“

A new adventure, there in your eyes.

It’s just beginning,

Feel your heart beat faster.

Reach out and find your

Happily ever after!

“

Well, here I am. My first new job in over 20 years and it is a dream come true. I have always wanted to do more to help people learn about technology and being the Editor of the Simple Talk website is going to be a great place to do that. I have admired the heck out of the people who I am following and I have worked with them all over the years.

How that dream comes out, who knows? I won’t pretend the back of my head isn’t filled with the little voices telling me “you are the imposter” like we are playing a game of Clue only we are looking for the person who shouldn’t be there rather than a murderer. As I said, I have known the previous editors and they were all the greatest… can I keep up.?

I have come to realize that practically everyone has that same voice echoing frustrations in their cavernous skull boxes. And it is okay. It probably is the only thing standing between some of us trying to fly without wings over the edge of the Grand Canyon (or since Redgate is headquartered across the pond from me, the White Cliffs of Dover). Doubt makes us work smarter along with harder when it isn’t making us doubt our ability to do anything.

I don’t want to be better than my predecessors, or worse, or even the same. I want to be me and do the things that I am good at and surround myself with people who make me look (but not feel) dumb.

I wrote this the night before I start at Redgate and am publishing it 10 minutes before my first meeting. As I often do,  I read this to my editor (my wife Dr Valerie Davidson, real Dr of Education, not like my drsql Twitter handle!), she asked “do you really want to come off sounding so scared?” I just want to be honest about how I feel the night before I start.

I want to say that I feel like a 10 year old kid about to board their first roller coaster with an inversion. Excited beyond words and also scared to death. Will this be the most amazing thing, or will it kill me? I have experienced first roller coaster rides with several people who were scared of it for too long, some with tears (ok, maybe that was me). Most get finished with that first ride and it becomes something they like. A few hate it. Others, it becomes an obsession (this was me.)

Did I mention I am a theme park fanatic? I often do! This was the picture I took for the company directory. Fun fact, my first interview was from Dollywood where I was about to do some article interviews of some of their hosts. I have a YouTube channel and a theme park blog too.

My experience with roller coasters is very similar to my experience with the SQL Server community for the past 20 years (or maybe more, you can see I am not 22 in the picture). I was scared silly to get involved, then I did, then it changed my life forever. I hope I can live up to task of helping others do the same. Either way, I will give it my all and do my best to have no regrets.

Lets go!