Happy Birthday USMC

10 11 2019

Today, November 10th, 2019 is the 244th birthday of the United States Marine Corps (USMC). I was in the Marine Corps from April 1969 to April 1973. In looking back, I can truly say that these were important formative years for me and I’m proud to have served my part.

I met some great people and a few truly unique characters to be sure. Our son Eddie was named after Eddie Hunt III, the son of a Master Gunnery Sargent Dorine and I knew when we were stationed in Kaneohe, Hawaii. Mr. and Mrs. Hunt became close friends and we had some great experiences with them during our first two years of marriage.

Happy Birthday Marine Corps!





MDE Enterprises, Inc.

26 04 2019

I created my company, MDE Enterprises, Inc. on September 1, 2000. In the beginning, I didn’t know what I really wanted to do other than I wanted to do something with the Internet and probably avoid consulting work.

At the very start, we were a consulting company with a 3-month contract with my last company where I had been their CIO. This eventually went for 11 months before we parted ways for good. It was good revenue for us in the beginning and allowed me to focus on developing the real MDE company for the future.

During this first year, I decided to write a book and try to sell it on the Internet. So, What To Look For in a CIO was written. Mid-way in the development of this book, it dawned upon me that I really needed to write a series of books to discuss how to do things that an IT manager needs to be able to do to achieve success.

What happened was that I had an eye-opener, , , what I needed to do was to do what I had been doing for my entire career, , , teach others how to manage an IT organization successfully.

I still remember doing the “all nighter” when I drafted the Table of Contents of 9 more books that I thought I needed to write. All of a sudden, I have an immediate road map and I’ve sort of settled into what would become my company’s mission, “helping IT managers of the world achieve more success“.

After a year, I completed the last of the 10 books I had set out to write. Once completed, I embarked immediately on creating the IT Manager ToolKit to give to “early buyers” of my full series of books. After completing the 2nd book, IT Management-101: fundamentals to achieve more, I created a web page and started selling the entire series (10 e-books) for $179.00.

Yep, I started selling all ten books even though only two of them were completed. What was amazing is that by the time I completed all ten (about 10 months later), I had sold 104 sets of the unfinished full series. I call these people “early buyers”.

When I completed the IT Manager ToolKit, I sent them all an email message with a download link for a free ToolKit, something I hadn’t envisioned creating until I was working on the 8th book.

I gave them more than what they paid for because of the good faith and trust they had placed with me. It felt really good.

In addition, I immediately increased the price of the full series of e-books including the ToolKit to $279.00 which is what it is today, 17 years later.

I went on to write 5 more books and develop a considerable amount of training that has taken me around the world, , , posts for a later date. Nine years after publishing the full series of 10 books, I rewrote them and changed the covers to reflect that they are all part of a series.

The “full series” of the Practical IT Manager books

 

 





LCHS Class of 1967 – 50-Year Reunion

17 09 2017


Click on the image above to watch video

Our 50th Lewis County High School Class Reunion – class photo





LCHS – 1967 Class Reunion Skit

25 02 2017

Get ready for a few laughs. Our 45th High School Reunion skit was a real winner. We are preparing an even bigger event for our 50th in September 2017.

 





Eddie on the golf cart

3 01 2015

Here are a couple of photos of Eddie Sisco on golf carts. One of them is on the cover of a book I created titled “Eddie Sisco”. CLICK HERE to view it.

album_eddieTaken in 2005 at Graymere CC

P001112Taken with Mom at Horseshoe Bend CC in 2001





Time for a career change

15 12 2013

career-3It was September 1, 2000, , , my 51st birthday and a day that changed my life forever.

I walked into my CEO’s office and told him that I planned to leave the company and wanted to transition in a way that would create a win-win for both of us.

We agreed to a 6-month contract that would help us both make the transition a positive one. This contract would get extended twice and run 13 months before we finally parted ways.

I had been considering the idea of creating a company and working for myself for some time. This isn’t something you do haphazardly and without considerable thought, , , or at least I don’t.

So, , , on September 1, 2000, , , MDE Enterprises was born, , , sort of.

I still wasn’t sure what MDE would do, , , i.e., what products or services we would sell. Initially, the company was a consulting company because most of the revenue came from the contract with my former company our first year.

What I did know in the early days of the company was that I did not want to be a traditional consulting company. I didn’t want to have to “work an hour to be paid an hour”, , , plus the travel and the seemingly constant need to be in marketing mode to insure you have contracts lined up was unappealing.

I’ve never looked back even though there have been times when the going was difficult and at least once when I thought I might have to go work for another company again.

In future posts I’ll chronicle some of the key events that have allowed us to run a successful small company for 13 years that “helps IT managers of the world achieve more success”.

The last 13 years have been an amazing ride full of interesting coincidences, travel, and being able to do things that helps many around the world achieve more success.








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