlando, Florida
- San Francisco, CA
- Sacramento, CA
- Louisville KY
- Memphis TN
- St Paul, Minnesota (Drove there)
- Indianapolis, Indiana
- US Virgin Islands
- Billings Montana
- Paris, TN
Things I should do better:
- Vet Clients.
- Advertising.
- Be tougher on Billing
- Been a little more on top of things as a Subcontractor.
- Don’t get stressed as much.
- Be more confident.
Things that evolved out of this I do enjoy:
- The Open Source Community. I’ve had the chance to meet and talk to some incredible people.
- Software: QGIS, PostGIS, GDAL, Geoserver, and OpenStreetMap (technically a database) and even more software I can’t remember at the moment.
- Cooking – I make nothing spectacular but I try to make it better than the last time. Why Cooking? I work from home and try to do things to change life up a little.
- Weird “Because I can” projects with OpenStreetMap.
- Environmental work which I hardly do anymore. I gotta figure out how to make that happen.
- Writing small programs to make my life easier. I suck as a programmer but it’s still fun.
- Learning new things again. There hasn’t been much learning over the last year and a half.
Back to the almost dying thing. I said coming out of surgery “Hey I’m back to work ASAP!”. I took for granted how much this was going to make me take a step back. I think the kids say “Shook”. I am officially “shooketh”. For years the complaint has been I work way too much. As of late the work day has an end. It ends around 4:30 and I go for a walk or ride my bike or do something like cooking. It may end before it gets started if I wake up stressed. I’ve been slowly getting back in the canoe. That’s take a bit more work as generally you’ve got to carry it from a parking spot to the water and then back again. The other night I tossed the boat in the water and got off balanced and about took a header into the river. I turned to everyone and said “I meant to do that”. I didn’t.
Things I am going to do better:
- Extra picky with clients – I used to be and fell out of the habit.
- Do work I enjoy. I said above I enjoyed environmental work. I started my career off doing that and maybe……that’s how this goes till…….
- I think when I’m pitching the 911 database work I spend an hour talking to them to see what they are thinking. If they are thinking “GIS Is Stupid” – I can then go canoeing and not waste my day.
- Get the US QGIS users group up and running one way or another.
- About 5 or 6 years ago I said “One volunteer project a year”. Which was different than me trying to help about anyone that appeared. Sometimes I was running 5 or 6 volunteer projects at once. I’ve decided it’s “One Volunteer Project” and then I decide when the next one happens. So no more time constraints of “Well it’s been 365 days lets do another one”.
- Pivot the business a bit. I consider this business a bit of a living organism and it must adapt to the changing times. I haven’t been and that hit me the other day.
Good people – Life is short.
