Things are happening
or: Learning to Not Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth
The stars seem to have aligned. I am sitting in my hotel room in Seattle waiting for the Microsoft MVP Summit to start as a precursor to the PASS Summit later this week.
Just a few months ago I never thought I’d be in this position.
The back half of this year so far has been a tough one. Clients have been quiet, and funds getting tight after dealing with Digby! and his 2 knee surgeries. I had written off attending the PASS Summit and had no idea that the MVP Summit would even be a remote thought.
This year, after a year spent working to get my name out there more as an independent SQL consultant, I was nominated and received the 2014 MVP award for SQL Server. When I got the news I was floored! I had been nominated before, but never got a hint of getting the recognition. I was not expecting it at all and it was a nice pick-me-up for the back half of the year.
Now normally attending the PASS Summit wouldn’t have been a problem as I’d just have to get the hotel and flight sorted out. (There are perks to running a user group and one of those is PASS covering the registration cost to the PASS Summit to represent your group). Earlier this year I started checking out hotels in Seattle nearby and flights from the D.C. area, everything was just too much and would kill any concept of a budget I had left for the year. Once I heard officially that I received the MVP award this year, I started looking into their Summit as I had heard a lot of rumblings that it was going to be at the same time, and general location of the PASS Summit. Even better, Microsoft would cover some of the hotel during the MVP Summit.
The first star started to line up. At the Pittsburgh SQL Saturday this year I talked with Brian Davis from UpSearch (and who is presenting at SQL Summer Camp as well! Very excited!) and we arranged to split the room cost to allow both of us to attend Summits we would not be able to otherwise. The first star (or whatever) aligned when booking the room through Microsoft MVP Summit and they mentioend to me that that they would be completely comping my room during the MVP Summit. That was 1/2 the trip! This meant that Brian and I would be splitting the last part of the week. Booyah! We were all good!
Then started looking for flights. Earlier in the year, even just a just a couple months ago everything was outrageously priced, or a 13+ hr day to get cross country. A couple of weeks ago when I was looking for flights after that first star aligned, I found Alaskan Airlines was now offering a new direct BWI – SEA flight, and had just started it in Sept this year and came in at less than $400! Ok, there goes Star #2 getting aligned. This was starting to looking interesting.
As I sit here thinking more about things, the third star is that today, Nov 1st is the anniversary of when I decided to branch out on my own. It has been a few years now and things have been pretty good as an independent, regardless of a recession. I am still working out kinks with this business (not my first, or second, or umm… yeah, we’ll leave it at that) but it has survived and I have even managed to pick up a couple of pretty big clients to have, even to my own surprise. As noted things are quiet right now, but I am looking at things picking up some in the new year. (I also still have time next year to help out if you need any!)
Deeper thoughts
[blockquote_with_author author=”Vincent Van Gogh”] For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.[/blockquote_with_author]
I am still in shock that I am able to attend these summits, especially the MVP one. The quiet times with clients leave me with too much time to work on blogs, videos, photos, and ideas. So many ideas! The problem with lots of ideas, is a lot of thoughts come along. In fact the whole MVP award thing is still mind boggling. Obviously I’ve done something to have an impact that is beingnoticed. It is actually somewhat of a new concept for me too. I am going to the MVP Summit feeling so out of place this year, and I’m not fully sure why. Maybe it is the guilt of spending money that I could be using for other things, but it is important to also get out to network and meet more people. Maybe it since things have been a little quiet with clients that I don’t feel I’m as up to date as I should be with things. I really don’t know. I’m sure I’ll figure it all out over this week at the Summits.
So, as a head’s up you may see me sitting a couple of times this week off somewhere quiet for a while. Rest assured I’m doing fine, probably just thinking and processing everything, and don’t hesitate to to come and say hi. I will probably be burying myself into more thoughts of ‘do I really deserve all this’ , ‘Is this really all happening?’ and ‘will it all work out?’. Come give me the slight jarring out of that mindset and the reminder that I did it, and I am there to enjoy the time and everything else going on.
So, see you around Seattle this week, SQLLive360 in a couple of weeks and at SQL Saturday in Washington DC in just over a month! Off to get a little rest before starting things off early today.
Chris Bell, SQL Server MVP, MCSE & MCITP, is a 20 year veteran of using Microsoft products & SQL Server to create solutions for businesses, organizations and individuals. Chris speaks, blogs, writes articles and makes media of all kinds regarding SQL Server at WaterOxConsulting.com.
Click here to contact Chris or to follow him on twitter.
Chris is also the founder of WaterOx Consulting, Inc. which features SQL Server consulting services along with the destination location week-long training series: SQL Summer Camp. New in 2015 WaterOx Consulting is introducing the SQLPunch series of half day training events designed to help others learn to efficiently and effectively use SQL Server.
He is the founding president of PASSDC and organizes the annual SQLSaturday for the DC area. Chris frequently speaks at and attends SQL Server events, sharing his passion for all things SQL Server.
In 2012 Chris was a finalist in the worldwide Exceptional DBA competition and in 2014 he received the Microsoft MVP award in recognition of his open sharing of his knowledge with the technical community. His blog is currently syndicated to SQLServerCentral.com and ToadWorld.com