Man....that is the best story so far....and it really does explain a lot. I had a special "Dave Watts" folder in my outlook when I participated heavily in CF-Talk....saved everything he wrote into that folder...twas gold. If I was still on CF-Talk, i'd definitely have an "Adam Churvis" folder....
On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 9:11 AM, Adam Churvis < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Life's circumstances and the decisions demanded by them got me into this. > > My main love was weapon design, but it was rarified air back in 1979 and > nobody would listen to some punk kid who wanted to build the next > generation > of military assault weapons out of Dupont Zytel reinforced with mineral > and > glass fillers. I had a bullpup design that put significantly more > non-metal > material into the weapon than the Steyr AUG (the exotic-looking rifle the > guy tried to kill Bruce Willis with in the final scene of Die Hard), > floated > if dropped in water, could be cleaned using waste water, was usable from > inside a vehicle, was switchable from right-side to left-side ejection, > etc. > So we looked into financing and building our own factory. > > Then David was on his way, and I had a family to consider, which meant as > little risk as possible. So my mother and I started a word processing > service bureau instead, and it took off. Soon after I got divorced and > won > full custody of David. When David was four I had a disagreement with my > mother over the business, and I was out. I had fifty bucks and David, and > nothing else. > > One of my word processing clients was a person from the company that did > all > the ad work for Domino's Pizza. She had lots of contacts within > Coca-Cola, > and I landed a job there through a temp agency. I went right to work > analyzing and solving problems, using what I had learned about programming > FORTRAN at Georgia Tech and fighting CPM and DOS in the word processing > service bureau. > > After a year or so I hung out my shingle, took David in one hand and an > almost empty checkbook in the other, and paddled like crazy for the next > twenty years. > > Those of you who weren't there back in the day won't fully understand what > it took to just make computer-related things reliably work in a production > environment, but the knowledge gained in doing that earned me experience I > couldn't have learned anywhere else. Soon I was like "Bring it on, > bitch!" > to every technical challenge, every computer language. Teaching myself > (training back then was an expensive joke) gave me an edge in training > others how to do the same, and how to setup systems that replicated expert > knowledge. > > So while my friends were building lots of simpler systems that did basic > utilitarian tasks, I started building a small number of really complex > systems that integrated all those business tasks into a single system. > That's where I gained a love and respect for process. > > Then came the web, and the HTTP protocol, and my world was dumped right on > its ear. I went from sophisticated design environments (for the day) like > PowerBuilder and VB4 to Notepad and then HomeSite with this new language > called ColdFusion. > > So I took my experience with database design and tuning to ColdFusion, and > started busting out of its tiny envelope of what it could and couldn't do. > I joined a CFUG and started lecturing on advanced topics, turned that into > advanced ColdFusion training, and only worked on the more complicated > business systems offered to us. > > David had been programming since he was 8, and did his first professional > paying work at 10, and by the time he was 15 he was spending his spare > time > in the business, plying his talents. On his 16th birthday he quit school > and joined the business full time, and that gave us the ability to be a > real > company and not a "Me, Inc." Lisa joined two years ago to ply her MBA, > and > now we have the entire range of operational services under one roof, from > giving a business the ability to more efficiently produce dollars to > accounting for them. > > We've been really pushing the envelope for the past few years, and we can > do > some amazing things these days. I'm in the process of packaging all our > testing and analysis services into a single comprehensive package, and > it's > the most exciting thing I've ever done. We're also gearing up to hire > some > top talent soon. I have a fresh reason to be excited about this business > after 22 years. > > Respectfully, > > Adam Phillip Churvis > President > Productivity Enhancement > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:259511 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
