I started my relationship with technology during the technology boom that has brought us Microsoft, Google, eBay, Amazon and many other technology pioneers. During my second year of college my first child was concieved, Tyler Shaver, and it was time to get a J O B. I had a resume that was weaker than the paper it was written on and next to no clue on how to start a career. Now add the responsibilities of a newborn and I can say it was absolutely exhilarating!

With no formal education I had to start from the very bottom and I could not raise a child, attend school, and take career ambition seriously. So I decided I would work harder than everyone around me and spend the rest of the time learning to be a father, it sounded healthy then and turned out to be the best decision I have ever made. I started by selling computers for a popular retail outlet and made three very good friends (David McGinnis, John Nachtigal, Aaron Pyles) who influenced the next few steps of my career. I worked my ass off and was promoted internally to a software training position. Training would help me focus and sharpen my interpersonal skills, I knew I could have an amazing skill set but if my clients walked away learning very little I would soon be out of business.

Strangely, I was fortunate to be without a formal education. During the technology boom, by the time a book was written, published, and distributed you could bet with almost absolute confidence that it was outdated! As the class rooms were being educated from books on technologies that were already being replaced I was working tireless hours on the "cutting edge". I would have to communicate to an audience with various areas of interest, proficiency and, most importantly, patience. The first few training sessions were the most intense and trying experiences of my life. I was tasked to train a room of people from a book and I had absolutely no public speaking experience! I do not have the vocabulary to make you understand how intimidated a nerd can be in front of 20 people with expectations that they are willing to voice. I learned to manage that classroom and deliver my product, me. One of my students began sending every member of their staff on a regular basis. I had a built a reputation that would take me to my next chapter. The late Jon Huston would introduce me to one of the best people I would ever work for, Lee Jones. At 21 years old I could not have been happier.

Next chapter: VASCOR