Turning a new chapter - the MVP Alumni post
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A few months ago I wrote that I’m turning a page, I’ve found motivation to move forward again, and have begin to actively change my destiny (instead of being passive and waiting for it to happen to me). I wanted to give an update and write as I feel I’m moving onwards onto a new chapter.
Some things changed a lot
Some things didn’t change much
Some things I must give my full attention to
Some things I must let go
Some things changed a lot
At the end of last year, I met someone through church meetings that was a friend, who became a close friend, then a fiancé and now my wife. Sometimes, the right person appears suddenly in your life when you are at your lowest, and she didn’t ask questions and just picks you up. I’m grateful to recognize that God is giving me a second chance and I wanted to take that path to move forward with purpose.
Moved out from previous family home with a big renovation project completed.
Resumed part time work that quickly became full time.
Exercising a lot of my Power Automate and Power BI muscles
Lost weight, became more healthy
and working on gaining more energy via fixing my sleep
Married, with two more children, so now a total of four.
also add two cats.
Moved into a bigger house and the various organization and fixing challenges
I have not been very active in the communities (covid, and later as I got swamped with full time work), so alas, I can’t maintain my Microsoft MVP status. After 7 years from 2017 to 2023, I must pass on the spot to someone else.
I realized I can do lots of DIY projects and I love doing them. It’s refreshing to realize that I can build physical things and not just digital things.
I also realized I really quite like the tranquility of going camping.
Some things didn’t change much
I still love to chat, tell people how to build things
I am speaking at the Digital Workplace Conference in August 2-3. Presenting topics related to Power Automate and Power BI dataflow.
I will still find time to blog, make YouTube content
I still love working on Flow Studio and helping customers.
Some things I must give my full attention to
Flow Studio, my startup, must continue to grow and I’m working on multiple aspects of our offerings relating to Power Platform monitoring and governance.
Grow my YouTube channel, I think between my YouTube and my blog is where I’ll continue to reach more of you.
Twitter where we met before is becoming such a strange place
Reddit is weird too
Some of the community events are no longer around after Covid
My health, which is improving, so I’ll still be here for a long time to writing things.
My family, which requires me to be around for a long time
Some things I must let go
A younger me thought that hey I’ll build cool things and tell people how to build them. You’ll find this person on this very blog, over the span of twenty years.
Over two decades, I had fun with you all. I built a career, which let me build what I wanted and be on the cutting (yes I bleed a lot so you don’t have to bleed as much) edge.
I wrote, spoke, presented and taught on these topics. I received and maintained the MVP award status.
But I must tell you, when everything comes crashing down, none of this mattered. Career, wealth, fame, travels, future.
Consider what is closest and important to you. Do more of that. Spend time with people that you should have - don’t regret it afterwards when it is too late to do anything different.
I am thankful for the MVP program for recognizing my contributions to the community, and for the many beautiful friendships I’ve made along the way. I’m grateful that I have a clear path to move on, and I hope you all are still here to cheer me on.
So it feels so good to put these things to words. I’m fourty-four. I feel like I’ve climbed out of a valley. There’s a new horizon in sight, I have a second chance.
I’m always here, online and physically in person around Australia.
I’m sure we’ll meet again soon.
