You asked for it, you got it.

I'm a native of San Francisco. Growing up in San Mateo I did the rock-band thing and got into my fair share of trouble. I went to college at the University of Houston majoring in fraternity (SAE). I went to Houston to live near my dad and get away from 'home', while still having the comforts of 'home'. (I come from the normal broken home). I was a bit of a fish out of water. I was a California 'rocker', long-hair, attitude, computer-science major, joining a button-down, straight-laced, no facial hair fraternity. It's where I learned to cut my hair, drink from a beer bong, love Ralph Lauren, pink shirts and Scotch. Can you say preppy. It was a great experience, a much better environment for learning the real world than school. I got an A in Frat and managed to pay attention in class.

School was slow, unchallenging, but I loved computers. After I was thrown out of the dorms (don't ask, but my frat bothers helped) work started to look good. I was a fish in water. I loved developing real software. This was real stuff and fun. My first real computer programming job (I was still in school) was building economic modeling software for oil reserves. Sound impressive?. Basically predicting what an oil well was worth over time so people could buy and sell them. Needless to say, most of the market predictions were wrong. I think I single handily caused the oil industry bust - OK maybe the Arabs helped.

What I really wanted to do was snow ski and backpack. Stuff I did as a kid in California, but hard to accomplish in Texas - So off to Colorado I go. I get the company to transfer me and my boss there - quite a trick to talk him into it. Colorado was great. skiing in the winter, hiking and fishing in the summer. I think I hiked and jeeped every trail in Colorado. I love Rocky Mountain National Park. Anyway, life was great. My career was great. Promoted every year until I was managing a small R&D group. Not bad for a 27 year old.

Change is in the air. I had great hair, look good in a tie and could speak clearly - qualities desired in sales and marketing. I loved the idea of sales, so off I go to carry a bag (sort of) for a Database Software Company (Ingres Who?).This was a great move - Money, prestige, power (OK no power), but I was always a top performer. The golden streak continues.

I loved Colorado, but I needed to be home (family, friends, no show shovels). So back to California I go. It is Silicon Valley, home of opportunity and stock options. Career going gang-busters, as always. But now I'm Product Manager for the company's hottest product.

I go certifiably-mad. First it's scuba diving certification. A friend gets me into it while I'm still in Colorado. I go crazy. I gotta dive-dive-dive. I take all of the training ending up as a Master Scuba Diver. I'm a Dive Stud. Next it's sailing, a childhood activity, but I got to have more. (Actually, it help push me from Colorado - not much sailing there except in circles. And diving in lakes? Yuck. you've seen one crawdad, you have seen them all). My goal was to sail around the world. I get certified to the hilt - they even let me skipper big expensive boats. (I wonder who is really mad). Anyway, not enough, I gotta have my own hole in the water. Let me tell you. Nobody stays rich owning these things. Still I love it. Still working on the round-the-world thing. (But I did Mexico for a season.!)