Level Up Progress

• Learn a second language – Accomplished – Pre-2005 – Graduated High School essentially bi-lingual in French. It is very rusty now, but usable
• Move to a foreign country – Accomplished – Pre-2005 – I am from Canada, but have lived in the USA since the early 90’s
• Buy a home – Accomplished – twice – Pre-2005 – Have never rented an apartment, started in a purchased house right away
• Become conversational in Hungarian
• Live in Europe for at least 1 year
• Move to and retire in Canada
• Obtain dual citizenship – Canada and somewhere it is recognized
• Buy a vacation home
• Have a kid **

• Ride a Century – Accomplished pre-2005 – Sea Gull Century – finished in ~4.5 hrs
• Do 100 Pushups – In one set
• Do 10 Pullups – In one set
• Run 5k
• Run a 1/2 marathon – I have never been good at running, so this is a major accomplishment if done **
• Ride 1000 miles in 1 year
• Ride 2500 miles in 1 year
• Ride 5000 miles in 1 year **
• Work out on a regular basis for 1 year- started using myfitnesspal to keep track – Add me as a friend & keep me working towards this
• Learn a martial art
• Have a chest measurement larger than belly measurement – and not because of moobs! **

• Go on a cruise that wasn’t a training one
• Stay in the luxury suites on a cruise – Accomplished 2013 on SQL Cruise
• Take parents on a vacation they deserve – Accomplished 2013 on SQL Cruise
• Visit Paris – Accomplished 2010 – Spend the Christmas Holiday in Paris with Gigi. Amazing!
• Attend a Grand Prix race – Accomplished – Pre-2005 – Even worked as a #1 flagman at one!
• Spend a night in a castle
• Stay in a villa in the Maldives, over the water.
• Visit Scotland, the UK and Ireland. Not necessarily all on the same trip
• Visit the Netherlands
• Visit Australia and New Zealand – I know they are separate places!
• See the Aurora Borealis like in all the photos
• Visit all the States
• Watch the Monaco Grand Prix from the deck of a luxury yacht **
• Sail on a real schooner
• Visit Japan
• Go on a safari in Africa
• Visit the Galapagos Islands
• Attend a RBS6 nations Rugby match at one of the team’s home turf
• Attend The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo
• Visit & chant with the monks in Tibet
• Spend a night in an Ice Hotel
• Get an amazing panoramic photo from the top of a mountain
• Walk through the tree canopy in South Africa
• Visit Hungary
• Go Dog Sledding
• Go to a floating lantern festival
• Eat at the Ristorante Grotta Palazzese

• Get a photo of mine on a cover of a magazine – Accomplished pre-2005 – with a photo of one of my dad’s knives.
• Buy a brand new car – Accomplished multiple times, last 3 cars have all been new
• Drive a Super/Hyper car – Accomplished Sept 2015 in Las Vegas
• Attend a TED event
• Own a Super/Hyper car ** — Accomplished 4/2017 with purchase of Jaguar F type R (Close enough for me!)
• Own a boat
• Publish a book **
• Have a really cool hobby – like building weird electric things
• Take a cooking/baking class at the Cordon Bleu
• Get a motorcycle license
• Try Hang-gliding or something similar
• Speak at a TEDx event
• Have a custom / dream house built
• Create a video that gets more than 1,000 views – and not just of me doing something dumb
• Find and meet the 6 people separating me from one of my favorite people (TBD)
• Try Falconry

• Present a SQL Server session to a User Group – Accomplished 2013 – NOVASQL was where I got to cut my teeth on presenting on a topic I do really enjoy
• MVP Recognition for SQL Server – Accomplished 2014
• Attend the PASS Summit Conference – Accomplished – 2013
• Start a SQL Server User Group – Accomplished 2013 – PASSDC was founded and is growing strong!
• Start my own business – Accomplished many times, most recent and successful so far is WaterOx Consulting!
• Speak at a SQL Saturday – Accomplished 2013 – First SQL Saturday to pick one of my sessions was Rochester NY.
• Become a professional speaker – Accomplished 2014 – First truly “paid” speaking engagement was at SQLServer Live!360 In Orlando
• Record a training video for SQL Server – Accomplished 2014 – LearnNowOnline had me record a SQL 2012 database administration series of videos, as well as Windows Server 2012 sessions as well.
• Be a “Friend Of Redgate” – Accomplished 2015
• Be part of the Program Committee for PASS Summit – Accomplished 2015 – Selected to be part of the Abstract Review: Application & Database Development team
• Speak at the PASS Summit – For 2015 I have been selected to present my Hacking Exposé Too session!
• Once achieved, maintain MS MVP for 2 years – Accomplished Oct. 2015
• Get more than 1,000 Twitter followers – Accomplished early 2016
• Create a successful email training course
• Speak in front of > 100 people – Accomplished 2016 SQLSatDC Raffle
• Get the PASS Outstanding Volunteer Award – Accomplished 12/2017
• Start SQL Summer Camp
• Speak in front of > 1,000 people
• Present the Keynote of a major conference **
• Blog at least 1x / week for a year
• Teach a Boot Camp
• Once achieved, maintain MS MVP for 5 years
• Teach a Pre-Con
• Present at a foreign conference / event
• Work for a really prominent SQL Server company – My own or another
• Hire the first employee to WaterOx Consulting
• Pass 250 subscribers to WaterOx Newsletter
• Publish WaterOx Newsletter at least 1x / month
• Have more than 100,000 visits to the site in one month
• Be a technical lead on SQLCruise

• Have at least 3-6 months reserve – Accomplished 2012
• Have a 6 figure income – Accomplished 2011
• Be debt free, other than a mortgage
• Pay off a mortgage completely
• Have a net worth of > $1,000,000
• Have at least 3-6 months reserve again
• Have a nice IRA / 401K built up – enough to survive on
• Win a major lottery amount – Pie in the Sky dream, but you never know **