Why start a blog? What do I have to say that’s worth your time? The answer isn’t all that complicated. Like many others who have made a similar jump, my transformation from a wannabe-finance-bro to a confident tech sales nerd has enabled me to accumulate some experiential data points over the years.

In my blogging efforts, I’ll be mining insights out from others’ brains as well as my own. Where most blogs offer tip-of-the-iceberg type of counsel, I will go deep beneath the surface to extract the tried & tested steps to achieving a better, more fulfilling working life.

Let’s start with a little bio so you know where I’m coming from.

A few years after graduating from college, I realized a lifelong dream of becoming a trader — a sales trader, more specifically, working mostly with equities and options. A sexy job title on the surface, no doubt.

After reaching the summit, the view from the top was anything but picturesque. For me, it was all wrong for a litany of reasons. Thankfully, at 27 years young, I had the good sense I needed to course-correct. I had a “eureka” moment. 

I quit my supposed dream job to attend a coding bootcamp, which was both the most radical and important decision I had ever made. It was at this bootcamp where I re-learned how to learn immersively. In doing so, I acquired domain expertise that would transcend a measly Series 7 & 63.

Since that bootcamp experience, having landed as an early employee at a scrappy tech startup in 2018, I’ve established myself as a top performer and leader in my current role as Manager of a high-performing Solutions Engineering team. I don’t mean to say I’m a raging success – far from it actually. A mere work-in-progress, at best.

However, thanks to the many failures, learnings, and mentors I’ve had along the way, I’ve achieved a level of professional self-sufficiency where I’m confident I’ll never starve.

No matter how I look at it, this evolution has been defining for me. For the audience I aim to reach, I’ll be dissecting my own journey, in hopes of offering some practical wisdom and concrete action items to create your own decision heuristics.

I’m also fascinated by others who have gone through similar journeys and seek their ideas too. I’m both a sponge and a magnet when it comes to the Personal Growth section of Barnes & Noble. I love taking someone else’s successful experiment and trying it on for size. In speaking to friends who share an entrepreneurial spirit, I’ll learn about the origins of their eureka moments too.

This is what I wish to share. Goal-setting and execution. Hacks and habits. How to break through roadblocks with the right mindset, coaching, and tools. 

Whether it be through my own experience or someone I’ve carefully studied, each lesson has its own story; within that story lies pragmatic advice I aim to harvest.

You’ll notice I mix in food, recipe, and restaurant reviews too. Why you might ask? Because food nourishes the soul and reorients our mental state, much like the way a comedy movie cleanses our palettes from life’s many dramas. Food connects us with others by disarming our constant alertness and reducing us down to our basic human needs.

If it’s all just a pursuit to hack the decision tree in order to be more productive, you can count me out. Catch me eating at the bar of a local dive, should my services be needed. As Chef Mashona Bailey so eloquently stated on Netflix’s ‘Chef’s Table’, ”the heart of relationships is surrounded by a meal.” The truth in that statement encapsulates my obsession and fascination with food.

In the end, my intent is simple — to teach what I have learned from others and gift-wrap it to you in bite-sized chunks for smooth digestion. My highest hope would be to provoke thought, drive action, and eventually help you discover your eureka.