As my first post on this blog, I should probably dig into a recent packet capture session and talk about how I found a firewall bug that was sending ARP requests on a L2 Bridge out the wrong interface, but I had the great opportunity to attend the first Big Omaha conference this week in Omaha, NE and wanted to start off with a few post conference thoughts.

For me, the main takeaway was further justification of an idea I already believed in, that the best way to advance yourself in life, professionally and personally, is to be true to who you are.  There are so many ways to be successful, but the only one that will work for you is to follow the one that matches your thinking and your personality.  Everything else will follow behind that.

One of the more interesting themes that ran throughout the conference was the meaning of certain words, failure, loser, entrepreneur, and a few others I think. It started right from the get go when Jason Fried @ 37signals.com opened the conference by walking on stage and saying, “I hate that people think they have to fail first to succeed later.”  His main point was to focus on repeating successes instead of trying to alter your actions from past failures to see if it works better the next time.

I thought it was great commentary.  I likened it to Tiger Woods, or LeBron James.  The most dominant athletes in the world continue to dominate because when they go up for a shot, or line up a putt, they are 100% sure it’s going in because the only thing in their head is the last make they had in the exact same scenario.  Misses, or trying something different than the last miss, don’t take up any room in their thought process.  In their head its a guaranteed make.

It’s a great mentality to carry with you everywhere in life.  Find your successes in life and repeat.

I hear the video from the conference will be online soon, I’ll probably post a few clips here as soon as it is.

Oh, and welcome to /Good/Bad/Tech