Historically, I haven’t written much about my work other than perhaps the places I’ve been and some of the things I’ve seen or learned. That was purposeful as I didn’t intend for this blog to be a marketing vehicle for the business I founded with Paul Bultema back in 2006. However, I feel compelled to write a little about a recent change in my career that sees me putting NaviGo Global on the shelf as I move on to a new challenge.
In October 2006, I left Level 3 Communications after nearly nine years with the company. I had met many people, worked many roles, learned many things. It was an interesting and challenging place to work. The number of truly incredible people I worked with never ceases to amaze as I look back on my time there. We built things, innovated, flipped markets upside down. We were on a mission. I thought Level 3 would be a place people would write books about. Then things started to change. I can’t put my finger on the company time line exactly when it occurred, but I guess for me it was sometime in 2004. Level 3 was launching VoIP products left and right and ramping up M&A activities. I held a position leading some of the smartest people I have ever known. I loved my team and my role, but as large numbers of new employees from the acquired businesses arrived, the culture began to change. Not necessarily bad change depending on where you came from, but certainly different. After the blood and sweat of helping build that business, the telecom industry implosion and a variety of other things, I decided it was time for my own change. Telecom can be a rough business and tough decisions are made every day. It wears on you over time and I was truly worn out. I owed it to the company, my team, my family and myself to step away. So I did.
Three days after I walked out the doors of Level 3 for the final time, I was on a plane to Grand Rapids, MI. Paul, who had left Level 3 a couple months before me, had sold a few projects with a small VoIP start-up. So began my career as a consultant. It was interesting; familiar and foreign at the same time. Over the coming months, we’d continue to do work for this first client, then began expanding our client base. While our project work was a little “lumpy” in terms of deal flow, we were earning a living running our own company. What could be cooler?
In July 2007, Paul landed a project for himself in London to work under a (much) larger firm as a sub-consultant. At the time, I was fully engaged with a client in Dallas. He began to travel back and forth from his home in Michigan to London while I did a similar, but shorter commute in the US. By the end of July, my project wrapped and I rolled onto a piece of his project, spending about a month helping him deliver. Fast forward to October 2007 and another project opened for me in London. In the meantime, Paul had entered into negotiations to join this larger firm at a fairly senior level and relocate his family back to London where he’d lived for a year early during our time at Level 3. It was a plum opportunity for him and I didn’t begrudge his decision to leave our business after only a year together. By November, we’d parted ways and by the end of December I was the sole owner and employee of NaviGo Global.
Not certain what I wanted to do (carry on as an independent, join another firm or go back into industry), I began down the path of drumming up business while at the same time looking for other opportunities. As Paul made his transition, I began networking to uncover potential places to land and reconnected with a number of friends and acquaintances. One of them was Tim Larson, a former Level 3 colleague who’d left about 4 years earlier in December 2003 to join the then newly opened Denver office of a small, project leadership-focused consulting firm.
In mid-January 2008, Tim and I met for coffee at the Starbucks in Broomfield’s FlatIron Marketplace, which had been a common work hide-out for me when I wasn’t traveling. We chatted about NaviGo and my fluid plans for the future, then he offered to put me into the recruiting process at his firm. I wasn’t all that familiar with the company, but I trusted Tim and a lot of what he told me sounded very compelling. A few days later, I began what ended up being a series of interviews with Tim’s colleagues which culminated with a discussion with Rick Warter, the firm’s Denver market leader. To a person, I was deeply impressed by the professionalism and enthusiasm of the people I met. The more I learned, the more intrigued I became.
Unfortunately for me, for a variety of reasons they weren’t quite ready to add staff. We agreed to keep in contact and I ended up taking a project that resulted in my multi-month commute to Johannesburg, which I’ve written about a few times. As the months rolled by, I continued to communicate with Tim and others in his office, never quite believing it would all come together. On August 26, 2008, it somehow did. Rick and Tim were ready and so was I. After all the travel during the nearly two years I was doing NaviGo, it was time to come home. The timing was impeccable and I was prepared to make a move.
On September 8, 2008, I joined Point B Solutions Group in their Denver office and NaviGo Global went onto the shelf I mentioned at the beginning of this post, sitting alongside Level 3 and MFS Network Technologies as my prior career way points. So far, I’m thoroughly enjoying Point B. I continue to meet remarkable people working in a business environment that fits me to a T. I couldn’t be more pleased. My only worry is I won’t live up to the expectations of my new peers, but I believe that just like my past jobs, this one too I will figure out and “find a way to win” (to borrow a phrase from a former favorite boss).
To all the friends, family and, most importantly, the paying clients of NaviGo Global that believed in Paul and myself these past couple years, I am forever grateful for your support. Thank you all so very much.
Now, back to the random musings…
