and met Sharon Madere - host of our corporate retreat. One of most memorable discussion was about how she grew her business via VIPs. And not as Very Important Persons, but Very Influential Persons. Once you have favorable feedback from Influential People in your industry your business is strategically a success, rest is tactics.
That discussion brought back memory over IT talent war in Uzhgorod, Ukraine back in 90s. After 1st successful sale of computers brought from Budapest, Hungary I started to look closer into PC sales. Personal Computers were a luxury, not a commodity back then, and each individual sale was thoroughly prepared. Just for comparison of efforts, i would assume it was same as today sales of houses. Key influencers for purchase happened to be computer geeks, back than closely affiliated to FidoNet - global computer network of BBS (bulletin board system). Internet was not yet easily available in Eastern Europe, and where was it was simply cost prohibitive. So FidoNet ruled the ball. In order to be successful in computer sales you had to have VIP from regional FidoNet.
I managed to recruit 2nd best FidoNet geeks in Uzhgorod, Ukraine:
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| Discrete Manufacturing of Personal Computers in hotel "Uzhgorod" |
But the #1 was out of my reach - he worked for at regional branch of Utel.
When I inquired what it may take to recruit him the answer was simply - no chances because Utel provided superior access to Internet backbone.
Intrigued by answer I asked my computer vendors in Kiev - capitol of Ukraine - what it takes to bring dedicated internet channel to Uzhgorod. Few months later in year 1997 I got phone call with question if I'm still interested in leased internet line. When I said yes, the colleague told me that president of biggest ISP of Ukraine will be in Uzhgorod next week and I can meet him for detailed discussion. Biggest ISP back then was LuckyNet and CEO was Sergey Gulchuk (Сергей Гульчук).
Meeting was scheduled at outdoor cafeteria of hotel "Uzhgorod". Sergey drove American car - luxury in mid 90s, which, as he told me later, was purchased from very famous Ukrainian entrepreneur - Semion Yufa.
Conversation very quickly revealed that level of investment to bring quality leased Internet channel from Kiev to Uzhgorod i do not have. And most important that I won't have user base to cover operational cost even if i find investment. So just to kill time before his wife returned from pedestrian walk in old part of city - Korzo, Synagogue, Medieval Castle, and etc. - we started speculating about future of IT. Sergey Gulchuk was very categorical - future is with CISCO. While all my networking experience back then was based on Windows 3.11 and Novell, i was naturally curious about unknown next big thing - CISCO. Sergey went for very long discussion about OS (operating system) that powers CISCO routers and finished his dialogue with very memorable quote. Something like, you learn CISCO OS and you are set for life with employment anywhere in the world!
Next year i got internship, sponsored by US AID, TexasNet - biggest ISP in Texas.
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| server room ISP TexasNet |
Then in 1999 was hired by Schwarzman Isajas(Evsej) as billing and accounting developer at ISP UkrNet and finally get to work with CISCO NAS series 26xx and 53xx. Later in year 2001 as delegate from UkrNet participated in founding of UA-IX (Ukrainian Internet Exchange) and InAU (Internet Association of Ukraine).
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| UA-IX - founding fathers and mother |
Overall hunting for best geeky talents from FidoNet back in Uzhgorod, even though not as successful as i hoped, and dreaming big opened a lot of opportunities and amazing career in IT. I still am occasionally called crazy when i voice some ideas or dreams. But dreaming big, and i don't mean big money, is something that nowadays young millennial generation have explicit deficit of.
best regards,
Roman Havrylyak
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