About Me

As a child, I was constantly taking everything I could apart to understand how it worked, and with enough feedback from my parents, eventually learned how to put everything back together again! From taking apart TV remotes, simple 2-stroke engines, to setting up and defending my own LAMP server, I feel like it’s carved into my DNA. Couple that with growing up poor in a small town, I learned the true value of learning how to repair what you have to make it last. As a cybersecurity professional now, I still carry my lessons from life to help organizations utilize what they currently have. Here are some pieces of advice I learned along my unfinished journey:

1. Make the best with what you have. Money isn’t always the answer, and you usually have all the tools needed to accomplish your goals.

2. Less is more. The simpler you can keep your project, the better. Don’t be afraid to get rid of dead weight. Less complexity will always equate to greater reliability. The great thing about keeping it simple is that usually, it’s cheaper too.

3. Outlearn your competitors. In this day and age, knowledge is plentiful and usually at our fingertips. While I have learned a lot from “traditional” education, I take great pride in being autodidactic and understand how important it is to be constantly learning every day. With the vast amount of information that exists today, ignorance is a choice. For an even greater advantage, learn how to learn faster.

4. Compassion is key. Compassion allows us to understand from someone else’s perspective what they are going through. A lot of organizations are missing this key ingredient. Optimization without compassion can turn any environment cold. Regardless of how anyone was raised on any belief system, I think all can relate to how positive any experience was when someone was being truly compassionate.

5. Failure is a good thing. My biggest gripe with traditional education was that it taught us that failing is permanent, and we will never learn, grow, or be successful by failing. I have failed countless times, but by learning from my mistakes or understanding that some things may not be under my control, I have learned resiliency, humility, how to embrace/expect change and tons of other lessons. Failing has taught me some of my greatest life lessons, and by learning how to fail more efficiently, I have found issues in organizations that would otherwise be left in the dark.

While I still have loads to learn, I hope I have helped anyone reading this by sharing my lessons in life. Thank you for taking the time to learn more about me.