Very privileged to have attended Jeff Jonas' talk today.
Nope, he is not your average established IT professional that studied for a PhD and worked his way up the corporate ladder to reach where he is today.
He went through the school of hard knocks, literally. Life dealt him with many blows. Among which, includes being a bankrupt after a failed business venture, becoming a single parent after getting divorced, becoming a quadriplegic following a car accident.
He drove right through the challenges to:
- Set up a company that was eventually acquired by IBM.
- Became an IBM Fellow - one of the 90+ IBM Fellows in the world.
- Owned 11 patents.
- Conferred as Honorary PhD.
- Completed more than 45 Ironman triathlons around the world.
- Raised 3 children as a single father.
Lessons learnt:
- Finding a passion early in life. Jeff found his - software programming - when he was 14 after getting acquainted with computers. His passion led him to developing a program which his lecturer helped him sell during his sophomore year. He also founded 2 companies. One failed but the other became wildly successful and was acquired by IBM after 20 years.
- Look at challenges in the face and drive right through it. As he was recovering from being a quadriplegic, he raced cars, swam and later on, took to marathon and to date has completed 46 Ironman triathlons.
- Do it for fun and for helping more people. He sold his company to IBM for the sole reason that he could help more people.
What a life!
