What's Your Why?

Over the years, I've received hundreds of messages from people who listen to The Art of Network Engineering. Some are emails, some are LinkedIn messages, some come through Discord, and occasionally someone will come up to me at an event and tell me in person.

"You changed my life." "You said exactly what I've been feeling." "I thought I was the only one going through this." "I got the job." "I finally decided to go for it."

Last week I received the email in the image above, from an engineering leader who said this is the first time they ever emailed a podcast host, but our latest episode resonated with them so deeply, they were compelled to reach out.

I've been doing this long enough that you might think I'd get used to receiving messages like this. I haven't. They mean a lot to me, probably more than the people sending them realize, because they remind me why I helped co-found AONE in 2020.

Simon Sinek talks about the importance of starting with why. As a professional communicator that makes their living telling stories, I think about "start with why" often, in part because the "what" of AONE has changed over the years.

We started as a podcast. Then came the Discord community, YouTube, live events, the newsletter, blog, social media, and everything else we've built around the show. The technology has changed. The topics have changed. I've changed. But the why hasn't.

My why is to pay forward the help I received throughout my life and career by helping other people use technology to build better lives for themselves and the people they love.

I didn't build my career by myself. A lot of people helped me along the way. People answered my questions, taught me things, gave me opportunities, introduced me to people, encouraged me, and sometimes believed in me when I wasn't entirely sure I believed in myself. AONE was my attempt to take some of what people had given me and pass it along to the next person who wanted a better life.

I wanted to help build the kind of community I wish existed when I was trying to break into tech. I remember what it was like trying to figure all of this out. I remember feeling like everyone else knew more than I did. I remember wondering whether I belonged in the room and being afraid to ask questions because I thought I was supposed to know the answers.

I wanted a place where people could ask those questions. I wanted experienced engineers to talk openly about the things they struggled with too. I wanted us to talk about careers, failure, confidence, burnout, family, money, learning, fear, and all the other things that affect our lives but never show up in a certification guide.

AONE has its imperfections, just like the tech industry does, but one of the reasons I still love technology after all these years is that technology is an enabler of things that matter.

As network engineers, we spend all day talking about packets, protocols, routing tables, interfaces, bandwidth, latency and increasingly automation and AI. I love that stuff. But ultimately, no one cares that a packet made it from one side of the world to another. What matters is the outcome that packet made possible.

Maybe it was a video call between loved ones thousands of miles away. Maybe it was medical information being delivered to a doctor. Maybe it was a kid learning something online that opened their eyes to a career they didn't know existed. Maybe it was someone sitting at their kitchen table after putting their kids to bed, watching a networking course because they're trying to get a better job and change the trajectory of their family's life.

That's what I love about technology. Behind all of this infrastructure are people trying to do things that matter. Things that can change the world.

The same is true of AONE. I'm proud that we've reached near 1 million downloads. I'm proud of the episodes we produced, the people we interviewed, the community we've built and the business that has grown from it. But none of those things mean as much to me as hearing from one person who tells me something we did made a meaningful difference in their life.

And for some mysterious reason, these messages tend to arrive when I need them most. Building is hard. Scaling is harder. There are plenty of late nights, episodes that don't perform the way I thought they would, ideas that go nowhere, technical problems, business problems, and moments when I wonder whether the amount of time I put into this is what's best for my family and me.

I don't know if it's true or just some weird bias that comes with age and wisdom, but the world feels more divided than ever.

This community accepted me with open arms. People taught me without asking what I could do for them. They shared what they knew. They answered questions. They opened doors. And now I get to watch people in the AONE community do exactly the same thing for each other. Someone is trying to get their first job and another engineer reviews their resume. Someone is studying for a certification and somebody they've never met spends an hour explaining a concept to them. Someone gets laid off and people start sharing openings and making introductions.

That's the version of technology and community I choose to believe in because I've experienced it firsthand.

We're better together. Always.

Someday AONE will end. Everything does. When that day comes, I doubt I'll spend much time thinking about download charts, follower counts, revenue, or how many episodes we published. I think I'll remember these messages, and the people who took precious time out of their lives to reach out in kindness.

I'll remember the people who told me they got the job, changed careers, passed the exam, found their confidence, stopped feeling alone, or simply heard something they needed to hear at exactly the right moment.

Because somebody did that for me. Many people performed selfless acts on my behalf, over and over again, and they arrived just in time.

The best outcome I can think of is if the person we help turns around and helps the next person behind them. Then we built exactly what we set out to build.

A world more connected than when we started, driven by a common goal. To help one another trudge this road of happy destiny.