I’ve had a lot of fun these last couple of years of self discovery; coming to a place of self-actualization and understanding how my attributes best serve myself and those around me mutually. I say mutually, as a majority of my life and career has been rooted in how I can best server others. As altruistic and noble that may seem, there are limits to this. Over time when there is little to no return and investment in oneself, your ability to serve and its impact produces diminishing returns.

Initially, I believe my career in tech would be hindered by my HR degree and lack of “formal” technical training. But by taking a bet on myself, I googled, youtubed, udemyed and white papered myself into the person I wanted to become. It’s hard at first because you feel that you are throwing everything against the wall to see if it will stick (which it kind of is). Do I want to be a Java and Python developer? Do I get my A+ cert? Oh, getting a PMP sounds sexy. Ok, so cloud, this makes sense to me… yea, I like the cloud. Yet, as I began seeing success within my career, moving from supporting primary school desktops to enterprise networks I realized that my success is founded on lessons learned from failures and off the beaten path decisions.

This has ultimately let me to take on the path of the Product Manager. Successful products have built success in adopting the agile mindset and relying on data to drive business decisions. And seeing myself as a product and my willingness to try (and fail) a variety of things, I’ve been able to realize that my strengths lay with being able to translate business needs to technical solutions driven by real conversations and interactions. Through this I have had wonderful opportunities to work with design, engineering and business teams around the globe developing features for API processes, Content Management Systems and Practice Management Software Systems.

The mindset I’ve developed within my career has bode well in my personal development as well. Striving to improve my health, traveling more; learning and taking calculated risks financially; what a scary and trying journey it has been. But the rewards have allowed me to freely lead and provide for my family with confidence.

Maybe one day I’ll be a CTO, or maybe a VP of Product. Maybe I’ll feel cute one day and travel the country as a starving musician, who knows. But whatever path I take, my decisions will be led by analyzing the steps I’ve taken in life and ensuring that the roadmap is well defined to bring out the best life has to offer.