Well, that's Ah, that's a long story, but I'll try. Try and try to make it somewhat entertaining. So I'm 40. I'm gonna be turned 42 in ah, in two weeks. And those of you that are fans of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 42 is the is the secret off isn't meaning of the universe, right? Eso one years old, Um, I was in college and I realized that I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I was in a major I didn't really like and all I knew was I wanted to get out of my town, Terry. And this was back in 2000. So when I joined the military, the recruiter told me, It's gonna be cabanas and cocktails and you're gonna be sitting on the beach for four years and then it's free college, and I'm like, sweet. And so then the war happened. And so I spent a couple years in Iraq. Ah, and, uh, got out of the military after four years, um, went back as a contractor, so I was Ah, ground radar maintenance technician, working on a on A radar from the 19 seventies and, uh, you know, it's a lot of circuit cards, a lot of sauntering, a lot of sweaty long days sitting on the floor of ah, of a shelter, trying to figure out why this thing won't work. And, uh, so I come out Anoma contractor. I was a contractor in Iraq for a couple of years. Um, and, uh, I bounced around the world a little bit, spent time in about 20 different countries, finally came back and got my and finished my degree in computer science, Um, and then decided. OK, now it's time to be an adult. I got to grow up. I've got to get a job. So looking for a job was was was challenging because, uh, you know, it's the economy wasn't so great when I was coming back, but I eventually found a job in the Bahamas. So I worked on an island in the Bahamas. It was me and five other people it on this little island in the Bahamas, and we were taking care of this really old radar. Um, you know, he was used for, uh, sub hunters so they would do their very good navy would do their training there, And our job is to keep the radar going. And, uh, eventually, I said, you know, I need to get a job in the States because by that time I was married and my wife was like, We're on an island with five people and then bored out of my mind. You know, I go to the beach so many days a week. So we moved up to Massachusetts. I got a job with the National Weather Service and I was just cutting grass and I was cutting grass and clean it out and clean it out. Rain sensors. Reality was it was a huge step back for me in my career, but, um, I looked at it was like, I got to get something in the States that I could start on a pathway in the States and I never stopped looking for work inside that time. So I started with the Weather Service and I was working for the government and now the government jobs. You get a government job, and it's like you can pretty much chart your entire career, you know, in five years ago to be making this much money. And 10 years ago making that much money. And in this year, I'm gonna retire. And so you know, there's a lot of certainty in that You know what your retirements gonna be there? Stability. There's no there's not a lot of like, um, there's not a lot of surprises And I said, Well, that's not very exciting So I told my wife and I said, What if I just quit this job just so, etc. We'll see what we could see, what we could do. And she's like, Seriously, So I quit that job, took a to take any temporary contract, and now why would I quit that stable job to take a temporary contract? Well, my job title in the Miller and the government was electron ICS technician. The job title for, um for the job that I was gonna take was I t manager. Why? Team manager sounds a lot more important than electron ICS technician. So I said I if I'm in I T manager for a year, I can I can use that on my resume and get you know, an I T manager job because I day one of the contract I do. This contract was doomed to fail. So I said, Okay. I'm gonna last year because you got out last at least a year. Right? So in the last year at this at this contract, do my best. And once a year hits, I'm gonna be mad, man, applying for work again. So I got another job, and that's my current job. Stealing Black and Decker. Um, as a it was first. I was was an engineer, so that's a big upgrade, right? Technician to engineer. The engineers are just technicians that make more money, By the way, the does the only difference between engineering technician um S O. So I worked my way up through that. So I was, ah, engineer, senior engineer. And then I became, and then I got pushed over into, like, a project management role for a while. And I've been with these guys for about six years now and now in the manager of customer satisfaction. And so what was the driving factor through all of that? Um, I tried not to settle. You know, if I didn't like something, I tried to change my environment and, you know, try to, uh, find happiness in the work that I'm doing at the time, but also look to the future. You know, am I happy that you know, what's my 10 year plan in this job? Just this job to take me where I want to go. And if the answer is no, well, the job market's pretty good. You just start looking and someone else will pick you up and you try again, you know? So I hope that Daddy answer the question.

now. Um, so I've got I've got my own office, You know, when When everyone got pushed to go work from home for Corona virus, I was, like, already set up. Everyone started turning their webcams on and I was like, No, we don't turn out Webkinz on. We're all working in our pajamas. Um, but, ah, the responsibilities and decisions. So this is a cunning gave me this position because, um, I I've never been one to shy away from a challenge. Like even back in the military. I would I would always be like the one to volunteer. I don't know if there's just something in me I just want to see how crazy things get. So if you need me to go talk to a customer that's ready to kill us Yeah, sure, I'll talkto you know, And so they would always send me out for you know, I was used to say If a customer is ready to kick us out, sue us, kill us, but there otherwise just done with our stuff, send me out and I'll go turn him around. And so that was like how I sort of build my brand in the company and flex saying like I'll take on the heart, jobs, you Is there a job nobody else wants to do? I'll do it and do it, Own it, do the best you can with it and eventually that came to this job or not. They're calling me the customer satisfaction manager, Um, and it's essentially it's a it's a It's a broad scope job. So, you know, if you look at, like, methodologies of how you do different things in the business, you know the PMO methodology. One of them is like to be a most like a safety, you know? So I'm sort of like a safety net in in the business. Um, if things were going really wrong, they sent me out to just fix it. Customers are really upset, you know. We sell a really complex I t product eso. It's not just it could be difficult to deploy. It could be difficult to maintain a times. Most of the time it's successful, but we weren't running at that pace. Things don't always go right, so when things go wrong and you just need the press, the easy button that they just sent me out to go do it. Um, my weekly work hours. It's 8 to 5. Monday through Friday. Um, I'm on salary. Um, so I will say that I do work beyond those hours from time to time, but it's not, like a daily basis that I work beyond those hours. You know, I think when you do a job, if you don't like the job that you're doing, you've got to find a way to like it because, you know, they say, go find a job you love. You'll never work a day in your life. Well, yeah, uh, I would say it's better to recognize the fact that, um, you know, you've got to find a way to like the job. You know, you can't go out and say, like, this is what I like. You know, you could if you're lucky, you can say this is what I like to do. So this is the job long, but usually your fantasy doesn't really match with reality. There's a lot of really terrible days at work. It just happens. That's life. So you've got to find a way to like it. So I do like it. And so I sometimes I wind up working, like just because I want to get my work done. It's interesting. It's, you know, um, travel travel is pretty much done since Corona virus. We haven't done any time. And then any travel, they send other people to go to travel. Prior to that, um, I was doing 1 to 2 weeks a month, so I would do like these roadshows. I would go with a sales person and we would go toe, like, visit, like, 10 customers and just want, you know, one after the other after the other. Just Hi. How you doing? Um, you know, how are things going? Did you have any questions? You know, somehow I somehow have become, like the technical guru in the company. So they like to have me there because I can answer those weird technical questions that come up

getting along with other people is hard. You spend your whole life learning how to get along with other people. Um, the biggest advice that I would give anybody, um, and how to get along with people is no one comes to work. No one comes to school. No one does anything in their life and plans to fail. Everyone is trying to succeed. Everyone is trying to do the best that they can. And so if someone does something and it negatively impacts you or they were supposed to get something done, they didn't. You shouldn't engage in like the office gossip. You shouldn't go behind their back and start talking about, especially at work. You know, maybe it will work in school. Maybe it will work at home. But it were You can really damage your career by by doing that OSS office gossip. So I would think in a challenge in any job is always those interpersonal skills and the key to mastering your interpersonal skills. Assume positive intent. Everyone is trying to do the right thing. If it didn't come out the right way, focus on the mission focused on what is your What are we trying to accomplish. You know what's best for the customer? What's best for the company, those those The types of things you have to think about because those are the things they're going to keep you above the fray. You're always gonna have gossipers it work. You're gonna have people that want to call you and keep you on the phone for two hours to tell you how terrible this other person is. You've got to stay above that. You've got to stay above that. You've got to stay focused on what are we here to do? What we here to accomplish? And I think that that and with me, is the customer satisfaction manager. You know, I have to deal with customers a lot. And so customers could be unreasonable. They could be insulting. They're allowed to tell you to, um they're allowed to say mean things to you. And you can't really You can't really engage them in in a in a motive of equality because, you know, if you tell him if they tell you to go screw off and you tell them to go screw off, will you just lost a customer so you can't really do that. So you have to learn how to defuse situations. Focus them back to the problem. Focus on next steps, right. Next steps. So we're all angry. Let them talk. Let them vent. Let them get it out. Don't interrupt them to something. Finish. What do we do now? What's the next steps? And then my I'll give you the advice my grandfather gave me. The secret to success is following through. You make a promise. Follow through and keep it.