I recently read an article asking the question whether or not we downplay the role that luck plays in our lives and I immediately thought of the PASS Summit.
Obscenely Lucky
I am, quite frankly, embarrassingly, obscenely, stupidly lucky.
I just am.
I married WAY over my head. I stumbled into an amazing career. I can safely say that I’ve arrived where I am through a great amount of luck. I am quite grateful for it all too. I will only suggest a single point of agency on my part that has put me in this wonderful situation.
I showed up.
PASS Summit 2005
I went to the PASS Summit in 2005 in Grapevine. Mostly, I attended sessions and then went back to my hotel. However, one night, after talking to a vendor, I scored an invitation to their private party. There I bumped into a few people who were volunteering for PASS. These were smart, wonderful people, doing cool stuff. I desperately wanted to be one of them, so I volunteered for PASS.
The rest, and there’s a lot of rest, is history.
Let’s Talk Luck
The biggest point about luck is that if you’re not in the right spot, at the right time, luck won’t strike. You have to go where the luck is. You have to seek it out. Luck may find you, but only if you’re in places where luck can occur. I’m telling you now, luck occurs at PASS Summit.
Don’t believe me? Fine. Talk to previous attendees. I can bring up example after example of people who have new, wonderful jobs because they went to Summit. They went, they left their hotel room and engaged with the people around them and luck was able to arrive. There are other attendees who have saved their organization millions (I’ve heard dollars, pounds & euros) because of something they learned in a session, or a chat with the Microsoft engineers, or even a hallway chat with other attendees.
You need to go right now and register for the PASS Summit so that you give luck that opportunity. This event is filled with movers and shakers. It represents boundless opportunity. If you want to win the lottery, you have to play. If you want to step your career forward, you have to go where the opportunities lie in order to make that happen.
The PASS Summit is that place.
Please, come and see me at PASS Summit. Show up. Engage. Talk to people. Talk to me (I’m putting myself out there as much as possible in order catch another lightning strike). You too can get lucky. Even if you don’t, you’ll have learned valuable information from some of the best speakers in the industry. You cannot lose on this bet.
A Little Incentive
I have a little incentive for you. If you register for Summit and use this code, REFGF150, you’ll save $150.
What are you waiting for. Click here right now and register.
Grant, so you were at TX too eh? I thought that was 2006, but apparently not, 2005. My two cents on same expereince – https://curiousaboutdata.com/2017/09/04/15-years-of-summit/
Look forward to catching up soon, enjoy Germany.
Hey Mala,
I saw that blog post. It’s an excellent discussion of what this is all about. I’ve added it to my distributions so it’ll get tweeted & faced & inlinked shortly. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you.
I was at the Dallas-area Summit too, my first one. I remember being mostly a loner at that event, but I was inspired by what I saw to get involved in the community.
I’m glad you did.
I was at the Grapevine Summit as well – “allowed” to go with the condition that I was constantly available. (So if any of you remember the poor soul who constantly had his laptop out in each and every session – that was probably me.) I had no idea what I was doing in attending the Summit and was local so just went home each day afterwards. I’ve learned a bit since then, but still tend to want quieter areas to chat rather than noisy venues. I’ve also learned that it’s okay to skip sessions in order to chat w/ people, vendors, or just sit through chalk talks to get answers to more pressing questions. Of course, buying the sessions on DVD/flash drive is a given to make up for not attending everything. 🙂
All excellent points.
Agreed on the people there, for my first summit, I’m still stunned at the outpouring of welcome I felt from the first minute walking in the door. Didn’t get a chance to shake your hand, but I guess I just need to keep coming to the events until I do 🙂
I’ve been lucky enough to find amazing people online who led me to the right path. Looking for ways to volunteer locally and putting together my first abstract – solely based on the fact that I want/need to hang out with these amazing people more. Thank you for channeling all of your luck back to us!!
Darn Matt, I’m sorry. We’ll have to make a point of it next time.