26 June 2005

Ten years in Sydney…a lifetime of passion.

Posted by Mick (SplaTT) Stanic under: Digital Thoughts; Work .

Strange how we end up sort of where we started..

Very shortly, during August 2005, I will be having my ten year anniversary of moving to Sydney. Not that i planned on moving to Sydney…as is uaually the case with these things, its just the way things turned out.

I actually came up here (from Melbourne) to go to MecklerMedia’s “Internet World Australia 1995″ conference and exhibition…the conference finished a few days later…and i just sort of hung around…for ten years.

When i came up for the conference i had been running my own programming/design/project-management/internet/multimedia/VR type of company (Splatt Technologies) for about five years…those were the days when multi-tasking really meant something ;)

I went on to work for a number of companies, some small and privately owned (where I programmed in HTML and they had trouble paying salaries month-to-month) and some huge and listed on the stock exchange (where i employed and managed teams of 30+ people and made millions of dollars for the parent company).

Now…nearly ten years after i came to Sydney, I find myself self-employeed again doing technology consulting and evangelism (Principius)/media-casting (The Podcast Network)/programming and design (The Podcast Network and GeekDinner.com) and a few other things I can’t talk about…yet. I need to keep somethings to myself :)

During the ten years i have been in Sydney, the 15 years i have been involved in the technology industry and all through my working and school life for that matter, i have followed one mantra. And that is, that no matter what you do for a living, you must be passionate about it…you must love it…you must be willing to put your total time, energy and commitment behind what you are doing no matter what, because if you don’t…well…it sort of defeats the purpose of being here.

The reason i am posting this post now, and not in August, is that my podcasting buddy Cameron Reilly (and a bunch of other people), recently pointed out Steve Job’s recent commencement address that he gave at Stanford University. I may be happily sitting on the Microsoft side of the fence these days, but when Steve Jobs makes comments like the ones he did at Stanford…i have one word that somes it up…”respect”…well..ok..”respect” for Steve and a “warm and fuzzy” feeling all over.

Heres my favourite quote:
“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

In honour of the occasion…i give you…two photos….“Then and now”

Me in 1995

Me in 2005

The journey continues :)

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