Copy, paste, copy, paste. I just love plagiarizing helping the community.
Tom LaRock challenged us to write an eleven word blog post and I couldn’t resist resurrecting an old theme. John Dunleavy (who plagiarized my posts last year) emailed me a while back to say he’d like to meet me at the DevConnections conference in Orlando and buy me a drink to apologize. I really admired his guts. It takes huge drawers to make that kind of request, and I respect that. We went out to dinner and had a wonderful time.
A wise man once told me that carrying a grudge is like swallowing poison and hoping the other guy dies. Another wise man told me that DevConnections feels like the PASS Summit, only without the backstage drama. Life is short enough as it is. We can’t succeed by forcing others around us to fail – and in fact, it’s often the opposite. I feel most successful when those around me succeed. I don’t want any event, blogger, presenter, or consultant to fail. I want us all to find our niche, our moral compass, and our happiness.
Life is a never-ending journey of learning our own lessons and helping those around us learn theirs. If people had given up on me when I made my first mistakes, I’d be homeless right now. I’m only here because my bosses and my peers saw enough value in me to be patient with my problems and help me get better. Every time that I can pay that forward is a success.
What can you do to mend a fence today and help someone become a success?
16 Comments. Leave new
Brent,
Great message! Sometimes we lose track of the big picture and the fact that we’re all in this together. Not only does helping others help them out but it helps us out too. We can learn from those we teach and everyone involved benefits.
Thanks again,
Adam
You’re so much more than a great DBA – you’re a truly amazing person. As much as I love getting good SQL knowledge from you, I equally love your genuine insights. I’d love to buy you a drink sometime. Have a great day!
It’s good to hear that Dunleavy did that. I think the other lesson that readers should take from this is not only be willing to forgive, but be willing to admit when you’re wrong. We all make mistakes, but it does us no good if we don’t own those mistakes and try to make them right.
Awesome post as usual. And you are absolutely right about DevConnections like SQLPASS without backstage drama! Isn’t that weird?
Life is a never-ending journey our learning lesson. Love that quote. You rock.
Hi Brent,
I had a great time meeting you too, and I have a new found respect for all that you and all the other fellow bloggers out there have been doing day in and day out. I really have learned from that and I appreciate the fact that you gave me the chance to meet with you in person, especially when a lot of other people would have just written me off. Mounds of respect for YOU my friend. THANKS!
**slowly walks backwards to delete his SQL thesis completely stolen from Kevin Kline and Brent Ozars blogs**
Did I mention I also spent 9 years on the SQL development team and wrote DBCC? 😛
This is a great theme, Brent. Thanks for sharing it! By the way thank you also for http://sqlserverpedia.com/wiki/SAN_Performance_Tuning_with_SQLIO#Downloading_and_Configuring_SQLIO. I’m profiling some different raid configs with different numbers of disks and when I’m done guess who I’m going to credit with helping me when I present to my boss? That’s right Buckwheat…you. Thanks again.
Will – great, glad I could help! I use that stuff all the time.
I remember that no drama comment. I didn’t make it, but I remembered it being uttered. I think it was college before I finally understood that trying to make myself look good by making others look bad was akin to lying. I wasn’t shining on my own merits. And therefore, I wasn’t telling the truth.
I’ve also since come to learn that when you take the time to help someone else, you tend to gain more out of it than the person you’re helping. Any teacher will acknowledge that the first few times teaching a particular subject they gain more out of than the students they are teaching.
Awesome post, as usual, Brent. Even more so with this one. It’s hard to say whether you or Paul Randal are my #1 SQL hero: at least for today you are #1. On any given day certainly no less than #2. 😉 Thanks for everything you do.
Thank YOU, Don! Feedback keeps me going. Except right now – that last margarita here in San Juan, Puerto Rico, kept me going. But I digress. 😉
Nice post Brent, ever thought of being a life coach?
Mark – ha! Thanks! I need to finish getting my own life in order first though. 😀
Yeah that is definitely a ballsy move, takes allot to admit you screwed up.
Thanks for sharing Brent! It sounds like Dunleavy is a pretty level guy. I’m glad it all worked out! And thanks for all the help over the past few months. Your site is a Jr. DBA’s gold mine!