I had picked them up pretty much in the standard way as a referral from a friend to do maintenance programming on their legacy system. They had me share an office with the Big 5 consultant who was interviewing ERP vendors. I knew immediately that he had no idea what he was doing and would ultimately waste a lot of good people's time and money. I had a lot of respect and loyalty to this customer and didn't want to see them taken advantage of.

I remember sitting up all night wondering what to do. I decided to go to the CFO. I told her that her Big 5 vendor didn't know what he was doing and gave her plenty of good examples. I explained that after working with her software and her people for 3 months, I could come up with a more effective way of solving their problems in 10% of the time for 10% of the cost.

I half expected to be thrown out of her office, but instead, she got up, closed the door, and said, "Funny, I was thinking the same thing but didn't know what to do about it." Together we laid out the plan and strategy for the project.

Ever since, I have never been bashful. Even though proficiency and experience can carry you a long way, your biggest advancements often come when you go out on a limb to provide real value for a customer.

Another lesson: you never know what a gig can turn into, so just do your best and keep pushing that envelope.