How I learned to stop worrying and love the b̶o̶m̶b̶ MVP

still not cutting the mustard

I would like to say a big thanks to those few people who recently voted for me to receive an MVP award. Being nominated by someone you look up to or your peers is quite frankly awesome, but anyone who knows me will (I hope) know that my motivations have never been anything other than a desire to grow and contribute towards global community efforts. I like to think that I have done as much as anyone in my region to make this happen. I have always been proud of the fact that (AFAIK) I am the only European to have ever spoken in the only two USA SQLRallys (the first being Orlando 2011) or that I held the first ever SQLSaturday in the UK in (Cambridge) 2012 (at that time more difficult to make happen than you would ever believe -politically, technically and financially. Blood was most certainly shed on many levels!

I am also proud of many of my other achievements such as being the person who has spoken more times at SQLSaturday Portugal than anyone else (Lisbon ’12, Lisbon ’13, Lisbon ’14, Porto ’14, Lisbon ’15, Porto ’15) and have even been a proud sponsor of the last two events. Many members of the Portuguese community (organisers, speakers and attendees) have obviously become good friends of mine due to my ongoing involvement and I hope that I can continue to support them in any way possible in the future.

Just over 2 years ago my family received a series of bombshells that would change us all forever, and while I have always kept my private life private, the fact that I have been able to continue my almost unbroken community involvement (even running two more SQLSaturdays) during this period, has been more testament to my families resilience and understanding than anything I would ever credit myself with. In other words, awards and accreditations pale into insignificance when I look at what they (and I) have gone through during this time, but they are far more deserving of awards than I and I love them even more for that.

It often amuses me that over the years, as new people appear on the SQL Server Community scene the likelihood of a Blue Badge award being received by them is exponentially more likely for them than myself if they are given enough time, (having experienced it time and time again) but it is what it is and I have accepted and embraced that fact. The reason why I made sure I achieved MCM status was simply because it was the only thing that I could ever control and at least it was a way to demonstrate my technical ability. I would like to think that my community involvement has been evident over all these years, but clearly with respect to the MVP programme I have been doing something wrong or do not fit the the Blue Badge mould -and that is cool, I understand. Some of my best friends are serving MVPs, Ex MVPs, or future MVPs, and each and every one of you are awesome!

The fact of the matter is that despite all the nominations I have received over the years (my first being in 2011), the people who keep questioning me why I have never been offered MVP status should ask themselves if  they have voted for me. Had you done so, things might have been different, but then again, perhaps not. Just don’t assume someone else is going to make that effort either if you don’t. Every time somebody makes that statement to me, the disappointment never grows old, and perhaps the worst thing about not being an MVP is people constantly banging on about the whole program as if talking about one’s worth changes anything, or even that I need it in order to feel like the complete DBA (I don’t).

So ultimately I took my own advice and several years ago decided to vote for two people in the global community who had (in my opinion) done more than enough to receive the award, and today they still continue to go from strength to strength and contribute a ton of time and effort to the community (Argenis and Robert). Before that particular rotation, many other people must have felt the same thing (no surprise given their output) and I was very happy that they were awarded MVP not long afterwards. While they were the first people I voted for, they are not the last and seeing deserving people receiving their just rewards is almost as good (I said almost!) as receiving it yourself, so I actively encourage you to start thinking about who unconditionally gives themselves to the community and say a big thank you through a nomination like I did for them. You can do this via this link so get clicking!

Peace!