TITLE: Celebrating a Friend's Success
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: November 20, 2016 10:17 AM
DESC:
-----
BODY:
Last week, I read
a blog entry
by Ben Thompson that said Influence lives at intersections.
Thompson was echoing a comment about Daniel Kahneman's career:
"Intellectual influence is the ability to dissolve disciplinary
boundaries." These were timely references for my week.
On Friday night, I had the pleasure of attending the Heritage
Honours Awards, an annual awards dinner hosted by my university's
alumni association. One of our alumni,
Wade Arnold,
received the Young Alumni Award for demonstrated success early
in a career. I mentioned Wade in
a blog entry
several years ago, when he and I spoke together at a seminar on
interactive digital technologies. That day, Wade talked about
intersections:
It is difficult to be the best at any one thing, but if you are
very good at two or three or five, then you can be the best in
a particular market niche. The power of the intersection.
Wade built his company,
Banno,
by becoming very good at several things, including functional
programming, computing infrastructure, web development, mobile
development, and financial technology. He was foresightful and
lucky enough to develop this combination of strengths before most
other people did. Most important, though, he worked really hard
to build his company: a company that people wanted to work with,
and a company that people wanted to work for. As a result, he was
able to grow a successful start-up in a small university town in
the middle of the country.
It's been a delight for me to know Wade all these years and watch
him do his thing. I'll bet he has some interesting ideas in store
for the future.
The dinner also provided me with some unexpected feelings. Several
times over the course of the evening, someone said, "Dr. Wallingford
-- I feel like I know you." I had the pleasure of meeting Wade's
parents, who said kind things about my influence on their son. Even
his nine-year-old son said, "My dad was talking about you in the
car on the drive over." No one was confused about whom we were
there to honor Friday night, about who had done the considerable
work to build himself into an admirable man and founder. That was
all Wade. But my experience that night is a small reminder to all
you teachers out there: you do have an effect on people. It was
certainly a welcome reminder for me at the end of a trying semester.
-----
