An old friend, former colleague and one-time boss of mine once said: “Change is good. The absence of change usually means your dead.” I appreciated the sentiment at the time and it always stuck with me, and in fact it’s something I’ve repeated to friends and colleagues many times in the intervening years, usually when they were fretting about some impending, you know, change.

One of the things I’ve enjoyed most in my career has been fairly frequent change… in jobs, in employers, in systems and tech, and in the people I’ve gotten to work with (mostly meeting new people I’ve really enjoyed knowing). After spending almost 11 years with one very large, well established company early in my career, I changed course and began a journey seeking out smaller companies either in their early growth stages or in need of a major transformation. Eight of them, to be precise. Part of the draw was having a more consequential role in the business (i.e. bigger fish in a smaller pond) and part of it was the higher risk/reward equation. One of those businesses ran out of money and closed, most of the others were sold/acquired, one was a train wreck where seemingly nothing went well. Consequently, I have been temporarily out of work more than a couple times… and in each case, it turned out to the best possible outcome because it led directly to the next adventure. Change is good.

My last company, ShotSpotter, Inc., was by far the most successful enterprise and the one from which I derived the greatest overall satisfaction. But nothing lasts forever – nor should it – and after nine years doing pretty much the same job, albeit a great one, for a steadily growing company with more risk behind it than ahead, I decided in early 2021 it was time for the biggest change yet.

Here is what I said to my professional friends, customers, colleagues and associates on June 30, 2021.

Here’s how that translated to my smaller universe of friends and family on Facebook.

And so, a year after I made that move, I’m finally getting around to changing the purpose and focus of this little blog. Now when friends, family and other nice people I have the pleasure of meeting ask me what I’ve been up to, I have more funs things to share with them. When they ask me for details about where I’ve gone or stayed, I can just point them here.

Change is good!