Hello everyone and welcome back!  Today will be my last day at my full-time job as I take the leap of moving forward to grow my remote contracting business.  Over the past year I have been doing electronic design work both in full-time capacity as well as in the evenings with my own company.  In unison with that I have also been teaching myself Python and taking online refresher engineering courses.  I am very excited.  As I jump into the unknown, I realize I am at peace and not scared.  It makes me ponder for a second and ask the question Why?.  The answer is this…

I have confidence in my skills – mind you, NOT arrogance – Just conviction in who I am and what I am capable of.  Let me ask you this, have you ever looked in the mirror real close at yourself?  Who do you see staring back at you?  When you start your own business, whatever that is, make sure you can answer that question.  Over the years I have looked long and hard into that mirror and I am proud to say I know myself quite well.

The first thing I see is my burning, inquisitive mind that works relentlessly until I have deciphered an answer to the problem.  It is not uncommon for me to work into the wee hours of the morning resolving customer issues or taking late evening phone calls with clients or getting up in the middle of the night to jot down solutions.  This persistence and tenacity fueled by a desire to know and understand the truth is fundamental to who I am.  The second thing I see is a fair and honest man.  I believe in treating my customers with integrity and working with them in a partnership to develop their product.  I want my business to have its foundation forged in trust and honor.  As I’ve told my children a million times over, Your word is everything.  When I tell my customers, I’m going to do something you can damn well bet on it because come hell or high water I will deliver on my promise.  I am a firm believer in leaving everything out on the field.  It does no one any good bringing it back into the dugout.  As my grandfather always said At the end of a hard day’s work, a company only owes you pay for that day and nothing more.  The key here is hard day.  Give it your all, remember you’re going to look at yourself in the mirror.  It will never lie.  What you see is what you get.  Finally, I see a friendly communicative person.  I dutifully correspond with my customers, educating and keeping them up to date so they can make informed decisions.  There is nothing worse than the stress of the unknown, much like the waiting room of a doctor’s office.  The knowing means we can make decisions, stress comes from indecisiveness which in turn comes from lack of, or poorly timed, communication.  Take the time to educate yourself then move.  Look back only to understand where you have been but don’t obsess over it as it will make you doubt yourself.  The key is to keep your employer informed and, yes, that means both the good and the bad.  It all goes back to being honest and truthful.  Let them know when you are struggling with a solution.  It is much better than misleading.  Remember at the end of the day, you can look into that mirror and say you gave it your all and you did it with integrity.

With that said I am excited and confident that my business will be a success.  I am a hardworking, methodical, intelligent business owner who builds his value on integrity, fairness and a mind that never slows down.  I look forward to serving you in whatever engineering capacity necessary to give you the product you envision.  Stay tuned as I will have up and coming technical videocasts showing “how to” on concepts such as power supply design, front end analog design for sensors, pcb layout techniques, etc.