Happy whatever day, and welcome to the second post of a three part series of who I am!
In my previous post I started by introducing myself. The theme of this, my second post, will revolve around how I found my direction. We will move further along down the path I took to get to where I am today, and see how even the early decisions we make in life can have a great effect on our career. Fair warning: long post ahead…
Growing up I was always extremely competitive. I played every sport imaginable (turns out I had a real knack for basketball), and had four other siblings to always compete against. If you were to ask them about myself and competition they would just scoff in frustration. I grew up winning at most everything I set out to be good at, and as with most people… when we are good at something we tend to enjoy it more. In my case, it caused me to constantly seek out competition and constantly improve myself.
I built my first computer from scratch in 7th grade, and while at the time I wasn’t aware of the nerd I truly was due to my complete consumption with the game of basketball, I would soon find out what I really was meant to do in this crazy game we call life.
One day in 8th grade a friend in my neighborhood invited me to what he called a “LAN” party. A party to play computer games in the same room as your friends essentially. Yes, we bring our entire computer (no flat screens or gaming laptops back then) over, connect them to a LAN (Local Area Network), and fire up some multiplayer games. Initially I thought this was absurd and a waste of time, but after riding my bike over to his house to see what was going on I eventually folded. I would end up going home to pack up my computer, and head back over to his house. At the time, I didn’t know it, but this was a decision that would change the entire course of my life.
Up until that point I was certain that basketball was my ticket, and most of my friends at the time were not influencing me to go down any other road. This LAN party, however, would be an eye opener for me.
Once I returned back to my friend’s house and setup my computer I eagerly jumped into the game they were all playing, and was instantly hooked. It was highly competitive, skill based, and gave me the opportunity to master something new. Not only was the game new, but the core group of people at this event was relatively new to me as well. I was familiar with everyone there, but wouldn’t have called them all my closest friends at the time. These guys were much more nerdy than my typical jock friends I had associated myself with leading up to this point in my life. (Remembrance from a middle school point of view of course)
As the night went on we played several different video games, and in the course of changing things up we all had to help each other out to get things up and running. That is when I noticed something very different on my friend’s computer. His games all looked different than mine: smoother, crisper, and much clearer. I was immediately curious and asked him what was going on. He then explained to me that his computer was purpose built for this type of event and had much more horsepower than mine.
If you are still with me then you have made it to a turning point in my life.
The moment he said those words to me I became obsessed with trying to make my games run better on my machine, but being in middle school with no money I had to rely on making the best with what I had through software optimization. After all of my research I would eventually make the games run a bit better, but never like my friends PC. It was clear I needed new hardware.
So begins my transformation into the proud technology nerd I am today. I spent the next few years in a near constant research mode learning about computer hardware, and the software it interfaced with. I would become familiar with every piece of architecture within my computer and design the machine that I would build once I had the funding to do so. It wasn’t until 2 or 3 years later once I had a car, job, and time to save that I was able to make my dream a reality.
That was the day I built a computer faster than all of my friends, and twelve years later I have never let go of that crown.
Throughout that time my knowledge of technology: its origin, design, application, and direction grew exponentially. This was the first time something had ever felt so natural since the first time I picked up a basketball. I had turned my analytical approach to sports into something that would eventually fester myself a career in technology.
I gained more than a new passion that day as well. Something that is just as critical to my success as the time and effort I spent expanding my knowledge. Not to discount my original core group of friends (whom are still my friends today), but that day I aligned myself with the group from the LAN party was the day I surrounded myself with some of the most intelligent people I would likely ever know. This is why I truly believe that surrounding yourself with the right people is critical if you want to be successful when embarking on any endeavor throughout life.
Early in life, sports taught me about: hard work, pushing myself, teamwork, leadership, trust, and how to pick myself and others up from failure. These are qualities that we can learn in life through a great number of different avenues. Once we have them all we need is to figure out a direction to point ourselves.
On the day that I made the choice to attend a LAN party I caught the first sense of that direction. I gained a new passion, a desire to expand and improve my knowledge, a new core group of people that would surround me with greater intellectual challenges, and a first taste of the rest of my life.
That direction would eventually send me to Texas Tech University alongside many of those same friends, and would fester into a degree (MIS) that fit my split personality of jock and nerd better than anything I could have ever imagined.
Funny how a simple choice in life, that may seem meaningless at the time to an unsuspecting middle school kid, could have such a great effect on the outcome of someone’s life. I see that moment reflected in the mirror of the decisions I make every day and it always makes me crack a smile.
Thank you so much for sticking it out this long! Believe it or not, this was actually the abbreviated version… Did this moment ever happen for you or are you still looking for it?
I hope this post is able to help some people realize something they may have missed. It wasn’t until many years later that I found where the turning point in my life was, and how fortunate I am to have the people in my life that I do. It is never too late to find your direction!
In my next post I will begin moving into the start of my professional life, and complete the trilogy of how I got to where I am today. After that the real fun can begin… Cheers!
Best,
Russ
No Comments