Life really started after college … During College I spent much of life figuring out how to pay for college, unsuccessfully, and I accrued a bunch of student loans in the process. I struggled to pay for school, but had stayed in the Marine Corps reserves, thus helping me a little along the way.

My goal was to become an officer in the Marine Corps, like my sister and brother-in-law are officers in the army. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be and I suffered an ankle injury while I was still in college.

Hindsight is always 20/20 of course, but I do wish I had the discipline back then to achieve better grades or accomplish more outside of school instead of putting all my eggs in one basket, the Marine Corps.

After College, I did what everyone does, I tried to find a job to pay off all the debts I just racked up.

That was harder than it should have been … All during school, my professors told me I would be a rich programmer, who would be able write my own ticket. Unfortunately, it was hard to find a job as a programmer, because the tech crash was in full effect.

I didn’t help matters by being picky and a tad impatient with my work selection. I didn’t want to be a junior programmer making $20K/year, I wanted the big bucks and fast!

So, I officially became the other word for unemployed, a consultant. I struggled along for a year or so, trying to make ends meet and stay disciplined enough, but I found myself taking jobs that were uninteresting and not what I wanted to do. Ultimately it was unfulfilling.

The good news was through consulting I found my first real gig. I went to Milwaukee and worked as a networking consultant and computer teacher. I worked with some wonderful people and I was able to feel like I was contributing to society in a real way. I found out after two great years, that teaching, while satisfying in some ways, wasn’t where I wanted to excel and that I wanted to make more money.

I decided my best move was to try help other companies with the knowledge I had aquired. So I became unemployed again, I mean a consultant again and that’s when life got crazy for me.

This was an interesting time, my experience and skill set had grown so I really could make a difference with companies I worked with. Also my work ethic had matured so I really was able to accomplish a lot. this proved to be a winning combination because I had all the work I could handle (70 – 80 hour weeks).

So I worked like crazy, making some decent money, but not having any time to myself or really striving toward an acceptable long term solution.

Then I stuck pay dirt, by answering an unassuming ad in the local paper about website help for a marketing company.

Circumstances were pretty amazing when I stop to think about, because I wasn’t actively looking for a job. Instead it was more the opposite, I was looking to get rid of some of my jobs. So I answered the ad, thinking this might be a way to slow down a bit and who knows, I might like the prospect of steady work, but not overwhelming work.

So I went in and met with Wendy Makepeace, I was blown away by the opportunity to work with her and Clayton, but it was job that was paying a lot less than I was making.

So I took a chance and accepted the job, working for the senior designer as her assistant.

The next day I quit.

I loved the job and I loved the Makepeace’s, but I did not get along with my immediate supervisor, so I decided it wasn’t worth the chance.

Well, that morning I called Wendy and told her it wasn’t going to work out. She asked me to hang in there for a just little while. It turned out she was having some issues with the supervisor as well.

So I stuck it out for a couple weeks, until I was ready to take the supervisors position and the rest is history.