A letter home — 2018
Hi Mum,
Happy birthday. I hope your 69th is a blast, wherever you are.
A lot has happened in the last year, as per usual. Nothing rests for long around here. Yeah yeah, I know, I am slowing down and smelling the roses. Trust me, Zoe and the kids make sure I do that these days even if they have to ram a bunch of them in my face. I am just not good at sitting still.
Where to start? Well, we have put our 15,000th kid through an OMGTech! programme. I thought you would love that. We didn’t make a big show and dance about it, but I think it’s pretty special.
Running a charity is a tough gig, the pay is terrible as are the hours. It’s not unusual to have the lounge or kitchen buzzing with people coming over and talking about this programme or that community we should work with. Honestly, it reminds me of your house sometimes. The phone ringing, the back door permanently open to the constant streams of visitors and the kettle burbling frantically to itself to keep up with all the cups of tea.
The work we are doing is really fulfilling. People ask me what my measure of success is. I say I may not see it for 15 years, but it will be when a new generation of technology innovators and social change makers announce themselves to the world with some big impact. It’s that young woman I am going to meet at an event someday, where I am there to celebrate her and her amazing achievements, probably in a bow tie and wearing shoes, that sort of event, and when I meet her she tells me of her first OMGTech! class. How it made her believe she can do wonderful things with technology. That’s all it will take for me. That one girl. Making that difference to someone else is success for me. But I also have a big hairy spreadsheet with all sorts of numbers in it that measures impact too. we want the 15,000 to turn to 200,000. I do like my spreadsheets.
I may have mentioned I am helping with the Hi-tech Awards these days too. Well, when I say help, really Jen does all the hard yards and I just get to look good trying to keep up. She is an inspirational Chair and has helped us go to a whole new place with the awards. As vice chair, my job is to stack the chairs after every meeting. I do an okay job of that.
We had an amazing awards programme this year, celebrating diversity in our industry, not that it’s great but it’s improving. You don’t make change by throwing stones at people. I like to think that was advice you gave me, it sounds like something you would say. So we tried an open and encouraging approach to shine a spotlight on the flourishes of diversity we do have. There are some amazing women doing incredible things Mum, and young and old of all backgrounds too. Maori and Pacifica. Who knew? Well, we did, and we know it’s only going to get more vibrant and diverse too. We still have a lot to do, encouraging positive discussion about how we can all change for the better and make the industry reflective of our New Zealand.
Mental health has been something talked about a bit more than usual in the last year. Good in that there is more conversation about it, not that there are more and more visible signs of it. Both are true but the talking is key. I lost my good friend Angus suddenly at the start of the year. I didn’t expect that but do we ever? I have learnt many other friends have had moments where it seemed like there was no way they could get through it all. Those times where you stare at the bathroom floor and wonder if you can ever pick yourself up off of it. I have a few of those stories, but it’s strange that we don’t tell them. We don’t talk about that stuff, which is odd because when you do it all seems okay again. I’m trying to be there to talk to people more. Be available. The kettle ready to burble.
Vend is still rocketing on. Alex and the team there are doing big things quietly. 2019 will be a milestone year in many ways. That will be 10 years since the idea began it all for one. But we also have some big business plans to announce too. It’s going to be a great year for the team.
The other project is going well. Don’t tell the kids I called them that. They are all growing up to be three amazing young people. Despite all my terrible parenting. I think the worse I parent the more they step up and become more impressive. It’s quite strange.
Well I better run. I’m in an Uber on the way to the Entrepreneur of the Year awards. I’m a judge this year, well I was. I guess now all I have to do is wear shoes and a tie and arrive on time. I’m very privileged to be surrounded by so many awesome people doing so many awesome things. They make me look so good. Or is it the tux?
Love you always,
Your son Vaughan.