As I sit here at the keyboard, starring at my screens trying to decide which story to kick off this blog with I realize the goal is to take you, the reader, on a journey. To do so however I need to summarize my past and get you caught up to present day.
In 1998 I was at the top of my game, having built an impressive resume in technical support after transitioning from a long career in the food & beverage industry. In 1999 Computer Science Corporation had just hired me as a full time help desk technician after a 3 year stint as a subcontractor to various fortune 500s. I quickly grew to project manager for the Director of my division earning an impressive $55k per year.
In 2000 I decided to further my career and take a job as Director of IT for a local start-up making $110k per year. I bought a big single family home in a nice community and was excited to live the good life. Unfortunately that only lasted about 10 months before the start-up, shut down. I then took my trusty resume and spiffy Director title to a government contract firm who hired me to run their Internet Solutions Center (oooh). As soon as I was settled in my role and had retrained the staff to work more productively, all the executives used their golden parachutes and left me in the cockpit to fly solo. It wasn’t long before I found myself working for a big pharmaceutical firm as their Director or IT supporting clients in 6 countries with a helpdesk on both the east and west coast. (I know, I was impressed too.)
Well, as was par for the course, that didn’t work out. I was laid off after 3 short months because they hired a consulting firm to “retool” the organization from the top down. I guess I wasn’t the tool they needed. I had just bought my first new car custom built with every option. I remember leaving work with my box-o-stuff, Oakley shades on, sun roof open and jamming to country radio on my way out of the parking lot. Little did I know this would be the last job I would ever have.
I spent the next 5 months looking for a director level job, or maybe a helpdesk manager, ok how about Sr. Technician on a helpdesk somewhere. I couldn’t land a job at Home Depot stocking shelves. I was either over qualified, didn’t have a degree or the best one I heard was my experience overshadowed the team. For the first time in my life I was scared and I was going out of my mind looking for some way to keep this nice new home, the new car and some semblance of dignity. Then, to make matters worse, some holy crusaders crashed into the twin towers in NYC, the job market crashed and my unemployment was expiring soon. Oh yeah, good times.
A friend of mine from “startup/shutdown” asked me to visit his church because, “it couldn’t hurt”. This was like the lamest idea ever especially since I was not a believer in anything other than my own abilities and I loathed the entire concept of church. Those stained glass windows, wooden pews, organs and dusty old hymnals, no thanks. Way too many rules for me (stand up, kneel, pray, sing, kneel, sit etc…) Well, nevertheless, he was right and maybe one of those righteous do-gooders with a bleeding heart would hear of my sob story and give me a job.
WOW, what an amazing, life changing, first impression. The pews were cushy chairs, the hymnals were words on a big 16×16 video screen, the organ was a 10 person rock band playing over a concert-level sound system and the stage lights were cool. This was church? I spent the next few months attending regularly trying to make my way on the tech team as a volunteer. What I didn’t realize however, is that somehow, the bills were still getting paid.
Fast forward a few more months. I noticed that after each service I would go for a long drive alone to contemplate what I had learned and to balance it with what I thought I already knew. While doing this the strangest thing popped in my head and kept coming back like a nagging fly. No matter how hard I tried to focus on something else I kept hearing the phrase “Technology Services”. I remember thinking back on my life as a Technical Services Director and all the problems associated with upper level management making stupid decisions. I remembered how much I disliked how customer service wasn’t important and how making money was more important than recognizing staff loyalty. I remember crying because I missed the life but not the job. What did this mean, what was happening?
A few weeks later I saw an image, clear as day “Tech-Knowledgy Services”. What was this craziness about? So, I Googled it and found NOTHING. Being the techie that I am, I looked online to see who owned www.techknowledgyservices.com because surely they had an answer for me. But the domain was still available. I sat with my head in my hands, frustrated one afternoon sitting in front of my home computer. I took a knee and prayed this prayer I was given by the same friend who introduced me to Christian Fellowship Church:
Lord, May you bless me indeed,
and enlarge my territory,
may your hands be with me
and keep me from evil.
I continued on to ask for forgiveness for thinking I had any control in my life and that I needed help. I began crying out “Lord, please help me, I don’t know what I’m doing”.
Then the strangest thing happened, my phone rang. No, it wasn’t GOD but it was a friend of my aunt who lived a few towns over with a computer problem needing help. No sooner did I get on the road to help my cell rang again, and again and before the end of the day I was booked well into the night with people who needed my help. Although I didn’t want to take their money, each one demanded to pay me for my work so I charged a fair price of $75. That Sunday, in church, I prayed like none other. Begging for clarity. Instead of hearing God’s voice as I was expecting (well, dude heard word from a burning bush so I thought maybe it could happen again) I saw 10 unanswered voicemails. Some were people thanking me for work I did last week and others from people they told who were also looking for help. Um, did I just start a business? What should I call it? Wait, it’s coming to me… you guessed it Tech-Knowledgy Services.
I rushed home with the biggest fire under my butt that I’ve ever experienced. I was determined to use everything I had learned from all those jobs to build the most integrity driven, customer services focused, IT firm to help homeowners with computer problems. I stayed up all night building a help desk tracking database, countless nights building a website, working a pricing structure and building process while fixing computers. Work was flooding in. Within the first 3 years I was working almost 18 hours a day 7 days a week non-stop and couldn’t keep up with demand. I prayed daily and went to church regularly growing and learning about tithing and giving back.
Each Sunday my friends at church could see me weary eyed but still on fire about TK Services. Some of them, in the tech industry, came to my rescue on occasion when big jobs required more help. I was busting out of the seams with no relief in sight. A girl who I had volunteered with at church told me of her boy friend who lived in New Jersey. Apparently he was working at radio shack and wanted to move to Virginia to be closer to her so he needed a job. “Um, not to be rude, but I got this, I don’t need help right now,. but I’ll call you if I do”. She asked me to meet with him since he was in town so I took him to lunch. He was a cool, laid back Christian guy with a good head on his shoulders, recently graduated from college and was looking to get into the IT industry. I remember distinctly telling him that I was very impressed and that when I am ready to hire someone, if he is still available, I would love to make him my first employee.
Weeks went by and I forgot about this new guy yet business was totally out of control. I was scheduling clients 2-3 weeks out and on a Sunday after church this guy whom I met for lunch informed me he was moving to the area and would be at my house tomorrow morning to start work. Huh? “Well, ok”, I thought, “I could use the help, maybe pay him under the table for a bit until I get caught up but then I got this”. Fast forward to present day. This person whom I’ve grown to respect and admire has been with me through good times and bad. He has taken on every possible role one could serve in this company and now serves over 250 clients on his own as our Residential Support Manager.
Tech-Knowledgy Services grew so fast that I didn’t know what to do. I began hiring a new technician every quarter, had my accountant friend in Rhode Island help with payroll and eventually opened a network operations center in Ohio where 3 employees helped remotely.
In 2007 I fell into a deep depression. TK Services was making almost $600k per year with 9 employees and business was still growing fast. We were on autopilot and I took a huge step back. I found a game called Second Life where you live and work in a virtual world. I spent $13,000USD in this place growing a huge empire. I had over 50 employees from all over the world and built many unchristian like relationships. Business was going so well in Second Life that I had my most valued and most expensive TK Services employee “in world” helping me. This became almost his full time job. Deeper into depression I fell but in Second Life I was well liked by many. I had friends from every ever corner of the globe who logged in to talk with me. I fell in love, a few times, and became irritated when my real life company required me to actually do something for them. Never mind it was funding this major money pit but I couldn’t be bothered.
By December 2007 TK Services took a nose dive while I was asleep at the wheel. We lost ½ our monthly revenue yet because it was the holiday’s I wasn’t ready to lay anyone off. I knew that if I would just put a little effort back into TK “I could fix it”. Well, by February 2008 I had laid off the Ohio office, fired 3 other technicians and demoted the one guy who stood by me through it all. While I was still coming out of a depressed fog, trying to come to grips with the collapse of my real life company I had too much invested in Second Life to just walk away. So I stayed “in world” yet found it to be more of a chore than a haven.
By April, real life circumstances about forced me back to reality and while I was leaving Second Life under duress I knew it was the right thing to do. When I finally pulled my head out of the sand I realized what a mess my life had become in such a short time. My church friends were at a loss for words, the few remaining employees had lost all respect for me and my clients didn’t know me anymore. In my last week in Second Life however, I met a girl whom I didn’t like very much because she was so stubborn and egotistical and thought she had all the answers but as I listened to her ramble on about this and that I felt a weird connection.
I left Second Life in May 2008 and never looked back. This girl known “in world” as “Deviant Tigerpaw” had a real life name as well; Tiffany Jones. Her story was similar to mine and we bonded through our tales of woe. Every night we talked for hours and became unbelievable friends. In August 2008 Tiffany and daughter Alyssa moved to Virginia so they could escape their own pain and hopefully start a better life. I was all too eager to help.
Tiffany began helping me get back on my feet spiritually. She encouraged me to go back to church and to just hold my head high and push through as I always have before. This was different though, I was broken beyond words and in ways I couldn’t understand. By this time I had destroyed all trust with my friends, my staff and my church. I was alone, beat down and utterly destroyed. I honestly didn’t care what happened to me and there were many nights I prayed to be taken out of my misery.
If this doesn’t seem bad enough let me back up and give you some additional highlights. In January 2007 I was informed by the IRS, VA State Tax and Ohio State tax that I hadn’t paid them for a long time. My debt, to date, is $250,000. Also, my house foreclosed $180k upside down in June 2009.
After tons of prayer about my situation, my debt, my house and my relationship with Tiffany I heard a voice in my head tell me to Plan N this. “Just get back up and fix this” I began to see that as much as I loved a challenge, this was the biggest of my life and I had nothing left to do than seek God’s guidance and follow him.
I threw caution and all outside voices to the wind. I didn’t listen to my friends, my family or anyone else. I built a wall around all outside influences to ensure the only voice I heard was from God. As I was looking for a new home Tiffany and I decided to rent a place together. I didn’t think this was a good idea because “my bible doesn’t read that way” to quote a friend but it didn’t hurt to look. Since TK Services, what was left of it, was based out of my house, I needed to move it wherever I went. This means I needed lots of room so an apartment was out of the question. We looked at a ton of places but they seemed ghetto, run down and small. I was feeling defeated.
One night Tiffany sends me an email with a townhouse listing on Craig’s list in one of the wealthiest golfing communities in Northern Virginia. Well, I’m not a golfer but if it’s good enough for the Washington Redskins to live (my neighbors) it’s good enough for me. Problem was, my credit was/is in the toilet and I was in debt up to my ears but, why not try. When we met with the home owner I told him my credit situation and that I could only afford to pay $200 less than he was asking. He looked me in the eye, shook my hand and told me to meet him the next day with 2 months’ rent for a deposit and he would sign us. OK, duh, no brainer.
I went home and toiled over this for a long time. The house was beyond perfect. It was everything I had ever dreamed of in a house and the working conditions for my team would be a HUGE upgrade. All of this was too perfect but I knew I couldn’t live there without Tiffany’s help. I prayed and prayed but I didn’t hear any answers for or against. I begged for guidance and clarity. Long story short, this was the easiest, most stress-free move I had ever been a part of. It was so smooth everything that could go wrong, and usually did, didn’t. After two days of moving in, Tiffany and I had the entire house unpacked and well, we were living together.
I continued to pray for God to help me with this. To show my how to proceed and was willing to do whatever it took to make things right. In every prayer, I expressed how important it was that I be able to pay back my personal and professional debts. What happened next was nothing short of a major miracle. Stay tuned to learn more.
