I’ve made it!

First off, happy new year! (Well if the tax man can start the new year in April, I can start it on Feb 11th!)

Secondly, Infosecurity Magazine was ever so kind as to feature an interview with me in the Q1, 2021, Voume 18, Issue 1 edition. (the link should take you to the digital version if you’re so inclined).

Of course, I won’t miss any opportunity to brag and blow my own trumpet.

Reading back the article, I thought to myself that I am very fortunate to have the career I do and to make it to where I have.

A couple of people congratulated me and asked me, “how I made it”. I find that a funny question, most likely because like many people, I think I’m still very far away from “making it” in any sense of the word. But having given it some thought, I can boil it down to two things.

Consistency is key. There were many roles in my career I didn’t enjoy, I even dreaded going into work some days. Some projects I worked on were cool, others, not so much. Some of the content I create, be it a blog, video, podcast, or presentation isn’t great. But the main ingredient for me, I think, is that I remained consistent throughout and tried to get closer to whatever goal it was at the time.

We can’t do this alone. I would not be where I am in my career without the support and help of others. It can be easy to forget or overlook how much your colleagues, managers, friends, and the broader industry have helped shape your opinions and directly or indirectly helped you.

I want to list out and name everyone that has helped me along the way, but that would be a very long list, and I will also inevitably miss some people and then feel bad about it.

Instead, I’ll end on a piece of wisdom that was shared with me by Jack Daniel. When I was at AlienVault, one of my hats was to engage the community. If anyone knows how to engage the community, it’s Jack. His advice to me was (I’m paraphrasing), “Don’t make it about you, make it about them. Focus on what others have done, then shine a spotlight on that. Raise other people up and forget about yourself. When you shine enough spotlights on other people, some of that light will reflect back onto you.”

Be awesome – shine the spotlight on someone else!