10 years of Travel that didn't cost me a dime.

8/8/2015

10 years ago today August 8th, 2005 I went from working at a Nextel store in Plainfield to working at TeleNav, a GPS software startup company in Sunnyvale, California. I had a year left of College at Westwood and I was hired as a Channel Support Specialist. I traveled around Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan and I helped customers implement GPS in their company and supported the Sprint sales team with any questions they had positioning the software and solution.

When I got hired out of college in 2005 George Bush Jr. was president and the popular cell phones were the Blackberry, the Motorola RAZR and the Palm Pilot, this was 2 years before the debut of the iPhone. Many phones did not have GPS in them and they had a browser icon we would rarely if ever use.

In August of 2008 I was promoted to manager of the Enterprise Accounts Team, to this day it was one of my proudest accomplishments. I was able to accept the job and didn't have to relocate to California, I loved traveling back and forth but I did not want to sell my house in Illinois & reside in California, so I just commuted as often as I was needed. I LOVED flying into San Jose, staying for a few days and then flying home.

April of 2012 I got hired at Sprint and left TeleNav after 7 years. It was hard to leave, but working at Sprint I would stay in touch with many of the people at the GPS company in California. In November of 2013 I got Engineer of the Year and I am very proud of that accomplishment.

Over the last 10 years I have had some amazing experiences, I learned a LOT personally and professionally, I took some chances and I was stretched outside my comfort zone many times; but I am learning that is the only true way we are truly going to Grow.

I met some Great people and I was able to see some pretty COOL things along the way. Here are some of the pictures I took over the last 10 years, I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

I met some amazing people along the way.

We went to San Francisco and saw the Golden Gate Bridge, Las Vegas many times & went on the "giant Drop" on top of the Stratosphere.
I flew to Canada with Blackberry and went to Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Nova Scotia in Halifax.
My absolute favorite trip was to Victoria Canada after taking a ferry from Vancouver just north of Seattle.
I flew back and forth to California many times and attended Management training where I met a longtime friend Phil Dixon.
Annual Sales Kickoff Meetings in California, go karting and catching a few ball games.
Meeting John Walsh at a Prepared and Readiness event in Chicago after hurricane Katrina.
Trip to DC with Carl, Mark and Scotty seeing the Lincoln Monument, one of the best trips I have ever been on to this day.
Japenese Steak House with the team I managed eating Hibachi and enjoying some down time after work.
Ping Pong in the office and picking up Danny in the Purple Eclipse convertible on his first day.
Driving to Detroit and Windsor, Canada for the first time.
Many drives to St. Louis and visiting my friend Anna while she went to school in St. Louis and saw the Arch.
Coney Island with Chris and Scotty, we ate at Nathan's hot dogs and went on the roller coasters.
LA with Sandra and changing my flight to stay a few extra days getting work done but also getting my first tour of Southern California.
Marketing meetings in Kirkland, Washington outside of Seattle.
I ate Sushi for the first time and even ate the entire anemone bean , not till years later did I learn the proper way to eat anemone beans.
I saw the Arch in St. Louis, Niagara Falls on the Canadian side,
Going Public with TeleNav after years and years of hard work!
Surprise party for Gayle and Mike as they retired + got promoted. Congrats to them.
Watching Wolf of Wallstreet and Boiler Room with Nick and the Team in Oakbrook.
Meetings with Softbank in Japan at 6pm (in the US) because it was 7am there.
Getting a company car, first the Explorer and then the Ford Fusion.
Wrestling with Kyle at his MMA class he teaches.
Comedy club with Logan, Nick and Nick + Rager in Rosemont.
Ping Pong in the Oakbrook office and Fantasy football with the Team.
Helping Gayle as she ran out of gas driving home from Bloomington.
Cleaning up the Oakbrook Picnic area 3 years in a row then BBQ'ing after and playing softball.
Pickup games of Basketball Managers vs. Reps, so far we've lost all 3 times and the Rep's have won each time.
I joined a Men's group hosted by Don and a few others at work and we meet once a month.
We had a beer at the Haufbrauer House & Toby Keith's bar in Rosemont.
I took a trip to our company Headquarters in Overland Park, KC and had great BBQ.
I've done dozens of Trade Shows and spoke in front of over 100 people, who would have thought 10 years ago I would be speaking in-front of CEO's, Police officers, Fireman and other professional business Men and Woman?
Sushi at Dao many many times with the team in Oakbrook.
Japanese Steak house celebrating a good year with Mike and the team, Pinstripes with the team bowling.
Gibson's Steakhouse with Eric after I won a $100 bet, thanks for the Steak Buddy.
Chili Cook-off with my Dad & Eric for the Make a Wish foundation.
We went to many Cubs games as a team & with co-workers, Go Cubbies.
Many Thanksgiving team lunches in Rosemont, we have a lot to be Thankful for.
We went to the Safe-house in Milwaukee Wisconsin, a bar which you need a secret password to get IN the place.

I stopped and smelled the Roses...

Some Gems in Black & White.

Rick & Dominic, thank you for having the confidence in me and bringing me to Sprint for the past 3 1/2 years, I enjoy working with you and you are such a positive influence in my career.

Thank you "TeleNav Tim" for giving me a chance 10 years ago, because that chance I was able to experience, learn and grow so much personally and professionally.

Cheers and thank you three for being such great friends and mentors.

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