Network Uptime

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When your Career Services Specialist, Jodilynn Byrd, sent me information about this graduation ceremony, she also included information about the ITT curriculum that you’ve just completed. I was absolutely amazed at the level of technology education that you’ve accomplished! Your accumulated knowledge of multimedia technologies, networking, security, electronics, and communication are enviable. You are entering a workforce that is desperate for your skills! Even more importantly, the world needs your skills!

The kind of detailed industry knowledge that you now possess has taken me into the worlds largest networks at some of the most well-known organizations in the world. I’ve helped to make Walt Disney World “The Happiest Place on Earth,” I’ve assisted in the manufacturing of BMWs, I’ve helped nuclear power plants provide electricity for millions of people, I’ve trained our troops overseas to fight electronic foes, and, one of my personal favorites, I’ve helped Anheiser-Busch produce cases of sweet, sweet beer!

This knowledge has taken me, literally, from one side of the world to the other. I’ve visited Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Puerto Rico, Taiwan, South Korea, Monte Carlo, Japan, and many locations in-between.

And now, you’ve accumulated the growth and the knowledge to take you anywhere you want to go. Are your bags packed, yet? Is there anywhere you’ve ever thought of living? You can go there now, you know.

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If you asked me about Japan and Monte Carlo when I was growing up, I’ve have little idea what you were talking about. I was raised in Monticello, Florida, a small town near Tallahassee. The population of Monticello is about 2,500 people, and the population of Jefferson County is around 14,000 people. At an average Miami Dolphins game, the attendance equals approximately 28 Monticellos, or 5 Jefferson Countys. Jefferson County remains today the only county in the State of Florida that does not have a traffic light. It was, and is, a very small town.

Jefferson County is quite rural, and when I was fourteen years old I got a job working during the summer at a dairy farm. This dairy had a farming area that grew blueberry plants. These blueberries would ultimately be harvested, packaged, and shipped to France. I was hoeing blueberry field after blueberry field, in the summer, in Florida. It didn’t take me long to understand that education was incredibly valuable. After a few weeks of sunburn and blisters, it was easy to make decisions about my future. I was going to get “an education,” whatever the cost. I played video games, and I had seen Radio Shack personal computers in the mall, but I had no idea that hoeing a blueberry field was going to be the impetus for a high-tech future.

I loved growing up in Monticello. However, Monticello wasn’t a “breeding ground” for the next generation of technologists. Do you know why? It’s because there isn’t such a thing. Technology isn’t about environment or genetics. Technology is about PEOPLE. It doesn’t matter where you are from – the only thing that matters is where you are GOING.

I began to understand this connection between people and technology when I was in college. I had a part-time job at the Florida State University computer center as a computer operator. A computer operator is the person who sits behind mainframe consoles all day, mounts tapes, and fetches printouts from the high-speed mainframe printer. Since this was a university, much of the work on the mainframes was from entry-level programming classes. However, I found that some of the most interesting output that came through the computer center was from the meteorology department. They used FSU’s supercomputers to build amazing computer models of storms and hurricanes, and they would print their results on the high-definition electrostatic plotter located inside the computer room where I was sitting for hours a day.

This was high-speed-liquid-nitrogen-cooled technology, but suddenly I perceived it very differently. It wasn’t technology for technology’s sake, it was technology being used to help people. These researchers were using the fastest computers in the world to build models that would be used to evacuate, protect, and save people’s lives and property. Suddenly, the computer wasn’t a magic box with blinking lights and tapes and printouts. It wasn’t the computers that were magical, it was the PEOPLE.

Now, you are these people. You’re the ones who will be making the difference in people’s lives. It starts right here, and right now.

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Much to the surprise of my friends and family, I graduated from Florida State University’s Business College with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management. I was also a member of the university’s largest business fraternity, Delta Sigma Pi, and was ready for the world. I was working with the fastest computers in the world, and I had extensive experience with the industry’s newest generation of personal computers.

So, of course, my first job out of college was delivering printer cables throughout Dade and Broward county. I was hired by a computer reseller in South Miami, and my job was to delivery memory and hard drive upgrades to customers. This wasn’t the high-tech future I had envisioned.

One of my deliveries took me to the Dade County Jail. They had ordered a hard drive replacement, and I arrived on-site to perform the warranty repair. If you’ve never had the opportunity to visit the Dade County Jail, I highly recommend a tour. I guarantee you after one trip there, you will never EVER want to do anything wrong. Ever.

My contact met me in the “greeting” area, and we entered this massive door that led into the main part of the jail. We headed up the elevator with a group nice boys wearing lovely colored jumpsuits. At that very moment, it would have been seemingly impossible to become any farther away from Monticello, FL.

Oh, but it did. We got off the elevator, and I stepped onto the floor of the Dade County Jail that was reserved for inmates who suffered from psychological issues. There were no open-bar cells, only closed metal doors with small windows. Each window had a face inside that watched me quickly skirt down the hallway to the office that contained the personal computer that I came to fix.

Needless to say, that was the fastest hard-drive replacement in the history of IBM personal computers. I was like a rodeo cowboy tying the legs of a young steer. I have very little recollection of my exit from the jail, other than it occurring at a very high rate of speed.

My experience “in jail” and my delivery job may have been humbling, but it was miserably productive. I hope none of you have to experience a job this humbling, and I hope all of you have to experience a job this humbling. My first job out of college may not have been up to my completely unrealistic “standards,” but it has been a catalyst for my career ever since. You’ll find that some of your worst experiences will provide you with powerful knowledge that you would have never garnered otherwise.

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My first job with “corporate America” came soon after my trip to jail (as I like to call it). I got another job with a multi-billion dollar insurance company in Miami. This was more like it! Coat and tie, big wide-area networks, and lots of technology. This was the early nineties, and the networking team was experimenting with an emerging technology known as “The Internet.” This was early in the life of the Internet, where Yahoo! was still a private directory URL on a server at Stanford. There was no Amazon, eBay, or Google.

I was leading a team of network technologists in a meeting with the CIO and VPs where we were introducing them to this world-changing Internet technology. We recommended that the company obtain a domain name and the networking hardware that would connect our company with our customers. We presented a view of the Internet as the “next big thing,” where all companies would be connected and every advertisement and communication to consumers would have a link to the ‘net.

The CIO listened carefully to our proposal, and then gave us his thoughts. In his opinion, this “Internet” would be very useful for technical people, but it had little use for mainstream America. It certainly didn’t have the ubiquitous characteristics that we projected. The CIO didn’t see a need for any direct electronic connection to our customers, and there would be no additional budgeting allocated for the hardware and software costs required to get us onto the ‘net.

Here’s the take-away. Don’t give up on your passions. If you truly believe you are right and that you’ve “got something,” keep pursuing those passions. Find the people around you who also “believe,” and take the challenges head-on. Put yourself out there, and sell your beliefs. Align yourself with smart people who also think “outside of the box.” Remember, the CIOs and CEOs don’t know everything.

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Sometime soon in your career will be a “wow” moment. For some of you, this moment may have already happened. For others, it’ll hit you when you least expect it. Here’s mine.

Early on in my position as a corporate trainer at this previously-mentioned large insurance company, I was walking by our network team members huddled around a portable computer that was on the floor. They had plugged it into a network connection, and they were very excited about some of the information that was displayed on the screen. Like any other person who sees a group of people standing on a street corner looking at the sky, I looked up to see what all of the hubbub was about.

The network team had just received the second token-ring Sniffer to come off the “assembly line” at Network General. Our previously invisible network was suddenly talking to us, and it was telling us information about our network communication that was previously impossible to know!

That was The Moment tm. I immediately left my career in corporate training behind and enveloped myself in everything having to do with networking and network analysis. I buried myself in technology standards, networking best practices, and application performance analysis techniques.

Network technology called to me. It piqued an interest and curiosity in me that has sustained me from that moment. That single event shaped my future, and it will be part of my “story” until the day that I die. Though the years, I’ve had to make some difficult decisions about my life but I knew that if I followed that passion that I’d be ok. I started working with Network General, the creator of that magical software, about ten years ago, and I’ve never looked back.

Be curious. Be creative. Don’t let “The Moment” go by without grabbing it with both hands. Just hang on, because it will pull you through life in dramatic ways that you never thought possible.

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And now, the secret to my personal success. It’s a simple rule that too many people seem to ignore. Do what you enjoy. You are all much too smart to work your entire lives doing something that isn’t fun! If you aren’t having fun, then look for another job with an exciting organization that can teach you something new while you have a great time. Life is much too short to live miserably. When you strip it all away, it’s not about the technology, or the job, or the money – it’s about being happy with the world and your life.

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In closing, I’ll leave you with this: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead, the noted anthropologist and author, said those words. She was part of a team of people that redefined anthropology and brought techniques to the craft that are still used today.

Graduates, you will change the world. The change starts now. Indeed, you are the only thing that ever has.

I wish you good luck, and good travels. Thank you.