Believe You Have More To Offer

Recently I’ve been watching The Last Dance on Netflix, the story about the final championship run of the Michael Jordan era Chicago Bulls in the late 90’s. It’s amazing viewing. While I was never a fan of Jordan or basketball in general, I have become a fan almost twenty years after his career ended through learning about his determination and the uncompromising belief in himself that propelled both he and his team to greatness. Jordan believed in himself. Through watching the program I realized the value to believe you have more to offer the world.

The Power of Belief

I greatly admire MJ’s mental toughness. That unyielding ambition to be the greatest and the drive to constantly push forward in bettering himself and others around him within the parameters of his professional endeavors. Seeing his story resonated with me in ways that I never would have guessed prior to watching.

As I watched the episodes, I felt that I understood his mindset. The fire inside of him that refused to allow him to give anything less than his all. It consumed him, certainly propelling him to extraordinary success but also not without its consequences. I thought the series did an incredible job showing the lofty price one must pay for possessing these attributes.

Professional Growth

The story resonated with me because seemingly unlike Jordan I haven’t always believed in myself. I didn’t believe I had much positive to offer the world. It was many years into adulthood and a slow evolution before I came to truly know my own value. I certainly didn’t think I was special. Still don’t to this day, but I do know I’m wired differently than most in a professional context. I have learned to use those attributes to my advantage.

That mindset began to change in earnest around 2012. I was in my first management position where I was the guy. I had been in leadership for a few years at that point. Prior to that there was always someone around that outranked me. That I could bounce ideas off of, or simply ask for guidance.

In 2012 I accepted a promotion to be a site lead for a group of technology professionals in the Bay Area supporting the same organization I had been with in Los Angeles for several years. My immediate supervisor was hours away in LA. The big bosses were back in DC. For the first time in my career I was operating solo when it came to the day to day activities my work center was responsible for.

Along with that promotion I knew I was accepting ownership of the largest, most challenging project I had overseen to date. Despite not fully believing in my own abilities I was never one to back down from a difficult project.

The Project That Changed My Life

The lease was running out on the rented facility my new staff had been working out of for years. Our organization wanted us to find a new home. The entire process had to be completed in conjunction without negatively impacting day to day operations and the support we provided our customer base throughout NorCal.

Downtime is not an option when providing technology services to customers. I was accustomed to impactful technology specific projects at this point in my career. Never before had I dealt with a real estate or construction effort.

Even though I admittedly was over my head we were able to make the project come to fruition. We were quite successful in doing so. I had plenty of help. The company sent a real estate executive to NorCal from DC and we found a new home in the area.

We wound up renting approximately 5000 square feet of space in another facility that was bare bones. As a result of the project, we purpose built our new home base of operations through our own design. Overseeing the construction aspect of the project was daunting in of itself. Let alone the myriad of contingent efforts required to have everything come together.

Vision

I will never forget being in DC at an organizational leadership conference about halfway through the project and being asked to stay an extra couple of days to finish the design of the interior elements for the new facility. It’s comical to me today, but it is a true statement in that I did not know I would be making those decisions. I had just assumed the company had people that did that for a living. Whatever interior pieces were required would be provided to us.

We wound up touring one of the new facilities the company had recently built in the area and sitting down with a couple of different furniture vendors to detail “my vision” for the workspace. I was not aware I would need a “vision,” you think someone would have mentioned that along the way!

From Belief To Success

Long story short the project was an enormous success. We were out of the previous facility before the old lease ran out and did so without impacting operations. Since the previous lease had been signed when the real estate market was high, and we signed our new lease when the market was still rebounding from the 2008 crash we wound up saving 500k a year in rent for our brand new, purpose built work center.

Because it could be no other way, I signed off on the paperwork alongside the legacy facilities legal team with my staff moving the last of our items behind us. I recall specifically they were loading up water coolers as I put ink to paper. I remember chuckling that we had used every second possible to complete the effort. It was close, but we completed the project on time and under budget. And when I say we, it was very much a we effort.

Be Your Own Best Advocate

To this day I keep the single sheet of paper that was waiting for me on my desk that first day on the job back in 2012 that laid out a few details constituting the beginnings of the effort. It is a reminder that I should never doubt what can be accomplished when I apply myself.

That project changed my career and my life. It made me realize that I am capable of more than the low limitations I assumed for myself. I began to believe that sentiment. To know it. That shift in mindset snowballed into career and life changes I never would have dreamed were possible. Fact is, when you believe and drive to be the best version of yourself great things are possible.

Professional Evolution

Fast forward to just a few weeks ago. We began phase one of a two million dollar project to modernize my organizations radio communications infrastructure to a system capable of interoperability and compatibility with agencies in and around our region. Two years of planning have gone into this effort. In our immediate jurisdiction it impacts public safety support for approximately 160k people.

With public safety in general being a critical service a municipality provides to constituents, it is paramount we complete this project as efficiently and seamlessly as we possibly can. It can be construed as life or death, downtime and mistakes are not an option.

Here’s the thing. I do not know radio technology at an in-depth level but I know how to get things done. Because I believed I had more to offer in delivering a well managed project for my employer, I am confident we will make this happen for the betterment of our community.

I myself am a citizen of my employer. That means if my household ever needs public safety assistance it is imperative we get this right for my professional and personal best interests. I did not need extra motivation to ensure I gave this effort my full attention every step of the way. It’s there anyway.

Believing Is Caring

I care about my community. In my heart I believe we have done our absolute best to line this complex project up as well as we can. Much like the 2012 project it very much is a we effort. I am thankful for the outstanding support provided by my peers and our vendor partners.

Hurdles are to be expected. We will need to overcome problems. I believe we planned the defined aspects to the degree we have the flexibility to work past any issues.

Believe You Have More To Offer

Ten years ago, I never would have thought I would have had the nerve to handle such a critical project that impacts so many lives. It took years to build up the confidence to handle an effort such as this. The belief exists that it takes approximately 10,000 hours to master a skill. Seems to me as long as we are constantly learning and evolving it is not the defined period of time more so than the professional and life experiences we gain that help us master those parts of our lives.

It starts with believing in yourself. Believe you have more to offer this world. I didn’t always believe in me, but those same life experiences have taught me that today I believe in you.

It certainly is not easy. It’s a significant amount of work and a lot of time that will have to be invested, but you can propel yourself to be the best version of you. Believing that you can is the genesis to begin taking that step forward. I wish you the best in your journey, until next time please take care of yourself and the ones you love.