Unavailing Logic

  If you attend church, you may recognize the title of this post as lyrics from a Hillsong Christian worship song. Don't worry, I'm not turning this into a religious blog, but my faith is a part of who I am and has contributed to my belief structure and attitude. What you may not know is that I am a bassist and I volunteer regularly on my church's worship team, so I've played this song dozens of times.  Recently, someone asked me the old question, "What do you do for a living?". I answered his question. I told him I worked as an IT Solutions Architect and was in a pre-sales role selling datacenter and security solutions to our clients. His response, "oh, you're in sales". No. Technically I'm "pre-sales". Then he says, "so you work on computers?". No, I create solutions for clients. As the conversation continued, I got this knot deep in the pit of my stomach because none of those things are what I really am. It's what I...

  My Dad was a salesman. He could sell anything to anyone. But sales is a rough game. When times are good they are really good. But when times are bad, they are really bad. Dad constantly listened to motivational tapes (remember tapes?). One of his favorite motivational speakers was Dr. Norman Vincent Peale. Dr. Peale had a gravely voice and an excellent understanding of how to use his powerful voice to convey a message. One of the things Dr. Peale preached was "Positive Mental Attitude" or what he abbreviated as "PMA". My Dad adopted this mindset, and constantly reminded me that my attitude dictated my altitude. That whatever I thought, that's what I would become.  Recently I was informed that my job was being eliminated and as I type this, I am jobless. It's scary. Sure, I have some money set back, but it won't last long and starting all over again is a tough pill to swallow. I have a kid in college. I have a wife. A house. Cars. You get the picture. B...

Over the past 15 years of my career I have focused on leadership, team building, business acumen, and emotional intelligence. I made this decision after being in primarily technical roles for the previous 15 years. It was spurred by a conversation with a respected peer. The conversation was about how information technology was changing and that soon the "technology generalist" would become obsolete as technology would advance so far that no one could fully grasp every aspect of it. We chatted about how eventually there will be technology workers who support daily operations to "keep the lights on" and IT strategists who support the business by achieving goals and objectives using technology. I've been in the field long enough to remember the days when the "IT Guy" was the go to do it all guy for anything technology related. Need a phone...IT Guy. Need a power strip...IT Guy. Need printer paper...IT Guy. The IT Guy did everything related to just abo...