Passion on the Journey

The best way to live a full and worthwhile life is to find and be truly passionate about one or more aspects of your Journey.

No matter how many times you have heard it, it is still true that life is a Journey, not a destination. In many ways, you continually make choices about which direction you want to go and what things you want to see and do along the way. Think of life not as a jet ride from Chicago to Los Angeles, but rather a road trip along Route 66 to get from Chicago to LA. What you do along that road and how you interact with and treat people you meet along the way is a lot more important to a successful trip than is merely making it to Los Angeles.

Two examples of being passionate about the journey are Anousheh Ansari and Luke W (of myDigitechnician). Although living in two totally different worlds, they are both passionate about what they are doing on the Journey.

Anousheh Ansari lifted off into space on Monday, 18 September 2006, as the fourth private space explorer to visit space. She was first in many other respects and has given young people around the world a shining example and a hero to follow as she blazes a path to the stars. Many of tomorrow's astronauts and aerospace engineers/explorers will likely have been inspired by her. She makes me think of the Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov books I read in my youth. Anousheh is certainly passionate about space and about private industry participating in the pursuit of human travel and exploration in space. The passion and commitment she has comes through in many of her interviews and news articles about her on the web. There can be no doubt that she is passionate about what she does and truly enjoys it.

Luke W (co-founder of myDigitechnician) is similarly pursuing his passions on the Journey. He started using computers when he was three, beginning with an original 128K Mac. He could read already at three and enjoyed using MacPaint and other programs on the Mac, which was fantastically easy-to-use relative to the IBM PC and other competitors at the time. The reason I bought the Mac rather than an IBM PC was because the Team Electronics store salesperson said, "I'm with another customer right now, so I can't show you how to use the IBM, but if you want you can just start use the Mac while I work with this other gentleman." The salesperson was absolutely correct. Without any instructions, I was able to easily use the Mac to draw a flowsheet of the spent liquor recovery process for the pulp mill at which I worked at the time. Luke enjoyed the Mac thoroughly even though he was only three.

Twenty-one years later, he is the technology brains behind myDigitechnician, an in-home consumer computer services company. Although computers are not what he majored in during college, they are his true passion, and there is nothing he would rather be doing than running his own computer-focused company. As myDigitechnician grows and as opportunities are found, he will be bringing more emphasis to a fledgling sector of myDigitechnician called Black Ops Division. This part of mD relates to high-end gaming computer systems and working with teens and older computer enthusiasts to help them design, build and use powerful, leading-edge gaming computers. As the virtual worlds of the internet become more developed and software innovations are used to make marvelous things possible with these powerful computers, the Black Ops Division will become more and more important in the everyday business of myDigitechnician. In the meantime he loves working with whatever computers people have at home to make their lives easier, more fun and better connected with the world and the people around them.

Based on the comments made to me and to others, Luke is doing a great job of providing skilled and friendly, non-geek service to hundreds of homeowners. His attitude is that he's having fun providing the service to our home computer user clients, and he wants his clients to likewise enjoy and be able to use their computers effectively. He is working hard at building a new business that will have satisfied clients who want to use him for life for all their digital needs. People with his attitude and technical skill are rare, so working hard now will ensure he can build a successful lifelong business. Continual technical innovation in the computing field and the challenges that never-ending innovation presents to most people will result in Luke having a lifetime of opportunities in the field he loves. He knows he's fortunate to have the opportunity to make a living doing work about which he is passionate.

Not everyone is as fortunate as Anousheh and Luke. But everyone should find one thing or several areas about which they are passionate. Then they should learn everything they can about their passion or passions, build dreams around those passions, and take all the opportunities they can wherever their Journey goes to follow their dream, share their passions and help others pursue their own passions and dreams.

Follow Anousheh as she has an adventure like few before her. Read her blog, check out her main website, watch her on tv or the internet over the next few days, and bring some of her passion and Luke's passion to your life!

Oh yeah. Don't want to forget the plug for BarCampMilwaukee. Less than two weeks to go before we start 24+ hours of tech fun. After reading about Anousheh's new company, Prodea Systems, I sent them an invite to come to BarCampMilwaukee and lead a session on their new "comprehensive solution for the digital home." Since myDigitechnician's tagline is "Your friend for a better digital world", Prodea's comprehensive solution for the digital home is a perfect fit for many of our clients. I'm hoping we can connect with someone at Prodea so they'll come to BarCampMilwaukee even though it's short notice. If you know anyone who works there, please ask them to contact me or respond to the email I sent earlier today.

And if you're passionate about using or creating technology in any aspect of your life, come on down to BarCampMilwaukee and share that passion!

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