Musings at Altitude

One of the wonderful things I get to do while cruising at 37,000 feet is go through my photo files.  I typically do this while listening to my favorite tunes on my iPod, and I often wonder what folks sitting next to me think while I sit there tapping to the music and smiling while I look at pictures.  Each picture reminds me of something, and one of the ones I looked at today is below:

This is a picture of the credenza that is in my office at home, but it’s not the credenza that makes me smile, but instead, it’s the story around my credenza (and my desk) that’s so special.

About 14 years ago while I was in the Air Force, I had the great privilege of working in the White House Communications Agency (WHCA) as one of the 800+ active duty military members providing communications services to the President and his staff.  While at WHCA, I worked with some tremendously talented people, several of which I still work with today.  But one particular Air Force officer stands out, because unlike the rest of us that were passionate about careers in information technology and telecom, this one officer was looking forward to his retirement so he could pursue a career in furniture making.  At the time, I thought he was joking…seriously.  After getting to know him, I thought he was in the perfect job for him – managing large teams of people and deploying tons of equipment all over the world.  I also felt that he would make an incredible living by accepting one of the many offers I was sure he’d receive from the big telecom companies.  But that’s not what he wanted to do.  He wanted to make furniture.

In 1997, I left the Air Force to pursue my passion for business, and a short while later, he retired from the Air Force and moved to North Carolina to pursue his passion to build furniture.  I was on my third job after leaving the Air Force when he and I re-connected as he was deep into his master woodworking classes.  At that time, my wife and I were watching the construction of her dream home, and I was anxiously waiting my private office in this new home.  The call was timely – he needed a project for one of his classes and I needed a desk worthy of the new office I would soon be working out of. 

We talked; he sketched some drawings; I said “wow”; and he built me a beautiful desk.  I gave him an “A” for the desk, and I can’t remember what he got for the class.  But I was incredibly proud to receive a product from his education, and I was even more proud to see him following the path that made so little sense to me when we were both at WHCA.

A few years later, I called him again and asked if he could make me a matching credenza.  By this time he was an expert at wood inlay, and he was also good at upselling.  As I talked about the credenza, we settled on a design in the cabinet doors that would reflect two things that mean so much to me – a falcon (my school mascot) and the mountains of Colorado.  As you can see, he captured both beautifully.

As I think back on all the conversations we had about our futures, the two of us were at a very similar point in our careers at that time, and yet we both took very different paths to pursue what we loved.  Although folks couldn’t believe that I was leaving the Air Force without retiring to pursue my passion for commercial business, even fewer folks could understand why he spent 20 years building a resume for information technology and telecom, and then pretty much threw it all away (or so they thought) to focus on furniture. 

As I look at the picture above, I have to smile in knowing that Warren Snow is a great example of “do what you love, and love what you do.”  After a 20 year Air Force career, he used his retirement check and his retirement benefits to pursue what he really loved – making beautiful furniture.  I stand in awe of Warren.  I stand in awe of all those who do what they love and love what they do.