3 Reasons I left Corporate to Become the Data Dude

All my network seems to want to know why I just exchanged my corporate job for self-employment as a data consultant. The answer is, unfortunately, complicated, but I'll give it a shot.

TL;DR - I love working with data, I have a unique skill for it, and it's time to use that skill to do good in the world.

1) I love working with data.

I've loved it since my boss first taught me to use a spreadsheet when I was 16. I can't explain it. I might have inherited it from my father. Shout out to the Data Dude's dad, Michael Lloyd 💛, who was always using spreadsheets for stuff while I was growing up.

Data is just intrinsically fun to me! Especially when you are the first to discover an insight in a business because of it. So cool!

In a corporate environment you get to play with a lot of data, but too long working on one data set can get kind of boring. I enjoy the challenge of "new." Consulting will give me lots of new datasets to dive into.

2) I have a unique skill.

I've either had a hand in or single-handedly built 4 data platforms from scratch using a variety of tools in the modern data stack. I've built them for organizations of 300+, 1,500+, and 10,000+ people and they have paid me hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to do it.

I'm not sure a lot of other data engineers in today's market can say that.

I ran a tech startup in the medical space as the de facto CEO for years. This gave me two other skill sets: product management and systems implementation. We raised a few million in grant and seed funding. I hired the engineering team. I helped design the software and test it in the market as the company's face to customers. I also implemented the quality management system and the information security management system to comply with US and EU regulations.

I'm confident almost 0 other data engineers can say that.

Put that all together and you have a uniquely skilled data engineer who can both build data platforms and implement the necessary procedures and systems into businesses that ensure the business gets results from that platform.

So, companies need who I am, especially SaaS businesses.

My offer is good. I've already learned the hard lessons, so what I deliver now is the distilled version and will deliver way more value than I ask for in fees.

Even so, I think I can both deliver and capture more value than what I can under a single corporate employer because they will cap me. Being self employed, I have unlimited earning potential.

3) I'm going to pay it forward.

Truth be told, this is just the first step in a far larger plan.

To be clear, I don't think I'm ever going to leave data management consulting, but becoming the Data Dude is my first step toward living my principle of putting my money where my mouth is. Let me explain.

I'm engaged in a larger effort to put together a community that will help disadvantaged people break through the barriers holding them back in life. I firmly believe entrepreneurship is the right tool to help these individuals and families into a thriving life. This is, I feel, my calling in life.

The vast majority of the money I will make as the Data Dude will eventually go to helping these disadvantaged people. I don't live extravagantly (much to the chagrin of my children). I'm just not in to luxury even though I could be.

But before I can do any of this powerful contribution to society, I have to live through the struggles these people face day in and day out and overcome them. So I need to put my entire livelihood on the line and get my own business to be successful first, just like they will have to do. That is "putting my money where my mouth is."

Any doubters or skeptics to this plan really aren't impacting me as negatively as they are the weak and defenseless people I will help in the future. The less success I have now will limit the number of people I can help later.

I'm not saying all this because I want people to think of me as a good guy. I don't really care what other people think about me. I'll be my own judge.

I'm saying all this because I honestly believe it and it is the motivation for this change. Staying in a nice, secure corporate job does not allow the same growth for me or my community, present or future.

By the way, this is not a knock on any of my former employers. Acquia, Widen, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, OptoQuest, the Cleveland Clinic were all great to me and I loved and appreciated every moment and opportunity they and my colleagues at those companies gave me. They had a large part in making me who I am today, so I'm very grateful for them. But now ...

It's time to pay it forward!