Most people look at what others do to determine what they should do or how well they are doing. It's a natural thing to happen. My young daughter constantly learns just by watching other children and adults, and she surely has shown me that we are great mimics.

When you ask yourself what kinds of clothes should you wear, what car should you drive, where should you eat, it all can be determined by what others are doing. After a while, it can become that what you think you want is what you see others wanting and nothing beyond that. And why not, it's easier to let others do things and follow if it seems interesting or useful. And it is probably safer too.

But a subset of us want our own path and feel so passionate, and I dare say, compelled, to do things to make our chosen path happen the way we want.

I was about 16 years old when I founded my first business. It wasn't in high-tech; that didn't happen until about 4 years later but I knew I wasn't doing what my peers were doing with their weekdays and weekends. I was driven. I was excited and passionate about what I was doing and I didn't at the time realize that it was going to tint my worldview for the rest of my life.

When I was 14 or 15 years old, my friend's father started a sports-based business. It was a new sport, and like many things when they are new, people were excited at where it could go and where it could take them. The father had two sons but neither of them seems interested in the business and I showed some interest. In time, though we were probably 30 years apart in age, I became friends with the father and excited about his business. In many respects, it was the classic example of an apprenticeship.

The business was becoming successful and the father let me understand his accounting books, and discuss product placement and customer service with me. It seemed he genuinely felt my thoughts were valid about various business-related topics, which at that young age was refreshing. After I learned what I could about his business, I decided to start my own sports business.

I purposely didn't directly compete with his business and in fact my first business was mainly a lesson to teach me how to do things on my own. What kind of licenses did I need, how should I handle accounting, customer returns, how much capital should I spend before or after orders, how will I advertise, did I want to manage others?, et cetera. It was a fantastic experience, one in which my parents supported, though I imagine they would not have predicted how all of those life lessons would alter my life's journey quite as much as it did. When it came time for me to go to university, I decided the business needed to shutdown so I could focus on going to school.

I, at some point at school, decided I didn't want to be in front of a computer screen all day. So I ended up studying statistics and human behavior and philosophy, especially in logic. But at some point, I believe from an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel, I learned about Linux. To teach myself about computers, I started to install various distributions and started a web site that discussed news items about Linux. That site eventually became www.linuxpower.org.

Linuxpower was relatively successful and at some point we had 40 writers beyond the core group. Some of the core group went on to work at Red Hat, Xiph and Icecast and the top of the academic world. Being an entrepreneur by this time, I naturally tried to turn it into a successful business. And by 2000, when the dotcom mania was at the height of the frenzy, we had some interesting offers. But in the end, the core group went on their own ways and I needed to decide what I wanted to do.

I now had this intense interest in computers and a background that seemed to fit well, both in math and logic, and human behavior. There were some various work paths followed where I worked for others but I eventually felt the pull of my own path becoming stronger than working for anyone else. And with me as a Principal Founder, Elluminates Software was founded. I had by that point been a programmer, a systems engineer, a security expert and a Chief Architect.

When I looked at the companies I worked for, they had some serious flaws. They existed not because of some vision, but because they wanted to exist. The machine needed constant feeding. Management wanted their bonuses, and employees needed their paychecks. Employees were not working passionately on a problem that they felt they had to solve. It was depressing.

I wanted something different for my life and for those I worked with. I wanted incredible talent to work with and a management approach that focused on ensuring technical engineering was the priority and not an afterthought. Our mission statement became:

Elluminates Software's mission is to analyze the world's data and provide easy to use software and systems to make understanding that data both intuitive and enjoyable.

Our mission to our employees is to offer:

* a positive, productive and collaborative work environment; and,
* allow each employee to grow, learn and excel at what they do; and,
* provide a place where integrity, honesty and the highest craftsmanship are paramount.

This weblog is where I hope to share with you not only the experiences that Elluminates Software has in its journey towards meeting its vision but also as a place for those that choose a different path in life to share their journey. Clearly, we see Openvista as one of the company's next offerings that will be more than just feeding the machine. I appreciate you accompanying us for the adventure.

Note: This entry was updated on 9/25/2008 and 8/10/2009.