So first, a little over a year ago, I was not an app developer. My work background is in Purchasing and Logistics Management. I served four years active duty. I served in Iraq during that time. I am also a traditional reservist in the military and currently do social work there. I am a father, a husband, and an active member of my faith. I am adventurous and do challenging things.
For my education, I have an MBA in International Business. My Bachelors degree is in Management/ Logistics and I have three associate degrees, one of which is in social sciences. I am also a certified production and inventory manager. I earned all these degrees and my certification while working a full time job. This required great sacrifice for both me and my family.
I met my wife about 10 years ago. It is hard to believe it has been that long. Time has really gone fast. We have beautiful children and a nice old house. We have really worked hard to get where we are. So where did I come from and how did I get here?
I grew up all over the place. I was born in Wisconsin. My family moved when I was young to Utah. My parents have seven boys and one girl. I was the fifth child. We lived in Utah until I started middle school. We moved to Idaho at the point. There my family lived in small mobile home. There was only two bedrooms and one bathroom. After we lived there for a couple years, we moved to Nevada. That is where I graduated from high school.
I like to think that my family lived perhaps more humble then other families I have meet. I know that there are a few that lived like we did. About a year into living in Nevada, my parents bought a 20 acre lot and moved the small mobile home onto it. It was off the power grid. My family received electricity from a generator that did not always run! We would have maybe a few hours a day. Our water came from a well.
Even though it might sound odd to think about living like that, our lives were pretty simple. I feel I have character coming from an environment like that as a youth. It kept me out of trouble. I am very grateful to have electricity today! I feel very grateful for the things that I do have and know that things can certainly be worse. I am grateful for my family.
I started my first job working for my bishop. I ran farm equipment for him. It was one of the best jobs I had. I am very grateful for him. His example and life has shown me that I can do more with myself. He helped me go and serve a mission for my faith.
I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I served my two year mission in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. This mission formed me for the rest of my life. It taught me to be selfless and willing work with people. It taught me how to pray and love people. For all young men of my faith, I encourage you to go.
After my mission, I went to LDS Business College in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. I met my wonderful wife and could not have married a better woman. We were married in an LDS Temple in Utah. We have done things right and it has made a big difference in our lives. One of the things we decided early in our lives was to not go into any debt. This decision has had huge positive impacts in our lives.
I worked as a security guard. It was the best college job you could have. I did many of my assignments in the quiet a.m. hours of the morning while doing my duties. My bosses knew and encourage that. They did not want us falling asleep on the job. Plus most people were happy to get away from homework if anyone needed anything, or it was time for the security rounds.
My wife and I ended up having our first child about a year after we here married. I then went active duty in the military. I remember very clearly the conversation that my wife and I had. She did not want me to join. There were many risks, some of which included dying and long separations. We did anyway. It was the best financial decision we made.
I was able to have my entire college education paid for by the military with their tuition assistance. I never knew that I would have been a college graduate as a young man. The experiences were great! I was loved being in the military.
A good member of my faith finds out very quickly they have an advantage over others who are not members of our faith in the military. It is because our supervisors do not need to lose sleep over us. We tend to be more disciplined and controlled in our lives. That is not always the case, but I could see that most faithful members did very well in their military service, doing very much good all the time.
Soon my enlistment was up.My wife and I had goals. We wanted to buy a house with cash, having no debt or mortgage. My brother introduced us to the South Dakota area near Sioux Falls. There we found everything we wanted. It was a commute, but the neighborhood had low crime, the schools had good ratings, and the homes were where we could buy them. We decided to move there. I shortly found a job working in corporation doing purchasing. I did that for three years.
I learned more then I thought possible in those three years. I am glad that I had the opportunity to work with the people that I worked with and companies that I did. It helped me understand a whole new type of organization. I am always intrigued with how organizations do things.
I always had the goal of starting my own business. I believe that the Lord has his hand in all things. My wife and I needed a change. I felt that I was not going anywhere with my job. It was a good job that paid well. I just did not feel that it would ever grow to more, or grow to where I really wanted to be. I decided to start my own business.
I have always wanted to make products for my faith. I felt as a child the entertainment that we had for our faith was limited and not all that good. I saw this as a prime market. I needed to learn it though. I start out by making children books. They were simple and something that I could do fast. I wasn't really good at it. They did not do well at all. I thought I would do a little better, but I was not surprised. I wanted to get into app development and I saw the books as a stepping platform.
Here was my problem. I had experience with programming in visual basic. I would use it to make custom reports, forms, and databases to streamline processes for my work. It was a lot of fun for me. The problem was, I had never had a programming class in my life. Before I quit my job, I took one C++ class. I loved it, as it showed me the basic structures of programming. I am always learning more, but I feel empowered now.
I had to make a decision too. Did I want to go back to school to learn everything about computer programming? I would lose three more years and would have to postpone my business. I decided that I had better just do the business and focus on that for now. I eventually found my way into programming games. It was odd how it all came about, but I have been doing that now for about a year.
These are the reasons why I choose the area that I did to start this business. First, it is an emerging market. It's barriers to market are low and the cost to get start is low if you have no overhead. The problem is the competition. Everyone else can do this too. That is where having a well defined target market comes into play. I have that now.
My family is debt free and we own everything that we have. That makes it very possible to do things that most people cannot do. I have been able to learn something new and devote a lot of time to learn a whole new discipline and Industry. I still need to learn a lot, but I feel that I have a good grasp now of what I am doing.
This last year has really taught me a lot. First I learned that God knows all things. He can be in control of our lives, if we let him. There are no accidents or co-incidents. Never would I have thought that I would be creating a game for my faith all by myself. Lehi's Escape was all done by me, except for the voices and editing of my family. He will direct us. There are direct paths that God wants us to go down and each choice matters. Until you understand this, you will never find your calling in life.
Second, I learned that I need to do what I know I am suppose to do. I prayed and got a clear answer from God that this is what he wanted me to do. I did not know the details or what purpose he had for me, but I know that he wanted me to do a work for him.
Third, I learned that if anything in this life is going to happen, I am the one who is going to have to do it. No one, and I mean no one, is going to magically come down and fix my life for me. Sure that is always some dream of big cash flow that comes true for some people, but the facts are that will never happen for me or my family, unless I go out and earn it. If something big is going to happen in my life, I am the one who is going to have to make it happen.
Fourth, I saw that I was capable. Maybe not at first, but that I could be. I learned to see people, including myself in what I can become. This new vision in life has greatly impacted life. I always believed I could do great things, but now I am doing it. It has been a great blessing, but also a great sadness too. I people that really do great things with their lives and others that I think will never see themselves as what the can and aught to become, for whatever reason.
Sixth, I learned it is okay to fail. It is and if anyone is going to be anything really great, they have to fail. That comes with trying. Through perfect practice, you can become perfect though. Perfect practice is my goal. Trying to do better each day and using the time to that most that Heavenly Father has given me. I learned that I can repent each day, do better, and build on the last.
So in closing, I hope that this blog can help people understand that if anything good in this life is going to happen, we have to believe in God, believe in ourselves, and then go and work our hearts out to do good for others and our families. These are things that I believe in. Here is for hope! I believe in Miracles!