Tonight I sat and watched “Einstein” on the History Channel and was suddenly renewed with scientific wonder. While learning about Albert Einstein’s idiosyncrasies I realized a couple of things that I have digested into simple quotes:
•         Intelligence is an illusion perpetrated by individuals with the proclivity to observe and the power to deduce.
•         Intellect is the second most powerful force in the universe. The most powerful force is the inability to bring intellect to bear.
There are likely similar quotes out there, but I don’t care. These are mine. What does this have to do with SharePoint? Many of SharePoint’s unknowns are the result of typical scientific problems:
•         The inability to remove distractions and focus on what is important which leads to -
•         The inability to observe what is happening and why.
These problems plague me to no end. No matter what experiment I try, the powers that be, seem to conspire to foil my effort. I realize now that this problem has affected me my whole life and is a consequence of intellectual laziness and mental distractions. It takes real discipline to conduct scientific experiments. Einstein perfected his Theory of Relativity a full 10 years after he envisioned it. It took many more years for the theory to be verified and collaborated. Real science takes time and effort. Not to suggest problems in SharePoint are on par with anything physicists work on, but we all have the same barriers to discovery.
So what is this blog entry really about? It’s about me and my mission. Up until now I haven’t talked about why I left Microsoft and joined Quest Software. I loved working at Microsoft, loved the people there, the atmosphere of intellectuals working toward disconnected, but mostly similar purposes. Microsoft took good care of me, gave me an environment to grow and thrive in, and filled a void in my life which could not be filled by hobbies, love, or beer. What I’ve always wanted to do, my ultimate purpose, my end goal has always been to help people. Call me a romantic, but the only thing that has changed in my life has been the people I want to help. When I was a young child I wanted to figure out the worlds engineering problems. When I joined the Army I wanted to (in theory) help my beloved countrymen. I then went through the phases of financial planning and medicine. After stumbling into software and somehow ending up at Microsoft, it became clear to me what attracted me to software. Software is the one mechanism where I have near perfect control over how I help people and Microsoft arguably is the company most positioned to help the most people.
The problem for me; however, was that I was a small fish (regardless of my own opinion) and Microsoft is a large pond that doesn’t take big risks on guppies. Yes, I enjoyed success working on some of the company’s most strategic efforts, but in the end, these efforts weren’t mine. I want to help people on my own terms and definitely have my own opinions about how that happens. At Microsoft, I could only help someone else realize their own dream. This is great, but in the end, was not enough to satisfy my internal desire. Thus, why I left.
So why join Quest? Quest Software is an ISV who builds management software for enterprise systems such as SharePoint. Reason #1. Systems management software just so happens to be most helpful for the people I care most about at the moment: The people who manage SharePoint. Reason #2 and the most important. Quest Software is willing to the take a big risk on me to see my vision through and is giving me the ownership I need to make that happen.
So what am I doing at Quest? If you read the beginning of this post you may be wondering how I went from Einstein and random quotes about intelligence to reasons for my current state of employment. It’s elementary my dear Watson. I’m at Quest to build tools that will give my beloved SharePoint managers the insight and power they need to make their jobs easier. How will I do that? By focusing on the core functionality they need and providing perspective while minimizing distractions. This, I believe, is the essence of good software and what I hope will make SharePoint administrators informed and productive.
Unfortunately, that’s about all I can impart at the moment, but I invite you to think about your biggest problems. Sit back and analyze them to their root. I hope that what I’m working on will help solve those problems. Feel free to drop me a line about those problems or discuss anything you want. You can find me at "me - at - mikeonsharepoint.com"