Over the years, readers have followed the challenges and successes of my niece, Christa Brelsford. Today, I am happy that I can report success, and there is a lesson learned for all of us in the SMB IT Pro community experiencing “disruption” in our profession. Stick with me and think about this the next time you complain that “they took away Small Business Server.”
Pic 1. Christa Brelsford won gold at the IFSC Paraclimbing World Championship - Gijon (ESP) 2014 this past weekend.
Christa was impacted by the Haitian earthquake in January 2010, where she was a volunteer on break from her graduate program. She and her brother Julian were teaching English to local Haitians. The earthquake hit unexpectedly and Christa was trapped by falling debris and the lower part of her right leg was crushed. The locals assisted in extricating her and travelled by motorcycle to the Sri Lakin diplomatic outpost and clinic. She received care – a cheery life saver was literally her anesthesia to cope with the pain, but at this point she was in shock. The fog of war kicks in at this point but apparently the Alaska congressional delegation quickly worked with the State Department to coordinate Christa’s life-saving recue. She was the first American evacuated from Haiti and rushed to Miami for emergency surgery aboard the donated Gulfstream jet from the owner of the NBA’s Miami Heat. Her life was saved and she received significant worldwide publicity. Here is her Today Show interview with Matt Lauer:
Fast forward the movie to this weekend. In the past six months, Christa has become a Doctor, had a healthy baby boy, and is now world champion in the sport of climbing. I share this with you as a proud uncle (of course) but also to encourage you to have the same look in the mirror I did over the weekend. With the changes in SMB technology, I’m motivated to WIN the transition war to hybrid and cloud and not concern myself with the loss of Small Business Server. You can join me for that “invest forward” conversation at my fall conference (Sept 26-28, Microsoft Redmond, fall2014.smbnation.com) and also as part of the conversation at www.o365nation.com.
See ya on the other side!
