Beta stages are always special and the Siteimp beta is a little more special because I'm working with old friends who I went to University with. We finished our degrees almost two decades ago, started as very different people and our careers took us in many different directions. They were all original Siteimp clients so have been part of the ride for the last 4.5 years and have watched it grow from reports that I curate to data they can curate on their own.
But while I am learning a lot about how I think through products, this has also been a great chance to reminisce about my time in University. I got so nostalgic that I even took my kid on a tour of the U of R yesterday.
My academic career, much like my career, doesn't make sense if you only consider it linearly. I briefly majored in Computer Science in the mid 90s before doing three years of an Accounting degree and even starting an accounting club. Then I took six years off, started a few businesses and worked in some jobs I never thought I would be able to handle. I learned a lot about myself and learned that while product was something of a talent, marketing was totally baffling to me. So after six years away from school in the real world, I went back to finish a marketing degree. What was supposed to take three semesters ended up taking three years as I got deep into cognitive psychology. I was actually still working on an Honours in cognitive psychology when I finished my business degree.
But my convocation changed everything. There was something really special about being up there on the stage after a twelve year educational odyssey. And I decided that I was fully incubated. My dreams of doing a PhD in psychology ended on that stage. Not that there was anything wrong with graduate school or becoming a professor. But I didn't really see how that career would unfold whereas I saw perfectly how a career in technology could unfold. Heck, I had put myself through school largely through working within tech and had even started importing and reselling surveillance cameras with a colleague. Business was already a part of me, but the whole political side of academia and of getting tenure were totally foreign to me.
And so, two days after I convocated, I dropped out. My Honours advisor was especially proud of me. He told me that he had worried that I was getting stuck in school without a clear plan for a career, especially when he foresaw a crisis in academia where tenure track would become rare. And then, I went all in on my camera company. It's been almost two decades and I don't do anything with vision, but it was the right decision. And business school blessed me with a network, plus some excellent friends. It all worked out.