>I was waiting around today at the dealership — car was getting fixed up, some scratches being buffed, rattles addressed. I was just watching TV for a while, then made a comment about the “windows bug” just making it to TV when they had the patch released since July.

That turned out to be a conversation starter. The older man next to me agreed, and so it began… he spoke of computers, what he had, and that got in to the computers of yesteryear.

It turns out he was a programmer — before COBOL, even before FORTRAN!

He used to program the IBM mainframes which required punch cards. If the program was too long, you had to make 2 programs out of it, the 2nd program containing about 80% of repeated code/lines that were needed if you had to split it. The compiling and testing involved going to IBM headquarters where the only compiler would translate the punch cards into tape which would be the working copy of the program that was required.

I was fascinated.

We were watching CNBC so every once and a while a tidbit would come on and we would speak of that — unemployment got us to my situation. I am soon to be out of work and just looking for something to support it.

It turns out his son teaches at a local VocTech school where he teaches the kids what they need to go out in the real world and get jobs. While writing the lessons and curriculum that would result in them learning actual marketable skills to go to local companies in the area. He spoke to the businesses, found what they want for requirements — and built the program around that.

Smartest damn thing I ever heard of. No ‘stuck in a rut’ computer teacher stuck in the 80s – I’m very hopeful for those kids.

His daughter is a programmer – started with COBOL, did that for a while, but has since gone down to some printing company in CT where she does COBOL for their printing presses/machines, mainly the printing queue — all done in COBOL.

He is retired himself, but does career counseling — imagine that.

Business manger is the position he spoke of that really perked me up. They have to be a programmer, they have to be a customer, they have to be a marketing strategist to put together the needs of the customer, analyze them, and know what the programmers are capable of. They then write the outline which will be the program.

He also had something to say about me wanting to start my own business. He must hear it all the time because he said most aren’t even entrepreneurial, and even after failing their evaluation/test many still attempt it. There are certain traits one must posses in order to be a successful business owner.

I can’t honestly say I’m sure my father had that. He did have his own business, which eventually he sold for a little more then he owed, and honorably bowed out. This was only following years where he might not take his pay here and there if things were tight enough, only making it tighter at home, but that’s another tangent…

In short — he was saying I need to really evaluate my options as it’s easy to say you want your own business, but where’s your plan?

What are you going to offer?

Who are you going to offer it to?

Once you’re past your current customer base (friends/relatives) how will you get more?

How will you get people into your store?

How will you make a marketable item that everyone wants?

There are so many consultants, system builders, etc – out there, so how can you differentiate your product/service from others?

His best advice was to find a current position with a large company, work on my skills, get my certifications and degrees… and once I have proven that I can do this thing, consulting, systems… that I’ll have enough of a background to show others that I’m their man, I’m the qualified technician that they’ve been looking for.

I really took all of it to heart, and the conversation made the 3 hours or so that I was waiting, seem like an answer. There’s so much on my mind of late, I wonder what I am to do…

If I can make a few systems here and there on order — wonderful, but it (probably) can’t be anything more then here and there unless it either a) takes off or b) I get some qualifications and someone else’s marketing.