It is finally time to come clean to my Microsoft family. For the last five years, I have been living in two very different worlds. By day, I was a Senior Escalation Engineer at Microsoft, working in the support world, helping solve complex problems, jumping into the hard cases, and…
Tag: Freedom
Reading the Writing on the Wall, Then Choosing the Exit
In May of 2025, Brandi and I were in Fiji celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. Twenty five years will make you think differently. It has a way of turning down the noise and turning up the truth. You start thinking less about titles and more about peace. Less about what…
When Mental Health Isn’t About Rest – It’s About Direction
There’s a version of burnout that doesn’t come from doing too much. Mental Health Isn’t About Rest – It’s About Direction, and sometimes the exhaustion comes from standing still for too long. From waking up every day knowing you’re capable of more, but staying parked in the same place because…
Sometimes the Path Chooses You (And You Just Have to Be Ready)
We spend a lot of time convincing ourselves that we’re in control of the plan. That every move is intentional. That the next step is something we design, something we earn through precision and effort and timing that we think we understand. But Sometimes the Path Chooses You (And You…
The Second Time You Leave Hits Different
The first time you leave, it feels like a break, a reaction, a moment where something pushed you just far enough to finally move. The experience when it’s the Second Time You Leave Hits Different, in ways you might not expect. There is uncertainty, sure, but there is also adrenaline….
The Illusion of Progress in Big Organizations
There’s always something happening. Meetings stack on meetings. Reorgs reshuffle the same people into slightly different boxes. Strategy shifts get announced with new language, new decks, new urgency. From the outside, it looks like momentum. Inside, it often feels like motion without movement. You start to notice a pattern. The…
Recognition Is Free: So Why Is It So Rare?
Recognition is one of the few things in leadership that costs nothing and yet somehow feels like the rarest currency in the room. It raises an important question: Recognition Is Free: So Why Is It So Rare? No budget approvals. No roadmap dependencies. No executive signoff required. Just a moment…
New Team, Same You – Why That’s the Real Reset
New team. New environment. New expectations. People like to think that’s where the reset happens. Like you walk into a different org and somehow everything just recalibrates on its own. Yet, as much as things change, it’s always a “new team, same you” scenario. It doesn’t. You bring the same…
Building Again: Why Starting Over Is a Power Move
Starting over has a way of exposing you. But what if you looked at it differently, and recognized why starting over is a power move? You go from being the person with answers to the one asking questions again. From moving fast with confidence to slowing down just to understand…
Finding Resilience: A Personal Journey
In May of 2025, Brandi and I were in Fiji celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. Twenty five years has a way of making you look at life differently. You start thinking less about noise and more about direction. Less about titles and more about peace. Less about what something used…