Welcome to mikesisco.com

For more than 20 years I managed IT organizations in the corporate world; most of it at a CIO level. In 2000, I left my corporate role and started MDE Enterprises, Inc. with a mission of “helping IT managers of the world achieve more success”.

To achieve this mission, we provide the best IT manager training and support resources in the world. Thousands of IT managers use my practical processes and tools to achieve more™ success.

At mikesisco.com I plan to share some of the personal and lighter sides of my life, travels, experiences, and life changing events that led and contributed to my career and who I am.

I will also deliver monthly Practical IT Manager Newsletters and other articles, tools and insights targeted to help an IT manager achieve more success. This after all, is what I’m all about, ‘helping IT managers of the world achieve more™ success”.

The BLOG is on the Home Page of this site and includes many of my most memorable events, , , some are funny, many are hopefully interesting, and a few are even painful. Posts are written randomly and categorized into the key phases of my life.

WHY DO I SHARE PERSONAL INFORMATION?

It’s simple, many of my IT manager students and followers have indicated they want to know more about me and to learn from my experiences. A BLOG with my name on it is one of the best ways to achieve these goals.

Mike Sisco, , , who am I?

I have had a very successful marriage of 49 years, a highly successful IT manager and CIO career of more than 20 years in the corporate world, and a truly rewarding and successful entrepreneur experience as a writer, trainer, coach, and consultant for more than 20 years after my “corporate life”. Helping thousands of IT managers around the world achieve more success has been tremendously gratifying both personally and professionally.

I’ve also experienced failure, heartache and deep depression after losing my wife in 2020. It is only now after 3 years of Dorine passing that I’m able to focus and begin again my mission of helping IT managers achieve more success. I still have lots to contribute in this regard.

In 2023 as I update this page, I am 74 years old. In one perspective, Mike is an “OLD MAN”. Most would be right in thinking that. However, another perspective might be that Mike is a man who has experienced many things and has knowledge that could be worth tapping into.

I’ve been in IT since 1969, more than 50 years. I’ve seen a lot and continue to be amazed at how much our technologies improve and make our lives better. What a great time to be alive!

I’m also amazed at how IT managers continue to struggle for the same reasons we did 30 years ago.

In the BLOG posts, you will receive articles to help you be a more successful IT manager. You will also receive posts that tell you about a life experience that I think is worth sharing, , , hopefully you will think so as well. Some of these experiences will be from my formative years, some from my professional days, and some even from more recent time as I ponder the past and the future.

And some, , , just because I want to share them, , , most will be added to give you an idea or something to help you be more successful.

I’ll categorize each post so you can focus in on the part that interests you most by selecting that particular category in the CATEGORY section in the right-hand column.

To get you started, here are just a few highlights of my life and career in chronological sequence:

• 1949 – 1967 – Growing up in Hohenwald, TN was like living in Mayberry or The Wonder Years, , , so much fun.
• 1967 – First chair trumpet in band, President of the Band.
• 1968 – Won the Hohenwald Golf Club Championship.
• 1968 – Made a Double Eagle with a hole-in-one on a par-4 in the Club Championship, , , 2nd rarest feat in golf.
• 1968 – Played golf for Martin College and made the All Conference Golf Team.
• 1969 – Was kicked out of school in my 2nd year of college, , , I lacked maturity and needed to grow up.
• 1969 – Joined the US Marine Corps, , , one of the best things to “kick me into gear”.
• 1970-1971 – Played on the Hawaii Marine Corps Golf Team.
• 1970 – Witnessed a second Double Eagle with Joe Capri on #7 at Kaneohe MCB Golf Club.
• 1970 – Married my best friend, Dorine Louque, , , she continued to be my best friend and support for 50 years. What a great girl I married! CLICK HERE to see my tribute to her on this site.
• 1971 – 1972 – We spent our first year of marriage in Hawaii where I was stationed at Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Base, , , it was great. We lived in Waikiki.
• 1972 – 1973 – Stationed at Camp Lejeune where I became the Operations Chief responsible for 3 data processing units. It was my first real IT management experience.
• 1974 – 1976 – Played golf for UT Martin and made the All Conference team in 1975.
• 1976 – A great week – took my last final exam at UT Martin on Monday, Eddie Sisco was born on Tuesday, and IBM called to make me an offer on Wednesday. What great planners we are. 🙂
• 1976 – Graduated from the University of Tennessee at Martin with degrees in Accounting and Business Administration.
• 1976 – Hired by IBM in Jackson, MS where I developed key professional skills and learned to “work hard and play hard”.
• 1977 – Won an IBM Regional Manager’s Award when I installed 13 systems in 1 year, most ever for an IBM Systems Engineer in that office.
• 1977-1981 – Bryan Hathcock, Charles Carrol, Jim Cockerham and others were great mentors at IBM. Jim and Charlie drank Johnny Walker Red scotch so this is when I acquired a taste for scotch.
• 1981 – Joined BDS, Inc. and began my IT manager and CIO career.
• 1983 – Joined HBO & Company and moved to Atlanta where we would live for 20 years. HBO was one of my favorite companies.
• 1983-1989 – Major career advances at HBO, , , from Manager to Senior VP where I ended up with national responsibility for all legacy systems of IFAS, MEDPRO, and GALAXY systems plus the Eastern US Installation and Support of new STAR technologies.
• 1986-1989 – IFAS was my favorite group where we had significant achievements, lots of fun and hard work. We turned a $6mil programming support services group from a $2mil loss to a $2mil profit in 2 years while positioning the organization to migrate clients to HBO’s new STAR SYSTEMS. This led to me getting more responsibility.
• 1987 – Picked up responsibility for the GALAXY Organization – got it profitable for the first time.
• 1990 – Joined Medaphis Corporation where we grew a small $30-million company to over $700 million in 5 1/2 years by acquiring more than 35 companies.
• 1992 – Eddie has a major golf year winning 11 junior golf tournaments.
• 1993 – On January 2nd, Eddie has a single car accident and suffers a traumatic brain injury, something that changes all our lives forever.
• 1999 – Joined US Healthworks in October, , , just before Y2K. This would be my last company to work for someone else.
• 2000 – Started MDE Enterprises, Inc. on September 1st (my birthday) with a simple mission of, “helping IT managers of the world achieve more success“.
• 2000-2002 — wrote 10 IT manager books, over 150 articles and published an IT Manager ToolKit.
• 2001 – Published the first Practical IT Manager Newsletter.
• 2002 – Started selling IT manager books and tools from my new web site.
• 2003 – Moved “back home” to Middle Tennessee – Columbia is just 45 minutes away from Hohenwald where Dorine and I grew up.
• 2003 – Delivered the first IT Manager Institute with 3 students, , , Edward Makwaia flew in from Tanzania Africa. My Institute classes immediately have an international component.
• 2005 – Developed the ITBMC Certification (IT Business Manager Certification) in a joint venture with Belmont University. Belmont hosts several  IT Manager Institute classes.
• 2005 – Delivered the first IT Manager Institutes outside the US – included Aruba #7, Curacao #10, Canada #12 and South Africa #14.
• 2007 – Purchased a 100-year old camp on Buffalo River and named it Camp Liberty because of the 9-ft Statue of Liberty in the front yard that looks up the river.
• 2008 – Delivered the first IT Manager Institute in Dubai, #29. This venue would become an important location  for the program.
• 2009 – Delivered the first IT Manager Institute in Nigeria, #35.
• 2009 – Announced the IT Manager Institute SELF STUDY to reach more IT managers in the world and to offer a lower cost option.
• 2012 – Delivered the first IT Manager Institute by webinar, #50.
• 2013 – Published my 15th book, 21 Secrets Every IT Manager Should MUST Know. Announced it at the 56th IT Manager Institute in Dubai.
  
• 2014 – Delivered the first IT Manager Institute in Bahrain, #67.
• 2016 – Delivered the 18th IT Manager Institute in Dubai, #74 (lots of long trips and frequent flyer points – 7,500 miles and a 14-hour non-stop flight from Atlanta to Dubai).
• 2016 – Delivered the first IT Manager Institute in Ghana, #75.
• 2020 – On July 29th we lost Dorine after a month-long battle with COVID. She was my best friend and wife of almost 50 years. This was difficult and I didn’t work for three years.
• 2023 – Refocusing my thoughts and approach to MDE’s business mission. Hope to continue in efforts of “helping IT managers of the world achieve more success”.

Thank you for visiting my mikesisco.com BLOG and web site. Be sure to subscribe using the SUBSCRIBE option in the upper right portion of the site to receive email messages of all my new posts, tools and other items I plan to share to help IT managers achieve more success.

 

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