Wow. I can’t believe it has been 10 years since MQ Visual Edit was officially launched as a commercial product. As they say, “we have come a long way baby!”

Back in 2001, when I was laid off from Candle as a traveling MQ consultant, I just figured I would continue being an MQ consultant but on my own.

I’m a firm believer in the Chaos theory (see the Jurassic Park movie for more details). It is really weird how a random events can set you on a completely different path.

(1) My first contract as an independent contractor was on a large logistic project doing Mercator (data transformation) and MQ work. The manager absolutely refused to purchase an MQ tool that would allow me to view messages in a queue. Here is one of those “cut your nose off to spite your face” things. The company was paying me a fat hourly rate but each week I was wasting hours and hours trying to determine if the transformed data in the queue was correct.

After several months of this nonsense, I got fed up and wrote (on my own time) a very simply Java/Swing application to view the messages in the queue. All of a sudden, other people on the project wanted a copy of the simple tool. I mentioned it to a couple of colleagues/friends and they want a copy too. With all this interest, I thought maybe I should create a real product, hence, in mid-2002, I launched a ‘beta program’ for a new thing called MQ Visual Edit and on November 1, 2003 it became a GA product (v1.0.0).

(2) Mid-2004, I received an email, completely out of the blue, from someone on the MQ ListServer. He was concerned about MQ Client security at his company and wanted to know if I had thought about creating an MQ security product. I replied saying that I had already created a couple of MQ security exits for customers and wanted to know his requirements. We went back and forth regarding the requirements and when he was happy, he said “if you build it, they will buy it, so long as management agreed”. So, I did and MQAUSX was launched in April 2005. They did too becoming Capitalware’s first security customer (and still are today).

(3) By September 2007, I was burning both ends of the candle, doing consulting work all day (plus 2 hours of travel time) and creating/supporting Capitalware products for 4-5 hours every night. I do not recommend this for anyone. I was totally stressed out at this point. Some bad comments (consulting related) from me and a lost customer for a security product caused me to stop doing consulting work altogether.

(4) After many, many attempts to convince IBM to bring back the Transaction & Messaging Conference, I started thinking about creating my own MQ conference. I had a million questions: where would I hold it, how would I get speakers, and the biggest question, would anyone come. For several years, I thought about it but would not take the risk. Finally, this spring I thought, “screw it, I’ll do it if I can get a couple of core speakers”. So, I sent a couple of “what if” emails to people and got positive responses. So, I signed the paperwork with Kalahari Resorts which meant I was on the hook for $32,000 no matter what happened, and announced Capitalware’s MQ Technical Conference (MQTC) at the beginning of April 2013. MQTC ran in September and from all appearances, everyone had a great time. Now, I didn’t take into account all of the fixed costs, so the conference lost money, but I did learn a lot and the word-of-mouth-buzz has been great. So, I just need to adjust the pricing for next year and the conference will break even.

In 2001, who would have thunk it!! It is now 2013, I am running a successful software development company (doing zero consulting work) and a successful conference venue whereas I expected to be just a traveling MQ consultant. Like I said, I’m a firm believer in the Chaos theory and you never know what random event will change your life. 🙂

Everyone has defining moments in their life. You can take path A or B. Most people take the safe path because they are nervous/unsure or they don’t want to risk it. When the ring is presented, you need to grab it firmly with 2 hands and swing. 🙂 I’m not saying to go Las Vegas and bet it all on 1 hand but rather if you get an opportunity in something you love or in your field of expertise then go for it – you never know what great results could come from it.

Please don’t think my 4 defining moments listed above were easy or lucky. I could have easily not bothered with creating a simple message viewing tool for the logistic contract. When I received that MQ Client security email, I could have easily said thanks but no thanks (P.S. Creating an MQ security exit across 14 platforms is enough to make you pull out all of your hair! ). When I stopped doing consulting working, I took a major pay cut (more than 50%). I have a wife, 5 kids, dogs, bills, mortgage, etc. that was absolutely not easy. Finally, creating a conference, all by yourself, is no walk in the park. It is a lot of work which meant I was doing less and less Capitalware product work plus the politics – I hate politics (conference related). I have zero tolerance for it. I like to use a hammer when politics raises its ugly head. 🙂

When taking a risk, don’t worry about next year or even next month, just focus on this week and the tasks that need to be done today for this week. First organize everything that needs to be done (that you know about) and break them into weekly or daily tasks. You may have 100 (or more) tasks but who cares. Just do one task at a time, check it off your list then move onto the next task. Before you know it, you will be nearing the end of the list. Sure, there will be times when the work days are super long but just focus on the task at hand, complete it and move on to the next task. Don’t let the sum of the parts overwhelm you.

Here are some great quotes to motive people:

“The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.” – Tacitus

“Why not go out on a limb? That’s where the fruit is.” – Will Rogers

“If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.” – Clint Eastwood

“Never was anything great achieved without danger.” – Niccolò Machiavelli

“Risk means ‘shit happens’ or ‘good luck’.” – Toba Beta

“Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.” – Warren Buffet

“People who don’t take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.” – Peter F. Drucker

“If you’re not a little scared, then you’re not doing it right.” – Sarah Addison Allen

Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.