Holding a Staff Meeting

In most companies it is important to hold staff meetings at some point. There are tons of reasons to hold meetings with your staff. It can be everything from a yearly refresher over company mandated items to just having a celebration of a job well done.

We recently held a staff meeting, our staff meeting was needed as to set the tone for expectations, as well as other regular items. It is good to have these meetings when you very first take over a location. The manager of the location I am currently working at never had a chance to have one of these meetings.

We held the meeting before the location opened for business so we would not be interrupted by normal operations. When you have a meeting it is great to involve as much leadership as possible to the situation. It can instill confidence in the staff that everyone is on board, and on the same page.

Although you might want every part of leadership involved, it is important to make sure that the head leader, in this case my immediate manager over the location, is leading the meeting. That way there is no cross message of what is being portrayed to the staff. The vision of what the company or location wants to happen becomes more clear.

In these meetings it can be beneficial to build openness and morale by telling everyone that their feedback and questions are encouraged, that we do not get to have these very often, etc.

We held the meeting, and got some good questions and feedback from the staff.

Keep in mind bringing food, coffee, etc to these meetings lifts spirits and can keep everyone awake in case the topic becomes dull to someone!

We provided donuts and drinks.

Think about what your staff would enjoy, what would make them happy the most and lift spirits. Even if the meeting is to deliver bad news, more than ever you need to try and keep spirits lifted among your team.
Here is a book on staff meetings I have been told is very effective in aiding them. I have not personally read the book, but have heard more than once that it contains valuable information.

Getting Feedback

Feedback is a vital tool for anyone looking to improve themselves, professionally or personally.

Feedback can be difficult to take for someone who is not accustomed to it, or someone who is not open to objectification of what they have done or presented. I had a leader/trainer once that pushed very hard the fact that feedback is a gift.

Throughout the local area of my company we still to this day say this as a truth, but also a joke. It is very true, if you take feedback in the correct light, it is very much a gift.

I interviewed for a promotion several months back, and then shortly afterwards I asked for some feedback on my interview as I did not get the promotion that I interviewed for. I was told that my interview was above average, even exceptional, but obviously there must have been something that I could improved on.

Getting second place did not land me any kind of promotion. I showed up early to the meeting, brought pen and paper, and took notes vigorously. I asked as many questions and I could to find out more information on how to improve what was spoken in the interview.

Although we discussed some items at length, the grades I got on higher scores I left alone if my supervisor did not offer feedback. My supervisor is regularly buried with work, and I know that his time is much more valuable than mine (it is not like I wasn't getting paid for this feedback, although I would have went to get it even if I was not going to get paid).

When you are getting advice or feedback, make sure that you focus more on listening than talking. You do not need to speak and show your power in this situation. It is much better to show how open and receptive you are.

This supervisor does not deal with me directly usually, there is another manager in between him and me. I still consider this supervisor my true manager/leader, because I preform on the same level as the managers above me, in some instances I preform above them. As arrogant as it sounds, it is true. I know there are definitely better managers out there than me, much more experienced, etc. However, there are also many managers out there above me by title, but far below me in skill.

I say all of that only to show that even though I might be more skilled than someone above me, if I want a promotion I still have to go forward showing that not only can I grow, but I want to, and that I am open to feedback from anyone on any level.

As a closing, remember that feedback is just that, it is not a demand that you must change whatever is asked of you. In this case I will work and focus on what was given to me in case I have to interview again someday, but sometimes we get feedback that is good to keep in mind, but does not necessarily require action of any sort.

Sometimes to understand how to take feedback it helps to learn how give feedback.
Here is a book that you might check how that may help you understand how to give feedback, and thus help you take feedback.

Bringing Positivity To A Downed Environment

In every environment you walk into, there is a possibility of having negativity filled in that environment. There is many ways you can react, or rather we can react. As humans we have a natural tendency to follow suit of what is happening. If you were to try to do anything else except join in the negativity you can be met with opposition.

When you get hit with that opposition you once again have choices. You trudge through, dragging in your non-negative attitude, lets say its being positive. If you were being positive it could be akin to dragging a boulder up the hill. At any point your boulder can start its journey back down.

If you can over come this opposition, these feelings of joy and upbeat that you bring will invade the environment. It will spread like a virus both fast and heavy. You cannot stop it once it gets going.

Although we as humans find the path of less resistant to follow suit of the norm, in this case the negativity, deep down everyone wants to be happy. If you are strong enough, and push hard you can change the entire environment. One person can give this domino effect and change everything.

Breeding happiness inside your environment will increase everything from productivity to morale. Recently I came into an environment that felt down on its luck. The location in question was behind on virtually everything. The excuses flooded in as to why. Rather than focusing on what they could tackle and improve, it was almost as if they gave up. The flood has come, rather than swimming they would just drown.

I would rather walk in and inspire happiness and joy, rather than attempting to bring it in myself. Therefore, what they had given up on, I came in and accomplished. The projects they were behind, and had set aside as never going to be finished I took on first. If you tackle the worst of the worst, the ones that they have fully given up on.

When they began to see the projects, the dead ones, getting accomplished in the face of all of the excuses they had made, they gained hope. One by one I was approached, and asked how they could help, as they wanted the projects to get done also, but did not know how. Rather than continually going down the slope of "whoa is me, we can't do xyz" they took at much more positive spin on it. Rather than these projects cannot be done, they started to think in terms of "okay, it is possible....now how do we accomplish it?".

That willingness and openness is all that is needed to accomplish the impossible. When you get into an environment like this, look for any and every opportunity to make the most impact, the quickest.

Sometimes to bring in your positivity you need to come in as a leader, this book gives some good information on how to become a leader without a specific title.

The Impact We Have On Others

As a leader, manager, or person with subordinates, we effect other peoples lives. We effect their lives both professionally and personally. Sometimes we can forget the impact we leave on others, good or bad.

When I was moved to a different physical location inside my company there was mass change needed. The subordinates below me were...well as we put it "the kids got to play rather than work". Some of these kids were trainable, mold-able, others needed to be disposed of, or as we call it "promoted to customer".

There were many reasons for this need, everything from the condition of the location to the power that was instilled in the "kids" in a way that put fear into management. Management was management for a reason, they were the ones appointed in charge. Subordinates should not have so much power that it strikes fear into management. I do not seek a tyrannical way, but it should come with respect.

I began by raising standards to an above average, but acceptable level. One by one the ones who wanted to play, and not work fell off. Natural selection at its best, at least for work ethic. The rest who refused to step away on their own, and refused to back down from their power trip over the management team was to be disposed of as well. You see, although it is actually hard to get fired from my company, it is not hard to get rid of someone if you have a need for it.

Fast forward almost three years. One such individual that I had gotten rid of from that swirl of negativity in that location had moved to another location. Although I felt she would be better separated from the company, a member of management at another location felt that they could take them on their team to help them become better.

I moved to this location where this subordinate I had originally planned to dispose of moved to. A fate that neither of us thought would ever happen. I had a much larger impact on this individual than I had expected. Leading up to my arrival this individual was trembling front to back, they began raising their own personal standards for the location to the ones I had instilled while they were with me before.

Although I never intended to make this individual fear me, this individual was one of the main causes of some of the swirl of negativity and fear that the other location had suffered. My impact of letting them know that was unacceptable had been instilled deep in them. At the new location this was not something they carried over. The management did not fear this individual when they came to the new location.

Sometimes it is hard to put this kind of tremble into another human. Though they will always blame me for what happened to them, I made them into a better subordinate. They treat their management team with more respect, challenge less, and focus more on team building.

I hope to have this impact on more individuals to make them better members of my company, hopefully in the future without leaving such a deep imprint on them of fear. Treat your people with respect, but never lower your standards. Your standards are what raises up your company, your profit, and your paycheck.

I found this book on Amazon with over 100 reviews, rated at 4.5 out of 5 stars. I like the summation of it, and have added it to my "To-Read" list. If you want some more info, check it out!

Returning to Professional Status, and Reclaiming my Name

While sifting through the enormous amount of information available to me on Real Estate, more than one recurring theme came about, however one that I will talk about in this post is the fact that money is important.

To be financially free I needed to make more money, and make it in multiple ways. As Grant Cardone talks about regularly, I needed to start "building my pipeline", and even though you build multiple flows of income, you can never forget or neglect the main water source.

My main water source was/is my corporate job. My name has been known over the course of my eleven years, by many people in power. I accomplished this in several different ways, as I talk about in my book "Build Yourself, Build Your Career - A Different Approach to Promotions". However the last few years as I was trying to leave my company, for a programming job.

As you can imagine the name I once had as one of the most talented, respectable people in my position had vanished(maybe not the talented part, that part is hard to destroy while your still doing good work). Manager after manager tried to convince me to stay, and I would always fain away from what they would say. I'm sure I was spitting negativity half of the time, and as we know, this does nothing good for anyone...especially ones name. Eventually God convinced me to stay, one I could not ultimately argue with.

I called for, or rather asked for, I suppose "calling for" inclines that I commanded it, and obviously someone in my position should never try to do that, a meeting with the person in charge that would be the decision maker on my promotion.

We spoke at length, and I made my stance to return to my attempt at a promotion. I needed a promotion, the fact that I was topped out on my pay was one of the reasons. A promotion would bump me up into another bracket, and this would allow me to attack my pipelines harder, faster. I could grow a Real Estate empire on my current salary, but it would take more time than I wanted. To hit a plan of being financially free in 9 years required more money.

Over the next several months I re-established my name in our area. Re-establishing my name and my ridiculous talent driven mind, allowed me to be up above everyone else. I directly asked the person in charge of my potential promotion, "I need you to tell me what I need to do to be at the top of your list. I do not want to compete, I want to be your top and only choice.". This is a heavy power move, it catches most uppers off guard. Being so direct shows that you are confident, know how good you perform. It also shows that you are willing to do whatever is asked. You raise yourself up as powerful while staying humble.

Remember, being confident is not a bad thing. Some will call you cocky, full of yourself, but that says more about them than it does you. If they think you are arrogant...really...whats it to them, you don't directly impact their life, let them think what they'll think anyways.

The Business of Being in Business

Just after turning 30 I rounded into 2017 with a fresh idea of being in business. Although I was now reaching for my potential, rather than making the best of my current reality.

Evaluating where I was personally at, and the vehicles I could use to reach my potential, or rather close the gap between my reality and potential, I looked at all ways of making money. I did not look at money for the sake of money. I looked at how to make money so I had the freedom to do what I really wanted to do. I wanted choices, which at that point I did not have any.

With the idea of choices in mind, I decided I wanted residual income, with as little work for that residual income as possible. I knew in the forefront there would be an enormous amount of work involved to get to the point where it was possible to be able to make my own decisions.

I had always wanted to get into Real Estate, but the stereotypical stories we all hear kept me at a level of fear. I'd tell myself, maybe when I get really rich I'll look into it. I always kept pushing it aside and away as something that is reserved for the rich.

True you do need some money to go into Real Estate, but remember I was reaching for my potential. When I convinced myself that I wanted to do it, the only question became how. I dove head first into books, blogs, posts, articles, anything and everything I could get my hands on revolving around Real Estate. I started this in early December of 2016. Initially I set out a goal to get 1 property that cash flowed before the end of the year. At the time I had no idea what I was getting into or the process required to purchase a property that was for business.

I spent the next three weeks reading and learning. I absorbed at a high rate, because I was so interested in it. It was going to be my way to start my residual income journey. After three weeks of studying, I began to feel like I grasped enough of the concepts and ideas to start hunting for a property.

So I began property hunting, I spent my nights, and days off hunting for a property. Looking them over, driving by, guessing on repairs needed, and estimates for those repairs, then looking at comparable properties in the area and running the basic numbers to see if they would cash flow...or rather if it would be a good investment for my money.

This was the first actions I took towards reaching my potential. What do I want, and then how do I get there. This is what you need to decide. Set your goals, set them high, and then break it down into the parts you need to so that you can get there.

Reverse engineer it. I want to be financially free in 9 years, so that I can make my own decisions in life. The goal is financially free...well what is that? Lets pretend that is $10,000/mo in residual income. So $10k per month by year 9. If I were to divide it out evenly that would be an extra $1,111.12 per month increase each year over 9 years.

If at the end of year 1 I need to hit $1,111.12/mo, how many properties do I need to buy in that first year? Lets say that each property will cash flow $150 per door, assuming not all properties will be single family homes (some might be duplexes, triplexes, quads, etc). $1,111.12 / $150 per door. That is 7.5 doors in the first year. Obviously if you found better or worse deals these numbers would change, but that is the jist of how you reverse engineer your goals.
Bigger pockets has been a good source of information for me. I have read a couple of books published by Bigger Pockets, I like the writing style of them. Here is their newest book by Scott Trench, super smart guy.

Turning 30 is Harder Than You Think Part 3

So as mentioned in my last post (HERE), that I belong in business. However, we never really addressed the issue of what we should consider how to sense your potential.

In order to see your potential, you have to revisit your youth. You need to take a re-look at that thought of "I can do anything, and nothing can stop me." Now that you have the weight of being an adult, and have adult responsibilities, you can look forward to some realistic goals. Once you think you can hit some realistic goals as your potential....reach higher. I mean really stretch yourself. If you want to make $50,000 a year, turn that into $500,000. This is called 10xing your dreams and thoughts.

Once you can adjust yourself to this train of thought, the next step is easy. You see, if you believe you have it in you to hit that $500,000 a year, the problem then becomes how. If you have the confidence in yourself that you can really hit that number, then rest is easy.

Do you believe there is a shortage of money? Your not smart enough? Daring enough? Whats your excuse? Because of you do not think you have it in you to hit that number, whatever the number is, you are wrong. Quite honestly, stop making excuses. Your too tall, short, fat, skinny, the wrong color, born into a "middle class"....all excuses. There is more than an abundance of money on this planet, especially in America. When we run low on money in this country...we literally print more. Mr.Benjamin just gets to printing more.

All you have to do is find out who has the money, and how to get closer to that person.

Every single person in our world has the ability to make money. Even the handicapped have the capability, save the person that is legitimately handicapped that is stuck in a vegetable state, or semi-vegetable state. There are exceptions, but take a true look at your excuses, are they really valid? I mean really valid?

Stop looking at the people around you, if you are even reading this with any genuine thought of "is that me?", although everyone has the capability, most people have tricked themselves into thinking they do not want it. What do you want?

For me, I want freedom. I want freedom of choices. I am tired of being a slave. I have been a slave my whole life, the school system, the fact I work for Corporate America, how I was taught to find what I like to do in life, and be satisfied with a middle class situation. I want the freedom to choose what I do with my time, and how I spend it.

I was taught growing up that money doesn't make you happy, quoting Grant Cardone, a quote I fully agree with, "Money doesn't make you happy, but having money doesn't make you unhappy either." I've been in the no money situation, and guess what, I'm not a fan. If I could have money, yet feel the same I do today, my options grow. The ability I have to make my own decisions and the freedom to choose.

All of you have the ability to choose the decision you want in life. My potential is the difference between my current reality and my potential. I have always had the feeling I was meant for more, and could do more. Being stuck in a lower management job has always left me feeling lack luster. I need to move up, I need to grow professionally and personally.

My wanting to grow personally has left me doing many things, and I am truely happy doing these things outside of my regular job. Most people would say I work too much. I work my 44-50 hours a week at my regular job, and then come home and work another 20-30 hours a week.

What others call work and a "trouble", I call it expanding myself, trying everything I can to see what sticks and what I'm good at.

I enjoy writing. That is why I wrote a book, I've talked about writing a book for years, yet I have never done it until this year. I decided I could do it, and was going to do it. Once I decided I could, the only question was how. A quick google search told me how to do it. I spent a couple of hours researching how to do it, and then dove in head first. I had decided I could do it, so all that was left, was to do it.

My book "Build Yourself, Build Your Career - A Different Approach to Promotions" was published earlier this year. It will pay me royalties forever. Do you see how money can be tied to happiness? I've always wanted to write a book and I did. The fruit of what I want, will pay me forever. I will forever have it published and be able to make money off of it.

If you are determined to work to your potential, you can find a way to reap the benefits of it. I am telling you, there is a way to make money off of anything. Working to your potential may leave you feeling better than anything else ever could.

Work to your potential, you will thank me for it. I can promise you.
I love inspirational quotes, in times of awkward silence it is a nice break. Check out this book some cheap but awesome quotes!

Turning 30 is Harder Than You Think Part 2

In my last post(HERE), we took at look at what "current reality" is. Mine is in a place of being stuck. Stuck isn't a bad thing for some people, but to achieve the next part of our definition of success, being stuck is a bad thing.

So the next part of the quote, "Success is the difference between your current reality, and your potential.", is focused on potential. Potential is what you are capable of. If everything went the way you wanted, what could you accomplish, do, learn, etc.

We were taught when we were young to reach for the skies. There is no limit to what you can do, do what makes you happy! In our early twenties we realize this was a little far fetched of an idea. When the realities of adult responsibilities set in. Sometimes we get down on ourselves for how heavy these responsibilities feel, when you start your march into adulthood the weight of the responsibilities crush down any aspirations you once had of achieving true greatness.

I was interested in becoming at doctor at one point. I was not held back by brains or physically, it was the weight of the life I had started to create. Remember...I was achieving success in everyone's eyes. I was not going after this to impress anyone, but I thought I was definitely headed in the right direction. I had a well paying job, was in school, and as all of this was going on, I started building a stable life for myself. How could I move away and take on uncertainty with all of this safeness I had created. Rather than going after the unknown for a better life, I convinced myself I was satisfied, safe, and recoiled back inside of myself in fear of the unknown.

Fast forward a few years, I look around at my surroundings and realize that I really am not satisfied. Essentially living paycheck to paycheck, a couple thousand dollars at any given time in my bank accounts. I had more cushion at a younger age than most everyone around me, financially at least.
I felt stuck, like it was time to jump ship and make a move to a new place, a new place in my life, not my physical location.

I went back to school, still chasing the idea of of what success is in another persons eyes, most peoples eyes, at least most people around me. Once again feeling the rumbles of success with a new twinkle in my eye, I marched forward hard crashing through school like a hot blade through butter. School comes easy to me, I do not have to put as much effort into learning enough to get good grades, although in my opinion schools are not even close to what they should be. You can slide through college with a four year degree pretty easy, as long as you show up, do the homework, you can fail most tests and still get a degree, which is somewhat sad.

I finished the degree and looked hard for a new job. Doing everything in my power to start anew, still chasing the fabled dream of what success is. I began feeling doubt creep in, it seeped into my entire being, and before I realized, it had overtaken me. I hit my lowest point, not being able to learn programming quick enough, and could not find a job with either of my degrees.

I looked inward first, and assessed. I stopped blaming external forces, and started to take responsibility. Becoming a programmer was not in my cards. I know I could have done it if I continued, but the cost was just too high for me. It was in this time period of assessing that I realized I belong in business, and business is where I need to be.

Turning 30 Is Harder Than You Think Part 1

So here I am, with a new sense of what success looks like. Taking a look at my situation and where I am at in life gave me a pretty good idea of how successful I was. If you recall in my last post (HERE) I quoted the definition of success as "The difference between your current reality and your potential.

First off, lets dive into the first part of that quote, specifically "current reality". When you take a look at your current reality, you need to be honest with yourself. What is working for you? What is not working for you?

When I turned 30 this last year I took at look at my current reality. A very harsh and truthful reality. It actually hit me while showering. I had been unhappy in my job for awhile, I didn't feel like I was gaining traction in programming at a rate that would allow me to quite my job before I went crazy with negative thoughts.
I was 30 and not anywhere close to where I wanted to be in my life. By my friends and family's definition I was a success, and over achiever even. With two Bachelors degrees, my own house, a well paying job...life should be good no?

Grant Cardone talks about finding your purpose, what drives you. You see, when you work towards achieving another person's vision of success you automatically are failing yourself. For 30 years I had worked towards someone else's definition of success, and for 30 years I had drug my feet along, going through the motions to get there. At the end of the tunnel there was a pale light, over the years it got dimmer and dimmer. This pale light showed images of myself being rich, a big house, lots of land, and all the other material things a younger person could want.

See, when I started getting closer to this goal via the route that I had been told my entire life, it felt like the light got dimmer at the end of the tunnel. The vision began to fade. I lusted hard after those things for so long, and so often, I forgot what I was really about. I forgot why I wanted those things. It wasn't greed. It wasn't about the status of being rich. It was none of those things.

It took me 30 years to finally find my purpose, or rather the thing that drives me. Yes I still want all of those material things, but a switch got flipped for me, mentally. For so long I attached success with money. Money has nothing to do with success for me. I want freedom. I want to be able to do as I please. If I choose to work for a large corporation, it should be my choice. Although I could step away at any time, because we all have choices, I still have responsibilities. This is where my current reality lands. I am stuck with my job. I am stuck with my responsibilities. I have to slog through work when I don't feel like it, because if I don't the consequences far out weight the benefits of just quitting on the spot.

I have always felt I was better than whatever I was doing. I never thought of it in an arrogant way, its just....whatever I was doing was lack luster. Take my corporate job for example. I am damn good at what I do, and it benefits the company. However, I have always felt that I could make a much larger impact on the people I work around, and the company I work for, if I were in a higher position. That is my current reality.

I will tackle potential in my next post.

I want you to think about your current reality. Just assess, do not frown or fain on where you are currently at, just assess. Think about what your current reality is, have an honest conversation with yourself.

The Destiny was never known.

To start off, I'm sorry it has been so long since I have written anything.

I will try to pick up some where close to where my last story left off.

I continued programming and learning as much as I could. I spent nights, weekends, days off studying. Reading, writing code, analyzing the market for a job. I applied to thousands of jobs, quite literally, thousands. I probably went through two to three dozen interviews with a variety of companies.

Through these interviews it became very clear and inherent that I did not have the skill to gain a job as a programmer. I did get some job offers, but the ones I got were either contract, or paid so low that I could not afford my mortgage on it.

I even tried doing some freelance coding. I could not get anywhere with freelance coding either. Though I spent three years of my life, countless hours, obtained another bachelors in Computer Programming, all of this was simply not enough to replace my corporate job paying me around $50k per year.

I came across a tough decision when this realization came about. I had just turned 30 years old, last November, and it was a rough age to turn. Looking at my life I was successful by almost everyone's standards. What is success though? My whole life I have been looking for a way to define it. Everyone says "Congrats" on "that job" or "that degree", but what if you don't feel it.

What do you do when you go through the daily motions of feeling like you were meant or more than a simple degree, yet you do not know what? How do you try to even define or justify this feeling? With everyone around you patting you on the back and telling you how good you have done, its hard to pursue the feeling that you should be doing more, or should have done more.

I believe I heard this definition of success from a man by the name of Grant Cardone, "Success is the difference between your current reality, and your potential.". This hits on every single level for me, and is right up my alley.

I have achieved what everyone else considers feats of magnificence, and yet I still felt hollow and empty like I was meant for something else, something different. Not in the way of "I want to save the world!", but just something different that no one would understand until I had achieved it.

I leave you with that as a final thought. Are you working towards, and achieving success by someone else's definition, or by your own? How do you define success? Please reach out for your potential. Getting into the mindset that you have so much more to offer for yourself, your family, and the world will take you to places that you never dreamed of.

I think this is an awesome book and it touches very heavily on reaching for your potential. This is a book that I lend out to as many people as I can get to read it, then encourage them to look into the other items by this author, as I like his content. Grant Cardone is a very successful business man, and his content, in my opinion, is some of the best out there.

The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure

Being Open Minded Future Paths

I just decided to write this as it somewhat pertains to what I is going on this week with me, as well as just life in general.

I have found that you will have a much easier life if you more or less just go with the flow. Now, not to be contradictory to some of my other posts and sayings, I do believe that you get out of life and careers what you put in.
The person working 60 hours a week versus the person working 40 hours a week gets an extra 2 weeks worth of experience in each month compared to the person working 40 hours a week. Working hard at a goal is great and needed to progress, if that is in your long term goals.

However, consider this for a moment...lets pretend that you want to be a Software Developer. In this scenario you currently are not in a technology role at all. You spend as much personal time as you can afford without angering your spouse, neglecting your "adult" duties, etc, working towards become a Software Developer.

You'd almost give your right thumb just to even get into a technology role, to #1 Get out of your current job/industry and #2 Take a step in the right direction towards becoming a Software Developer even if you do not get that title.

What if it meant temporarily trying to learn a new skill set for the interview? Maybe not a totally new skill set, but rather in a different fashion compared to what you have done in the past. Would you do it? I would. I am.

I've applied for many jobs over the last 3-4 years, technology specific over the last 1-2 years. The end of last week I got an email saying with an offer for a DBA (Database Administrator) position interview.

I never lie on my resume or in the application when I am asked about experience, skill set, etc. I want the employer to know what they are getting, and that I will be set up for an amount of success that I can achieve. If the people hiring you don't believe in you, it makes your work life a lot harder.

Of course I graciously accepted the offer for the interview. The position revolved around Oracle/SQL.

I love all types of programming. I am one of those developers that I'd learn any language and love learning it for a job. I don't care what language its in, I enjoy the problem solving, the logic, etc.

After accepting the job interview, I did two things. The first thing I did was pull back up the job posting to get an idea of what I should start prepping for, and the second was researching a day in the life of a DBA. I wanted to make sure it really was something I was going to be ok with doing for an extending period of time. No one can really say "I'd love doing that forever", because eventually when the honeymoon stage wears off it becomes work. When it becomes work, the love sometimes dies with it. However, it is more than fair to say "I'd love to do that for quite awhile." Or something similar.

Now back to my original point. I am open to the idea of being an Oracle Developer. Was it my original intention? No it was not, but that is okay! Its something I would enjoy doing for quite some time.

By switching gears, which is a needed skill for the tech field anyways, and focusing on Oracle for the last week I could view it two ways. I could say I lost a week of working on a website for a client, or that I gained a week of focused SQL Query writing, and gained a little bit of experience with Oracle.

I'm generally not overly optimistic, I prefer realism. In this situation, it is real that I gained a week experience in SQL. It is also real that I lost a week working on a client's website. I guess I should point out that the "client" I am working on is not being ignored or anything, the client doesn't even know yet that I am redesigning his website for him, so cheap it will feel like it was free, in fact it may end up being free.

Anyways, the refresher/experience I gained from the week of Oracle will out weigh my lost week of web development, unless I end up working full time as a freelance web developer, which I do not have plans for...but then again...I always try to stay opened minded for future paths.....

Although I did not use an oracle book to study, I did look online and read some reviews. This author/series seems to have good reviews from most all of the sources I saw...good enough that if I would have had more time this is what I would have chosen to purchase. If you do buy this please leave a rating in the comments on how you liked it!
Oracle Database 11g & MySQL 5.6 Developer Handbook (Oracle Press)

Modern JavaScript Larry Ullman

I wanted to do a quick review on Larry Ullmans book "Modern JavaScript - Develop and Design".

I came by Larry Ullman purely on chance. I watch Eli The Computer Guy on YouTube pretty regularly. Eli's advice is pretty solid, as a business professional, I can tell what he is saying is from years of experience working in a variety of fields/companies/places. So a lot of his advice I don't mind listening too, even actioning on.
Eli has talked about what he calls "The Bunny Books" several times.

When I was ready to start a new language on my own after college, it just happened to work out that it was going to be PHP. Naturally I went after a bunny book. By chance, the bunny book happened to by Larry Ullman.

I like Larry's reasoning, flow, and overall examples in how he writes his books. I looked at other books when I had finished his PHP book, and there was always something that turned me away from it, either the book was boring, examples poorly explained, something was always off. I went back to Ullman and bought his Advanced PHP book, and his JavaScript book.

So to the good part...

Modern JavaScript - Develop and Design by Larry Ullman.

Overall I would give the book an 8/10. However with that being said, I would also only recommend it for someone who understands programming/setup a little. He gives how tos for setup but they feel lack luster in my opinion.

However, once your going and rolling the book focuses heavily on vanilla...or plain javascript. You don't get introduced to other libraries such as Ajax and JQUERY until 10-12 chapters into the book. I wanted to know the gooey core of the language, not the language after it had been rolled around in the dirt and no longer looked quite like the same. Ok maybe a harsh analogy, nothing against Ajax or JQuery...quite the opposite in fact, I genuinely enjoy both libraries. I could write an Ajax post all on its on....updating stuff on pages asynchronously....what! Awesome!
Anyways in the respect of going after the gooey center, this book was perfect for that and I enjoyed learning vanilla immensely.

He also starts out giving you all of the html you need to pair with the javascript. He very quickly fades this out, and goes to the absolutely needed things such as <div> blocks containing links or forms, as needed for the javascript to work. At times I found this frustrating, and other times refreshing. It forced me to practice thinking about what the programing is doing or trying to accomplish.

If I had any suggestion for the book, it would be inlaid pictures of what the program should look like and accomplish. There were some good parts, and other parts that I could of used even a picture or outline to help me work through it.

Overall I definitely recommend this to someone who is in an early level of skill interested in JavaScript, but also has basic concept of understanding how/what Object Oriented Programming is.

I also highly recommend Larry Ullman as a technical book writer.

Being a Software Developer is Unhealthy

I wanted to talk about physical health this week. For those of you who are already developers this is most likely preaching to the choir.

Think for a moment about the stereotypical gaming nerd in his or or 30s or 40s. Do you imagine them fit and healthy? Or do you imagine them locked in a basement staring at their computer screen with empty Mt. Dew bottles around them as they brush off dorito crumbs?

Now ask yourself this, in terms of physical health, what makes that over-weight nerdy gamer different from a software developer? Do we both not sit at a computer for hours on end? Does your body care if your writing JavaScript or playing WoW?

Its true to some extent that complex thinking does take more physical energy and thus burns more calories, but not to a noticeable amount over gaming.

We as software developers need to stay at least somewhat healthy, and there are a couple legitimate reasons.

First off, think of your physical energy. When you just finished pushing code into production and that widget you were so proud of breaks 20 minutes after you leave for the day, will you have the physical energy to walk back in, or log on at home to fix it? Do you physically have another 2-4 hours of work left in you?
Some people barely manage making through an 8 hour shift, let alone 10 or more.
When we exercise and build up our muscles and cardiovascular systems our body is retraining itself, getting stronger, and increasing stamina. It knows that your going to work it out another hour or more after work, and your physiology will allow it if you do it regularly enough. So when that widget breaks, you know that extra 2-4 hours will be a cake walk....at least as far as physical energy goes.

So another reason we need to stay healthy is mental alertness. You can physically put in another 2-4 hours, but is your brain tired and mushy? I'll write another blog sometime on exercising your brain, but for the sake of physical energy, know that your brain can take up to 20 percent of your total energy. While reaching 20% might be hard, I would venture to guess that software development, a field that problem solves, researches, and learns most of the day probably comes closer to that 20% regularly over other fields.
If you've already used up 15-20 percent of your energy from thinking all day, how do you think your next few hours will go? Problem solving that widget that broke just became a little more taxing.

There are many reasons to be healthy, those are just a couple. There are also many ways to be healthy. Everyone thinks running, walking, or going to the gym is the only way to stay healthy. Would you like to know my cardio routine? I bought my fiance an elliptical a couple of years ago. I put my elliptical in front of my TV, and play Rocket League with friends on PS4. When I need to do strength training, I put my total gym in front of the TV and watch something (most recently it's been a lot of Game of Thrones). My fiance and I are getting married next month and have been taking dance lessons. In the last 2 days we have probably danced a total of 4-5 hours together.....I can't remember the last time my abs were this sore!

Exercising doesn't have to be the horrible grind many people make it. I'm motivated to do it regardless of if I have TV or video games, but having those tools actually makes me look forward to it. Even as I finish this post I am just thinking about how I want to split up my exercise time tonight, and how fun video games sound while I exercise.

Reward yourself with better health. No one can do it for you, it has to be your choice. As a software developer, it's a pretty important one.

Just in case you need to catch up on your Game of Thrones......

What motivates you to be motivated?

So let me start off by saying, I had no idea what to name this post. The redundancy in the name satisfied me in an estrange way. That being said and out of the way, I wanted to talk a little bit about motivation. Something that both blesses and plagues us all at one point or another.

I've talked about motivation before, but I've never written specifically about finding what drives you and gives you motivation. I find that there has to be a driving force to get your wheels turning, and once you get going, you can gain speed from the momentum you already have.

I've got a real world example of using momentum to keep yourself going. Almost two weeks ago a group of us went camping in Fall River, KS. Gorgeous place by the way, I've been going there since I was very young and is my favorite place to be outdoors.
Anyways, on this camping trip I was walking across camp, stepped off a rock wrong and rolled my ankle. Well up until this point I have been exercising 6 times a week for roughly an hour a day, doing mostly cardio. We finished camping for the last day or two before we were going to come home. Upon coming home I rested it the best I could. I could not walk on it, so my normal exercise routine which consisted of using a elliptical, was completely out of the question. I would not/could not risk hurting my ankle further than it already was. So I stayed off it as much as I could, which essentially left me a couch potato.

I was bugged daily by the notion that I should be exercising considering it had become such a large part of my routine. I was still carrying the momentum of that routine day to day. That momentum was still motivating me to do what I had done countless days before. A week passed, and my hope for a speedily healed ankle was depleted. I knew I had to refocus and find a way to do some longer sessions that would not use my ankle. I ended up buying a total gym off Craigslist fairly cheap a few days ago. With no excuses left, I have been back at it since the night I brought it home, literally just 2-3 days ago.
However, my momentum is gaining again. While at work today in my last hour or so I was excited to come home, knock out some applications and/or programming, eat dinner and get to exercising before bed.


Now lets get back to the original topic of the post. What is the driving force for your motivation? Or rather as the title suggests, the motivation for your motivation. None of us start out motivated. You don't just wake up one day wanting to tackle the world. There is always something behind it. You could be doing it for health reasons, a loved one, yourself, a pet, anyone and anything can be a valid reason to become motivated. As long as it truly drives you, and is not a fleeting experience or thing, it is valid.

Take mowing my backyard for example. Sure I highly prefer the way clean cut grass looks over an overgrown yard, but sometimes that is not enough motivation to motivate me to cut it and maintain it at a stricter level. My preference on how long my grass is, is not a valid form of motivation.
Now take the same issue of an overgrown lawn, but add the fact that I have three dogs that I love very much. I feel I have to cut the grass as that is their source of a restroom, exercise, and enjoyment. I feel that I might let them down if I let it get too wild. Therefore, I never let it get overgrown, and keep it within reason. You can tell when something is a true form of motivation when you are willing to do it even when it is literally the last thing you want to do.

Take a look at any problem you have in your personal life. Find motivation for your motivation. When things get hard, you get bored, want to give up, look at that long term goal, find that motivation to keep you going. In times when you feel like you can't keep going, rely on that momentum to keep the wheel moving, even if only a little, every little bit helps.

Trying to learn new technology stacks as a young developer I feel lost and all over the place sometimes. Even with a focus like JavaScript, how many libraries and functionalities can you conform out of JavaScript? The thought is downright daunting at first. I am getting to a point where no new library or functionality worries me. I've got enough momentum build that I know I'll make it work, learn it, apply it, and be successful.

I suppose I should end with what motivates my motivation to be successful. At times it sounds like a dream to give up on being successful. Play video games all day, never worry about exercise, just make enough money to scrape by and pay the bills, never set myself up for a better future. So...why don't I? I have a job where I'm well paid, I work a lot sure, but I am not challenged, its a fairly easy job as far as I'm concerned. What I have now is success by many others definitions.

I'll never have my dream job, I'm just too old. My dream job would involve racing, of any sort. I believe that would be the ultimate job, knowing I have to wake up and go race. At my age though that either takes quite a bit of financial backing, that I just do not realistically have.

I don't just stay at my job, come home and play video games, eat too much, drink too much, and be generally slothful because its just not me. I have tried to be genuinely happy at my current job. Though I enjoy the people I work worth, I am limited by the position I am in, and how our corporation is set up. I cannot be expressively free to learn and grow in the areas I want to. I have all but neglected most of my family working for a company that believed promotions came in the wave of hard work, you were judged by how much you got done, and not how efficient, or smart you were. The idea of being with a company that will reward me for the end result and not the path I used to get there motivates me.

In short, I want to build a better future for myself. My conviction is that I want to be successful. I've mention success several times in this post. The term "successful" is loosely said and extremely subjective. I want to be successful by my own definition. No one on this planet can tell me what success is in a way that would make me change my motivation and how I view things.

I hope everyone who reads this finds the motivation to their motivation, and builds up their momentum.

If you like to read, and can gain motivation from it, I have a book that is two fold for you. Not only will it lay out lines for how to ensure that you are successful at what you are trying to attain motivation in, but it will also ensure that you crush your original goal.
So many times we aim for motivation for a goal that we feel is attainable...we attain it...and then what? We become deflated. We have hit our target and now we are feeling left without a purpose.
Check this book out, and take a look at this author. His name is Grant Cardone. I really like the content he puts out.

Professionals like yourself that read my blog will really enjoy this book, and get a lot of value out of it.

A Creature called Motivation

So I wanted to talk a little bit about motivation today. Motivation or lack there of comes in many different forms both positive and negative.

Sometimes when your positively motivated you can crank out work, be productive, and impress others and yourself.
Maybe your motivation comes from a lack of something. For example, my current job doesn't allow me to problem solve enough.
Sometimes my personal want and desire for that lures me into a programming session. This could work much in the same way if your unhappy. I do not always enjoy my current job. This motivates me to move faster, learn more, study harder, whatever is needed to look forward and gain the skills and knowledge I need to reach that light at the end of the tunnel.

Being unmotivated can take hold also. When we ride that high wave of motivation many times we do not look forward to see the shoreline coming up and plan for when that wave crashes. When it crashes, most of us fall into an unmotivated state. Being unmotivated happens to everyone at one point or another. How we handle these periods of demotivation is what separates out the victorious from people who give up.
It is hard to truely fail, but it is easy to give up.

I haven't written a blog post in a few weeks, I haven't failed because I haven't given up. I haven't been as motivated to write, and truely all I have is excuses because I have not made time for it.
I could talk about preparing to go camping, putting more time into exercising, and give all these reasons in which I was productive with my time...but at the end of it all...they are excuses. I did not make time to write out a blog post.

I've found myself in a weird programming spot as well. Similar excuses have engulfed my last 5 days or so, and could easily consume my next 5. So I made a commitment to myself that starting tonight, I would sit down and spend at least 30 minutes give or take working on JavaScript.

Even on the days I want to go program I find life excuses. Having full realization of this will entitle me to go home, and hold myself accountable to hit on my goals.

I spent the last part of my lunch writing this blog just to ensure that I set out with my best foot forward. My goal is to get back to a minimum of one post a week.

Stay motivated! You can do it!

I love this from Michael Jordan, one of the greatest basketball players of all time. If you need something to look at every day to stay motivated, regardless of what you want to be motivated in, pick up this wall sticker.
"Its not about being the best, its about being better than you were yesterday." -Michael Jordan

Every office, of every company could use this somewhere.

Xamarin

First off, I just have not had time to write lately, sorry for that! Other priorities came up....just as life goes....

So I wanted to write something short about C# and Xamarin.

I've been working on Vanilla JavaScript for last few months. I enjoy it tremendously, however, the job market here in the Midwest does not follow the trends of the rest of the United States.

So it looks more and more like C# is where I need to be, or at least the .Net framework in general.

I've wanted to develop android apps for awhile now, but haven't dove into it purely for the investment of time in Java.

Coming across Xamarin changed all of that mentally for me. So the short snippet of Xamarin from me.

Xamarin let's you write native apps in C# cross platform. From the outside in it looks pretty easy to program cross platform for Android, iOS, or Windows.

Most people will benefit from already knowing C#, this is where I'll have to dive back in.

My plan is to continue on JavaScript, as well as work on C# on the side.

Short term I'm looking to get an app into the playstore. I plan on continuing to work on JavaScript while I gain experience in .Net platform.
There is a ton of great books out there, I know at a glance I liked the one below. I have not made a decision yet on which one I intend to work through when I am ready for it.

Parkinson's Law

I've been following John Somnez (sp) on his youtube channel lately (Simple Programmer). I highly recommend it if you like listening to tech, business, or self development as background noise.

He talks in several of his video about the idea of Parkinsons Law, which essentially is that a project might actually take X amount of hours. If you allow it though, it will take all the hours.

Focusing in on a projects is how I have been successful and gotten several of my promotions.

My current Store Manager likes to boast about how fast he was at building a display, or finishing a task list. He may be dead on, but I prefer to work smarter not harder. Many times the task a hand is mundane, and seems like there may not be a "smarter" way to do it.

This to me is where Parkinson's Law can apply dramatically. I can focus on a project to get it to completion. This is not to say I lack multitasking skills, it is simply a different approach to the same mundane problem. Working in retail, I get dozens of things thrown by me constantly. It is really easy to let one of those side step you for 5, 10, or even 45 minutes.

Emergencies are always emergencies. They will come first, but usually you can take those dozens of things and set them off to the side as later "to dos".

So applying all of these theories, traits, and trains of thought to programming, I believe I can become much more accomplished in self studying.

For example, last night I finished writing some JavaScript code that made a form unable to be submitted without being filled out properly.

I have touched this form three times. The first time I actually made it. The second time I added a utility file to it to shorten some parts of the code. Well when I added the utilities file it wasn't working. Almost as if the Submit button wasn't firing.

Dropping in console.log () everywhere allowed me to see where my program was dieing off and hone in on it. I eventually got it working and fixed it.

Knowing that when I added the code so it couldn't be submitted without being filled out had worked, I was tempted to move on. I had looked at the code before to fix it and gave up.

I was approaching that time line of the night where I was really wanting to exercise, shower, eat, and go to bed.

I thought about self progression and how me taking the time to figure it out would be as valuable as writing the original code. I told myself that I could fix this in 30 minutes. I did not allow myself more time, and was determined not to give up again.

Low and behold, I fixed it inside of my 30 minutes. It worked and I got the end result I wanted, being able to move on with my night, and a feeling of self accomplishment. Small win, however reaffirms things you may be too timid to truthfully consider.

My main point here is set goals and deadlines for yourself. Be honest with yourself. You know you only have 30 minutes, so do it in 30 minutes! 30 minutes of work should take 30 minutes of productivity, not an hour.

I cannot end without suggesting something to help you. There are loads of ways to stick to deadlines, and motivation is needed for those. I came across this book and thought it was pretty cool. Some of the quotes are thought provoking that leave you lingering all day in a pool of wonder and excitement. These quotes are fun to share with others, and can keep you going when you are unsure of how to proceed. If you decide to pick it up, I hope you do as I did and pass it on to someone else who could use it in their life as well.

 

Being Well Rounded

Being a well rounded developer is an important tribute. Being able to know multiple languages, API's, and technologies in general can make you a huge asset to any company.
In fact, the more well rounded you are, the better your salary and job security (usually).

This thought and tribute carries over harshly to soft skills. Soft skills are something that we all must work on regularly. We as a society change over time and our interactions change along with it. The interpersonal communication skills we had even so little as 10 years ago is drastically different. Ironically the advances in technology is partially what brought us to this.
There is also something to be said about societal norms that we have allowed and changed over the years, some for better and some for worse. I'll leave that for another time/post though.

I find that the more diversified I become in skills, the easier other things come to me. Imagine a world where everyone could learn easily. We could spend a week learning to paint, a week learning to code, and be masters of both inside of a month. This is not so though, developing skills takes time and effort. Some skills take a life time to even come close to comprehending the basics of. Others take near no time at all to gain a bountiful understanding of.

Diversified doesn't mean master of all the skills you'll ever need. Usually it means something like you can dabble in several different technologies, not that you are at a senior level of understanding. I like to try my hand at different things. I have a wide range of skills that include everything from programming, to working on cars. I have a degree in Automotive Service Technology, Business Administration, and Computer Programming. I'm all over the place basically.

What does one have to do with the other? How does me replacing struts on my fiances Explorer, or trekking back into a river bed to go fishing, or writing JavaScript code relate? They are all beneficial and circle back around to each other in a couple of different ways.

First off, having all of these skills makes me more of a well rounded person. This means on an interpersonal level I have more connections with every single person I encounter. Having a connection can be imperative to make someone feel comfortable. Being comfortable breeds trust and honesty. If you are timid around someone, you will naturally feel less inclined to be honest as you trust the person less.

Secondly, each skill you learn will use a different part of your brain. I'm not implying this will make you smarter, though that may be a side effect. Using a different part of your brain naturally will make you a better learner.

When learning its easier to relate to new skills from ones you already have. Take drawing. If you draw constantly and are good at it, lets say even mastered it, you should have a good skill of holding the pencil and drawing curved lines.
I would be willing to bet if you were already a master of drawing and you wanted to learn a new skill that requires similar attributes, it would be much easier to learn. Something like calligraphy should be fairly easily picked up.

Remember that there are hundreds of facets to the thought of being well rounded. Its not everyday that you need to be, but when its needed and counts, it can separate you heavily from the others around you.

I do have a book to recommend for ALL programmers out there titled Soft Skills: The Software Developer's Life Manual. Lets face it, most of us cannot cope with the thought of looking through the new set of eyes that we so lovingly have named "soft skills". This book is written by John Sonmez, I have watched hours of his videos for advice, and information. This is a great book for anyone, even those of us who have acquired some of the skills necessary to check off "soft skills" on the list of items needed to get a job, or progress in the one you already have.

A Self Disciplined Path

Like many nights, tonight my fiance and I planned out our night. Go to the store for fruit, pick up something quick on the way home, eat, clean a little, program/study, exercise, then bed.

So many nights this plan gets skewed by some chaotic random thought of fun over discipline.

I do believe if you keep some structure in your personal life that when you allow yourself to let go, to have a lazy day, not only do you appreciate that lazy day more, but your also get a sense of relaxation. You get that self aware "it's ok to be lazy, nonproductive, and eat junk food" feeling.

If your disciplined and structured through out your week, you will in some fashion have accomplished something on the productive part of your life. By the way, if your goal is to BE lazy.....A. I'm not sure technology is correct for you, and B. You need to re-evaluate your goals day to day, week to week, and long term. Anyways, if you have been productive, you can look back with the goals you accomplished in sight and know that you really earned this day off from everything.

So we hit the store, got home, and ate. I always eat faster than her, though I was anxious to jump into my next to-do, I waited for her to finish.

When she done we got up and began cleaning. We got done cleaning and I gave her the choice between my exercise first and programming first. She chose programming.
When I program she can watch TV or a movie or something of the sort because the only real annoyance is my keyboard clicking away.

However, when I exercise I'm a bit louder. So you might be thinking I grunt or yell or something that you might hear in some muscle bound guys garage benching 500 lbs each rep. Let me put that mental picture to ease. We are talking about a geek here....
So touching back on the lazy/free day, if I just sit and play video games I feel guilty. Like I'm wasting time when I could be productive growing myself. However I love video games like most geeks/nerds.
A couple years back my fiance wanted an elliptical for valentine's day, so I found a fairly cheap one.
As it turns out, she doesn't care for the elliptical as much as she thought she would, but it makes a pretty good exercise bike.

So, to satisfy both my requirement for exercise, and my want to play video games, I drag the elliptical in front of our tv, and just peddle away while I play games. To some the multitasking element of this seems daunting and not enjoyable...but honestly...it because so muscle memory ingrained that after awhile you don't think about the peddle as much. You peddle hard and your hard rate still climbs, but it's much less mentally exhausting because you are focused on video games.

Now back to the loud part...I've been playing Rocket League a ton lately. For those of you unfamiliar with the game, it's soccer (or futbal depending on what country your in) using cars/trucks with rockets that allow you to fly through the air. Apparently this game evokes something loud and primal in me, playing with my friends/family online doesn't really help. There's lots of "I got it!" "Shot" "omg what the heck was that? Bahahahaha!!!" going on, and it gets loud and pretty intense. This fits perfect for working out.

So I wrote some JavaScript for awhile and she turned on Netflix to watch. I studied for an hour, then switched an exercised for an hour.

This was a productive day for me. Though I try to be productive everyday, I don't always get time for all of that. However making time to do your productive disciplines leaves you feeling accomplished. Hearing the voices of praise from the loved ones we surround ourselves with is great, encouraging, and can help you through difficult times. Being my own biggest critic brings a whole new life to the feeling of accomplishment you get after a productive day.

I leave you with this, I know that sometimes it's hard to go after your goal, study that extra hour, or order that small soda instead of the super size. There is no force known to man that can make you do it though. It is all up to you on what you choose to do with your time. Guess what, we have a limited amount of time.
You will eventually thank yourself for living with some discipline in your life.

If you have not played Rocket League, do yourself a favor. This is one of the few games I feel could easily be worth $70. I've spent more hours playing this game than I did on Fall Out, Witcher III, and Skyrim combined.

Lost in a Sea of Options

So I have been working on JavaScript more the last few days, 20 min here, an hour there, any amount of time I can squeeze in at my computer.

The more time I spend with JS the better I feel I become at it. "No duh" might be your initial reaction, but I've felt so overwhelmed for so long with programming in general that many times I consciously know I'm getting better or more knowledgeable in a language, yet it doesn't bring along with it the feeling that I actually am.

Both sides of my brain have times to be very active, one side telling me the logic and even truth, while the other evoking the feeling of what's going on in the heat of the moment. It's like waves of two different oceans clashing, both enormous powers with very different motives and end goals.

Not to say my brain is an enormous power, rather an untameable one in which its hard for me personally to control, change motive or direction.

Within all that, I feel motivated, so motivated I've let exercise slip. I was working out 1-2.5 hours 6x a week. In the last week it's been more like 2-3 hours total. Yikes, need to up my game on that.

Anyways, as I learn more JavaScript I think thoughts of "Yeah, I could write this for a living." With each thought of future plans it urges me to apply for more programming jobs.

Finally we arrive at the reason behind this blog. I look through applications in my area and job openings for developers. I see a wide range of wants from employers, some employers posting "entry level" but requiring 3-5 years of professional experience. There should be laws preventing the use of "entry level" associated with any required professional experience. I can hear the rhythmic chiming in my head of myself trying furiously to get an automotive job years ago, "How do I get experience if no one is willing to hire me without experience." is the old conundrum we are used to hearing.

It still holds true today, in programming, the difference being I can build my skill a little easier on my own.

As I look out over this vast desert of wants from employers, I've noticed over time there are several redundancies in their wants. I have even mapped them out before, this allowed me to see a recurring theme of SQL, C#, and JavaScript in that order. Each one is drastically different from the next in terms of number of available jobs...

So....do I jump ship from JavaScript to take on C#? It's so easy for advanced programmers to say things like, just pick your favorite language.....to someone like me, they are all virtually equal in the aspect of which I enjoy writing/learning.

It's also easy to say, well if C# has more openings go for it. This actually seems like an obvious better choice, there's something in me that can't let go of the thought of stopping halfway through this JavaScript book that makes me feel flighty, like I gave up on JavaScript, quit it.

While that would not at all be true, I know that feeling would creep in on me like the first vibrations riddling through your body of a psilocybin high. A terribly raw and real feeling all at once. Something that is inescapable and indescribable.

I think for my own personal goals my path lies before me true and straight. Finish the book. See where I'm at with programming after I'm done. If I get the sweet affirmation from myself that I desire as hard as a fat kid with cake in one hand and soda in the other, then, and only then, will I allow myself to move on to a totally different language.
When I am ready to move on, I plan on moving on to one of the following books;