About Optimism Man
Our lives are too short to waste even one week.
Any week that passes where you are not optimistic is a week that is invariably wasted, water under the bridge, never to be recovered. Optimism is the fuel that drives virtually all significant progress. Without it, you will find that you still usually stay busy but make little lasting progress.
Self-styled intellectuals have made it “cool” and “smart” to be a naysayer and pessimist. It is always easier to look smart while pointing out flaws than it is to go out on a limb and support a fresh, bold idea… and most people want to appear smarter than they are. More than 80% of people have bought into this flawed thinking. It seems to be human nature – the Pareto principle (as known as the 80/20 rule) is alive and well. Luckily, each of us has the ability to join the 20% minority. The silver lining of this cloud of negativity is that the committed, optimistic few have limitless opportunity to succeed while 80% parrot “it will never work.”
God put me here to open your eyes, to help you become a contrarian, to see opportunity and optimism every minute, every day, when so many do not. I want to inspire you to take decisive action, because ideas are worth little without determined execution and finishing what you start.
Bob Sakalas, Optimism Man
Bob is younger than Ethan Hunt but a bit older than James Bond, listens to old Stevie Ray Vaughn, Kenny Chesney, and U2, lives in Texas, is happily married, and is blessed with two extraordinary daughters that are growing up way too fast.
After two great decades in technology sales, Sakalas took the road less traveled, decided to become an entrepreneur while investing the time to write two books (See Seizing Share and Twenty-One Keys on Amazon). After his first two ventures failed to get off the ground, his third start-up, became a successful BlackBerry software company that changed people’s lives for the better from 2006 – 2012, until Apple managed to torpedo BlackBerry with the iPhone.
Bob launched the GungHoLife online goals workshop in 2012, a very personal project which helps people discern and refine their goals so that they can become all they are capable of becoming. (GungHoLife is now found on YouTube for free)
Bob continued to embrace his passion for data analytics and data warehousing by joining the Database and Data Management division of SAP within the Strategic Customer Program, after a number of years with traditional data warehousing leader, Teradata. SAP is rising, doing the one thing that all of us in data analytics always have seen as the promised land: combining real-time transaction processing with real-time analytics. SAP is pushing the state-of-the-art with real-time predictive analytics embedded in operational systems, operationalizing analytics in the most complex of firms, and implementing sophisticated machine learning as we plunge headlong into the Internet of Things (IoT).
SAP is a great place to learn and to be challenged. After a great 2017 with the database team, Bob was promoted to SAP’s North American Center of Excellence for SAP Business Technology Platform. Life is really about enjoying the challenges and savoring the trip. The journey is indeed more important than the destination. Today, Bob’s primary mission is evangelism about digital transformation within the largest corporations world-wide.
Check out Bob’s blog for work at http://sapbtp.com.