Day 8: Reflecting on My Career Transformation to Cloud and Beyond

from Denver to Omaha

On Independence Day, we left Denver early in the morning and drove about 540 miles to Omaha, arriving late in the afternoon. After checking in the Hyatt, we quickly finished our late dinner at Upstream and headed downtown for the holiday celebration concert and fireworks show.

As fireworks lit up the night sky and classic patriotic music played in the concert, we were truly amazed by the vibrant atmosphere that the people of Omaha brought to downtown. In the midst of a large, dense crowd of celebrators, my thoughts drifted to the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett. Where was he? Sitting in the crowd or watching TV or reading the newspaper. 

Buffett is famous for his disciplined daily routine, which includes reading a significant amount of newspapers and reports every day. His approach to investing, characterized by patience, discipline, and a focus on long-term value by investing in what he knows well, has had a profound impact on my own investing. 

Just as Buffett looks to invest in undervalued companies with strong fundamentals, a decade ago I invested my time and energy in cloud technologies that I believed had immense potential. This foresight paid off in my career advancement as I transitioned into cloud infrastructure and platform engineering from database and data engineering. Recognizing the transformative power of the cloud, I invested in cloud companies early on. The substantial returns from that investment helped enable my early retirement.

For me, the fireworks in Omaha symbolized more than just a celebration of independence. They represented the end point or the final stage of something I have been working toward or building. It involved hard work, strategic thinking, and timely decisions. Such personal experiences reinforced my believe in the power of continuous learning and adaptation.

The path is clear: invest in understanding emerging technologies, recognize their potential to transform you (and your business), and be willing to adapt. Moving from my first role as a structural engineer in San Francisco to a completely new role as a database engineer in Silicon Valley, and later from a database architect to a cloud trailblazer, was not just a job title change; it was a strategic move that aligned me with the future of technology. This alignment not only brought me professional satisfaction, but also financial stability, allowing me to retire early and pursue something new in my second stage of life.

Day 7: Reflecting on the Power of Education

Day 9: Being Humble in a Friend's Garage