I'm a big believer in serendipity, karma and helping people whenever I can. A lot of people have been very gracious to me throughout my career, and I'm always looking for ways to pay it forward. That's one of the reasons I coach entrepreneurs and enjoy starting new companies so much.
Back in 2001-2003 I started getting much more involved in the external aspects of the CTO role, working with press and analysts, writing byline articles, speaking, etc. Though I had been in a few press interviews (my first quote was in the London Financial Times in 1986 while helping with some story background), I was a huge neophyte when it came to doing media work. I received some extremely valuable coaching from Sonya Caprio at StillSecure along the way and now am pretty comfortable doing just about any media, writing and speaking work.
Early during that learning process, USAToday reporter Byron Acohido got a hold of me while researching stories about various computer security threats posed to the average computer user. This was back in the Code Red and Melissa virus days. While I'm no security researcher guru by any stretch, I've been working and creating security and networking products since the early '90s, so I was able to help Byron on background, tutoring him on the various kinds of threats, how they worked and what the current and emerging threats were around the corner. Though I didn't expect any quotes from those conversations, Byron was kind enough to quote me in 4 or 5 USAToday stories.
When I talk to press I always offer to help on background, specifically noting I have no expectations for quotes. Part of my job of course is pitching media about my companies and products when that's the topic, but I also believe in helping people outside of my own agenda. I do this with no expectations of any payback or reciprocal quid pro quo to me. If you help people, even if they don't return the favor directly, someone else down the line might return the favor to you. And even if the favor is never returned, that's okay.
Helping people with the expectation of something in return isn't helping, it's trading. You don't help people with a payment expected in return. You do it because it's something you want to do. Good karma, serendipity, etc. will take care of everything else. Trading has an expectation of something in return, helping doesn't. I'm not naive enough to believe that everyone has this philosophy -- many don't. Even with some, everything has strings attached, but that's not me. As long as people don't take advantage of that goodwill I'm happy to help, and if they do, it says a lot more about them and than me. I just have my own philosophy about helping others.
After my media work became more focused on the business market and Byron expanded his sources to researchers much more talented than me, we talked less frequently but still kept in touch via emails. Bryon is good about emailing his network whenever he writes a new piece, is looking for feedback or is seeking out knowledge in new areas..
A year or so ago, Byron sent out an email about a new book he and USAToday reporter Jon Swartz (who I've also done interviews with) were working on. Bryon has a background in investigative reporting, having won a Pulitzer Prize for beat reporting about his investigative reporting of Boeing 737 tail rudder problems and related government foul ups. Jon has also been nominated in the same Pulitzer Prize category.
I checked out Byron's and Jon's site they'd set up about the book, Zero Day Threat. Byron sent me an early look at some sections of the book, which I blogged about in a post last year. Later Alan Shimel and I had Byron on the SSAATY podcast to talk about the book they were writing. Later, Bryon also offered my some sage advice to me about setting up my Converging Network LLC company and doing additional media work after leaving StillSecure.
Zero Day Threat is a fresh, unique look at how actions by financial, credit, technology companies and "the bad guys" not only put everyone at risk for identify theft, but result in a large number of identity theft victims because they fall in the margin of acceptable risk. Companies are playing lose with our identities because it's an acceptable level of risk to them, not us. The book is available in books stores April 1, and has already started shipping through Amazon.
This week I received a copy of Zero Day Threat in the mail from Byron. I'm very to pleased to have my first book jacket quote on Byron's and Jon's book (see below). And I also appear in the acknowledgments, along with a very nice hand written note from Bryon inside the front cover of the book I received. The quote came from something I wote on my blog back when I reviewed some early parts of the book.
I definitely never expected or even thought I'd receiving such acknowledgments, and I'm totally honored and flattered Bryon, Jon and their editors chose to acknowledge my small contributions. I also owe a dept of gratitude to Sonya, who helped me be in a position to contribute to Byron and Jon.
What this experience says to me isn't that "doing something good will get you quoted", but that you don't always know the impact you have when helping someone else. My few conversations with Byron must have been much more valuable to him that I ever realized. The satisfaction I'm feeling is more about playing some small part in helping Byron and Jon be able to write their book. The quote is gravy, and really something I take as a thank you from them both.
You never know the impact you have on people. Sometimes you learn about it later, such as in this case, but most of the time you don't. That tidbit, coaching, idea, compliment, comment in passing or something you didn't even realize, may have had a very significant impact.
Whether my philosophy about helping others has zero, a little or a huge impact on readers, I'll likely never know. Maybe it won't have an impact on anyone. Whatever the result, I hope you received some enjoyment from reading about my experiences with Bryon and Jon.
Here's my quote that appears on the Zero Day Threat book jacket:
"Rushing in to profit from online commerce and banking, financial institutions knowingly put our personal information and identities at risk -- the digital-age equivalent of tobacco companies making sure cigarettes have highly addictive properties." - Mitchell Ashley, security consultant, The Converging Network
Please check out their new book and the blog at their site. I hope they are both wildly successful.
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