develpreneur podcast
Posted on Lessons Learned From Consulting

Habits, Roadmaps, and the Value of Career Momentum

When we think of our professional lives, the result is a marathon, not a sprint.  Thus, there is a need to develop a form of career momentum that can get us through those long years.  There are a variety of ways to accomplish this goal.  That means we can look at several approaches to keeping our career on a forward path even in light of all that life throws at us. Career Momentum Is Key I have found that momentum is the most significant contributor to keeping my career on track.  This has been the case even when things appear to go off the rails.  There have been periods where all of my goals came to a complete stop.  Nevertheless,... Read more

develpreneur podcast
Posted on Lessons Learned From Consulting

Adding Soft Skills To Advance Your Career

It is probably not going to shock you to find that soft skills are an essential piece of success in your career.  Technical skills are your primary asset.  However, soft skills will help you apply those technical ones is the most effective way.  It also seems that the technical side becomes less a factor in advancing as you move into the advanced stages of a career. Oh No, Sales Skills The natural introversion of many technical professionals goes against the classic idea of sales.  We tend to equate good sales skills with a big and extroverted personality.  That is not the case.  The best salespeople build relationships.  That is not an area relegated to the extroverts.  On the contrary, I have found... Read more

develpreneur podcast
Posted on Lessons Learned From Consulting

Advancing Your Career Through New Challenges

As you move through the years, you might find that advancing your career becomes a more significant challenge.  There was so much to learn when you started.  However, you now have a lot of knowledge under your belt.  Never fear, there is still a world full of opportunities for you to advance to that next level. Expand Your Reach No one learns without stepping out of what they know.  If you find yourself overly comfortable in your current position, it is time to move.  That does not mean you have to move to another country or even change jobs.  It does say you should look for new areas to explore.  That includes new forms of interacting with your peers.  There are ways... Read more

develpreneur podcast
Posted on Lessons Learned From Consulting

Giving Back As A Mentor, Coach, and Lead

We have looked this week at how to get the most out of mentors and teammates.  However, we also should think about giving back.  There will be opportunities to teach, lead, and even mentor others.  I have found these situations are as much a blessing to us as they are the recipients.  Therefore, we should embrace these sort of opportunities where we can. Learn By Teaching The first point to consider is how teaching someone is a way to learn.  In the simplest form, we ask someone to say back to us what we just said.  This is a test of whether they learned what we desired.  If they can repeat it back to us, then they learned it at... Read more

develpreneur podcast
Posted on Lessons Learned From Consulting

Learning From Peers, Teammates, and Co-Workers

There are a wealth of teachers in our professional community.  I have found the most common contributor to my success is learning from peers.  The people around us that we include in our daily interactions are also factors in how we learn or solve problems.  Let’s look at how to make the most of this prevalent resource. Everyone Brings Value The most significant factor in know-it-all being a bad attitude is the impact it has on our ability to learn.  Yes, you may be considered gruff or even a jerk, but that may be due to other than your lack of humility.  When this approach is taken, there is a tendency to jump to conclusions or even solutions that are... Read more

Posted on Tools We Use

A Linode How-To – Launch Your Virtual Server

One of the tools that are core to the Develpreneur ecosystem is Linode.  This provider of cloud servers has been one we started with several years ago, and they have served us well.  Thus, it seems that an article focused on a Linode how-to is one we should provide you. Getting Started The first thing to do is decide on the attributes of your server.  There is a wide variety to choose from.  Each option is tied to a fixed monthly fee.  Thus, you can easily budget for your needs.  Although you can find cheaper resources if you pay ahead a year or two with Amazon, these tend to be a great deal.  The pricing starts at five dollars per... Read more