Yes. This is official. I’m an MVP now!
Sounds awesome! First of all, thanks to you – my readers! You are my inspiration. Your feedback is very important to me.
To whom this blog concerns
First of all, it concerns me. But, not me at the present – me from the future. If I will forget that being an MVP it is an honour, I should return to this blog.
Second, it concerns to all who want their dreams to come true.
The way to MVP was long… or maybe not
As you probably know from the interview with me, I started NAV career 13 years ago. And as everybody, I got many questions about how this or those works, and how to do something.
At those times we (in Russia) did not have books about NAV. We had only official documentation from NAV DVD. Yes, NAV was shipped on physical DVD! This is funny now, in Docker times, but this is true.
The only source where I could get real answers where forums: mibutso.com, dynamicsuser.net and Russian forum mazzy.ru. There I first saw this unknown tree letters M-V-P.
And answers of these guys: Luc van Dyck, David Singleton, Waldo, Eric P. Ernst., Mark Brummel, with MVP abbreviation on their profiles, were so smart, and they were so experienced and so far at the same time, that it seemed that they were Gods.
Right at that moment, 13 years ago I’ve got an idea, that I will become MVP also.
What was after? – I forgot about this! It happens to us many times: we dream about something, but this dream seems unreachable, and we forget about it. Sorry, dream.
The same happened to me, I just forgot about this dream for a long period. I made my career, worked on different projects, created my own company. And during all this time I only took everything from outside and did not share anything with the community. This was not a problem, 80% of people live such way.
System failure
The system was broken when Alexander Ermakov got an MVP. I know Alex for 10 years, we started NAV career practically at the same time. I saw how Alex is active in forums and conferences, but I could not understand why he is doing that for free. But suddenly he has got an MVP. He was, at that moment, the same experience as me, he lived in the same city, and he definitely was not a God (sorry Alex 🙂
I’ve remembered my old, forgotten dream, and I released next: “Hey, I also can be an MVP”.
I could not say that restart of the system took one moment. No. This was a long period of 2-3 years.
The active phase started a year ago. At that moment I’ve sold my company, was appointed to a new position and got much time for doing things that I like. And I started a blog.
To consume or to share?
I started to share my experience: problems that I solved, insights that I realized and so on. And I understood a simple thing. This enriches me more than my readers 🙂
Seriously, when you prepare blog – you try things by yourself. This is called practice. The practice extends the experience much faster than reading a theory.
Then was Q&A period. I answered questions in forums. Btw, if you want to grow your experience quickly – this is definitely the simplest way.
While answering questions for free, I’ve got a wonderful feeling – gratefulness. Surprise! People thanked me for my help, and this was sweet.
Then was Twitter, YouTube, Webinars, LinkedIn. More I’ve shared more thanks I received.
More you get, more you give! More you give, more get! This is a cycle.
And 1st of May I received this message from Microsoft.
Yuhooo!
Was I surprised? No. I knew that at spring I should receive this. That was just a feeling, no one promised me that, I just knew.
So, what I felt when I received notification? Hmmm… First – a big pleasure, that my old dream came true. I was very happy. But only for about first 30 minutes 🙂
And then – gratefulness! To those people who helped me, who encouraged me, who believed in me, who read me.
THANKS to you all!
Special THANKS
Some people, however, I want to thank personally.
@Mark Brummel – for trust in holding NavSkills webinars
@Alexander Ermakov – for inspiring and nomination me
@Tatyana Pupko – for support and nomination
@Waldo – for inspiration and figuring out “why you still not an MVP” on Twitter J
@FreddyK – for emphasizing me among many of cool specialists
@Steven Renders – for nomination and positive feedback
@Marco Perisic – for such incredible product as Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
And yes, this is a big honour and responsibility. I will do all my best to help you to achieve more.
Dmitry
