TAKING IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL

by Kevin W. Shockey

“Kevin’s a good writer and knows what he’s doing.” –chromatic
“…provided great feedback in a timely manner.” David Brickner
“…I’ve enjoyed his articles …and used him as a reviewer.” Andy Oram

PROLOGUE

He sits reclined waiting for the agonizing minutes to tick by. His thoughts are deep, pensive even. He has been waiting for over an hour, but it seems like much longer. From the moment he sat down his nerves have been racing and his stomach feels like his daughter has just finished jumping up and down on it again. He breathes deeply. Deliberately and slowly, he forces his breathing to slow down. He tries to stop smiling too, but there is just no way to stop. He’s instructed to check his restraint system, so he exhales sharply and focuses on the list. He begins the check list he has practiced a hundred times before. He mentally runs through the list checking all of the buckles and adjustments to make sure they’re just right. He gives each of the straps an extra pull just for good luck. He finishes the list. The restraints are tight, maybe too tight. He looks around and see his fellow crew members and allows himself to think about where he is. His pulse begins to race again as he shifts his thoughts forward to the mission. Old promises ring out within his thoughts. “I’m going to leave the ordinary behind and go for it. I will become a powerful shining example for my family, friends, and peers. I will prove to everyone that you truly can accomplish what ever you put your mind to and make your dreams come true.

He recalls for a moment, why he had been chosen for this mission. It was said that he was a unique combination of an intuitive project manager with many years of project success and a very detail oriented systems analyst. He had always been able to understand systems quickly and completely by relying on his commitment to conduct deep research and his mental agility. He was also seen as a very empathetic person willing to work closely with peers and subordinates to meet expectations and provide appropriate recognition. In the end, he felt that his ability to understand the nature of business and deliver projects, even during chaotic and stressful conditions, is what made him most valuable.

A LONG HARD JOURNEY

As the minutes crawl by he loses himself within his thoughts. I’m so blessed to be here waiting for this mission to start, but it wasn’t always like this. He remembers how long of a journey it took before his goals come into reach. Even just a few years ago things were very different.

Back at the InterAmerican University of Puerto Rico he was the Program Manager for the SNAP Development Center. This was a human resource development project he started along with some friends. He remembers the vision they had, create world class software engineers and spread the gospel of open source software. They had started an open source project to build a completely open source Java software development stack and built a research project to incorporate university students. Some of the most memorable accomplishments from this stop in his journey were:

• writing and defending the proposal to obtain the $792,000 grant to start the project
• establishing the open source project in sourceforge.net and successfully releasing multiple versions
• and conducting numerous activities sharing the philosophy behind open source software and handing out a lot of free software.

Prior to that he remembers working as an Independent Consultant for a couple of years. It was during this time that he had dedicated himself to significantly improve his understanding of business. Although he had a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Computer Science, he had never had the time nor money to obtain an MBA. So while he worked some odd contracts learning and programming the .NET Framework with VB.Net and learning Palm Pilot and 802.11b networks for hand held software development, he obtained a poor man’s MBA. During this period, he read the following list of business, sales, and marketing books.

His thoughts linger the most as he recalls the time he spent with Cingular Wireless, which had previously been Cellular One of Puerto Rico. He had spent seven long years and had done well. He laughs to himself as he remembers that he entered as a project leader and left as an IT Director in charge of software development. Those were crazy times when he was simultaneously responsible for a development team of 13 developers and database administrators, external contractors, and, through his technical leadership, the overall operational support of the market’s prepaid system. With the prepaid system, he had successfully reduced system downtime and ensured a regular revenue stream of $5 million/month. During this time he also successfully led the company’s Year 2000 Project and successfully built three different data marts using SQL Server, Oracle, and DB2. For one of these projects he received an “Outstanding Achievement” award. Finally, while working in Puerto Rico he remembers becoming fluent in Spanish.

He remembers distinctly exploring the Internet as a system analyst for COMSAT Corporation. This new environment piqued his interest, but he always regretted never pursuing his love of the Internet. Of course, this was all part of his education. As his journey led him closer to his dreams he realized how he needed to trust in himself and never let any fears get in the way of reaching ever higher. While he had distinguished himself as a valuable system analyst, as he looked back, his time with COMSAT would be a low point. He did distinguish himself while at COMSAT by receiving and “On the Spot Bonus” award for the successful completion of Human Resource/Payroll system conversion. The conversion process was completed on time under extremely high-pressure deadlines. He also remembers being president of the employee’s association for two years. Much later in his journey he would realize that this experience set the foundation for his empathetic nature and ability to work well with anyone inside an organization.

As a senior consultant for CAP GEMINI AMERICA, he remembers learning the fine art of producing high quality deliverables. He also lead a project for the creation and implementation of a pilot expert system in all of the regional USDA offices in the United States. For this success, he had received the “Consultant of the Quarter” award.

He remembered starting out his career as a young Biomedical Information Systems Officer in the U.S. Army and getting to play with a VAX/VMS Cluster and Oracle. He even got to see how a large IBM mainframe shop ran things and received his first local area network connected personal computer running MS-DOS and SmartTerm. Other responsibilities including managing the property inventory and executing a multi-million dollar budget.

Finally, as the commotion around him beckoned his attention, he remembers all of the extra experience that he has helped to guide his journey and illustrate his uniqueness.

EPILOGUE

The wait was unbearable, but the anticipation was even worse. He knew that they would start soon. Everything had been checked, re-checked and checked once again. He then heard through his headset that all systems were go. The countdown was going to start! He took a quick moment to run through one last list. He mentally went through, one by one, a list of everyone who had made this possible. He thanked God first for all his blessings. He thanked his parents, although they were both both gone away some ten years ago. He thanked his wife and children. He thanked his friends, especially for their loyalty. And finally, even though they didn’t deserve the credit, he thanked everyone who had never believed in him; for he knew that without their disdain he would have never had the fire to make it this far on his journey. Their disloyalty had fueled his long nights and kept him going.

His mind quickly jumped back to the moment, and he found that he was smiling so wide that his checks were aching. Mission Control had announced that they were going to begin the countdown and his moment had arrived. He squeezed his fists within the bulky gloves and tried to catch his breath one last time. He exhaled slowly through his nose and let his breath end before slowly breathing back in the excitement. It was no use, there was no stopping now as he heard that they would lift off in t-minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.