Labor Day has past, the NFL season has begun, and summer is now basically over (well, unless you live in San Francisco). Summer went as quickly for me as I’m sure it did for many of you. Recently, I was reflecting on a family trip we took to Highland, Indiana. We visited my wife’s grandma, who is 86 years old, still lives on her own, and runs her church’s largest fundraiser—a good ‘ole Midwestern beer garden. You see, the annual Highland fair doesn’t serve alcohol. So what did my enterprising in-laws decide to do 15 years ago? Provide refreshments for thirsty fair-goers! 

After volunteering for the beer garden fundraiser for the second time, I’ve learned that the event requires significant set up—obtaining several permits and managing the logistics: tent, food, nonalcoholic drinks, security, tables, chairs, volunteer schedule, raffles, lighting/electrical, fencing, money, accounting, marketing newsletters, and let’s not forget the BEER! Months of planning goes into the event and it pays off with a mid five-figure net gain!

During the event, I reunited with one of the workers from the previous year named Larry. We discussed life, our families, and our professions. We’re both in sales, he’s in the steel business, while I’m in cloud consulting. I tried my best to explain what we do in the cloud industry and wasn’t sure if I was making much sense. However, one week after I returned home I received this email:

Matt,
Thanks for your participation in the beer garden. It was indeed a pleasure to speak with you. I do wish good fortune to yourself and family, in particular with your business which we spoke about. You are an inspiration that I myself can appreciate in my line of business. Take care and perhaps I will have the opportunity in meeting with you in any future beer garden events.

Regards,
Larry

It was pretty touching to receive that note, as it was completely unexpected. I love getting those occasional doses of perspective (although “inspiration” may be too strong). His email reminded me that there are a few important things you can do to make your job, and life, more satisfying and fulfilling. In that vein, I’ve compiled these five practices to consider adopting in your everyday life:

1. Pick a positive direction and get going
   Don’t worry about being on the perfect career path, you can always course correct. Avoid over thinking and make progress, wherever you are in your career. In our world of salesforce.com consulting, that could mean bolstering your skills by obtaining Salesforce Certifications.
2. Grab that oar and start rowing!
   Add value and attempt to move forward every day while avoiding excuses. For individuals and organizations it’s easy to fall into the “not my fault” trap. Once dominant companies routinely end up on the rust pile by getting complacent, as I wrote about in my last blog, Tales From the Tech Rust Belt. We face this challenge every day and have to fight the temptation. Just grab that darn oar and “row!”
3. Finish what you started
   Half done helps no one. I see this recurring theme in project management. A large project cannot be successfully completed without every deliverable coming together completely. Every deliverable depends on tightly coordinated and completed workstreams. These workstreams are simply collections of well planned and completed tasks by individuals. Complete your tasks.
4. Strive to always get better
   None of us are perfect and we should be perfectly comfortable with that. You must own your mistakes, learn from them and build upon them. In my line of sales, if you bat .300, you’re doing well. Keep this in perspective and understand that there is always an opportunity to improve.
5. Location (i.e. industry) is everything
   You don’t have to live in the Silicon Valley to get a job in cloud computing. In fact, geographical independence is a top selling point of cloud technology. Technology employment just hit an all-time high, so the industry itself is the “location.” Also, there are currently almost three dozen open positions at Bluewolf. If you have these previously mentioned characteristics as part of your fabric, we definitely want to speak with you.

Even though Larry from the beer garden may not realize it, he could learn from his neighbor and my grandmother-in-law. She’s the true inspiration in this story by exemplifying the items above to lead a wildly successful endeavor for over 15 years. Without her hard work and guidance, the Highland beer garden would not exist, and that would just be a darn shame! 

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