And the sun sets over Philadelphia…

After the response to my last personal blog post The sun is rising over Frankfurt,  I wanted to reach back out to close out the chapter. An all too short chapter in the somehow long(ish) career I’m wandering through. Sitting on the airplane approaching home seemed like the proper place to wrap it up. 

I said that for my first on air SAP TechEd I wasn’t nervous, more an excitement and honor and weight of hoping to succeed. But if you take nothing away from the amazing Developer Keynote or my Channel 1 experience, please take away this:  I am not afraid to fail. 

Failing hurts. Failing can rip your stomach out. Make you feel like you have disappointed others and yourself by just existing. 

But, maybe. Just maybe if you can open you mind and your heart to any opportunities you have positioned yourself for then you might just catch lighting in a bottle. 

I’m a guy who explains things like containerized applications, SAP Business Technology Platform and how all of this solves problems for developers. I am lucky to have this role that those in my personal circle of non-technical friends  have said seems like a made up job. I’m damn lucky. 

And then it happened. There was an opportunity that we got to work with our amazing leaders to plan and execute. We were given technical and creative freedom. We were the smallest part you saw of a huge global team that will probably never get all the credit they deserve. I wasn’t looking for 15 minutes of fame but I was looking to be myself. Have technical conversations, and in the process provide entertainment. If you met me on the show floor at a TechEd or another conference then you weren’t surprised by what you saw on Channel 1. Same guy, just somehow a bigger ego that everyone has tried to help me keep in check 😉

I’d love to name everyone but can’t. I will call out the Developer Advocate team:

Thomas Jung Rich Heilman DJ Adams Witalij Rudnicki Marius Obert

Kevin Muessig Mamikee Kanneh Nicolai Geburek Daniel Wroblewski Lena Hammerer

Developer Advocate Team and the famous Blue Beard towel from the Developer Keynote

and my channel 1 co-host: 

Orla Cullen Thomas Grassl Cecilia Huergo Rui Nogueira Cecily Sorenson Kevin MuessigKarsten Hohage  Juliane Krampe Lena Stodal Mamikee KannehMynyna Chau

Channel 1 co-Host off to the side during closing show hour

but also a production crew member I won’t call out by name. 

You see after we had a celebration dinner a member of the production crew came up to me. He told me a few personal things, and I don’t want to break any confidence, but I will share that he saw the rough edits of our Developer Keynote. He saw us having fun and it reminded him about how he wanted to get back into code. He also said he loved how just me speaking and being myself transported him back to a time in his life when he lived abroad in America. He missed his host family and can’t wait to see them again. I’ve read books and seen movies and have used the same phrase that I was transported somewhere. But this was overwhelming, I saw it in his eyes as he told me his story. He was so happy and I was part of that. Me, an idiot with a blue beard brought joy to someone and it means everything to me. We hugged like friends of years and years, and then went back inside to our celebratory group of coworkers. Yet again I’m changed forever in a split second. 

And now a thank you to my family. You had to deal with issues from a home office situation and me being around to help, to me being 100% unavailable for two weeks. I thank you so much and can’t wait for you to be reunited with Bobblehead Josh (as Cecilia Huergo put it in her TechEd blog post wrap up), and me. 

Bobblehead Josh in Makeup

So to everyone out there, come for the #bluebeard but stay for the content. I think you can trust me to help you find what you need from me and SAP.  Please watch as many replays as you can of SAP TechEd and ask questions of us anytime.

The sun is setting on Philadelphia soon, but that’s ok. Cause it just reminds me that we all came together and we weren’t afraid to fail. And I hope you enjoyed the result…