Out with the old

This post has actually been a long time coming.  I've even debated on posting it, because I'm not sure if anyone cares- and if they do care, they probably already know.  But it is a big change in our life that I had to document, and my primary purpose in keeping this blog is to be a record of our family for our kids someday.  So here goes.

I better start at the beginning.

Christopher applied for his job at Digicert in June of 2004 when he was almost done with his degree at BYU.  At the time, they didn't have any other employees.  It was just the guys who founded it trying to keep it afloat every day.  There wasn't an office yet- he had an interview in an empty room with the promise that they would get a computer set up for him soon.  At the time, we figured that it was a complete gamble, but one we were willing to take.  Most start-ups don't make it very far, but he only had one year-long class to take before he graduated.  As long as the job lasted a year, we could move anywhere we wanted to after that.

Christopher actually loved working during that time period.  There was no office politics - especially when he was the only one there, but even after they hired a couple of new people as the company grew.  The company Christmas party was a sit down dinner in someone's basement.  We went on double dates with the owner and his wife.  And Christopher loved that he was a truly valued employee.  I remember that the owner left on vacation for two weeks just after hiring Christopher - because he had been the only person on "24 hour support" since they started the business.  He was thrilled to finally have someone to hand those reins over to!

As it turned out, the company did very well.  They hired more and  more people, and Christopher's job description changed as we went.  It had to- he started off being the only person and doing a little of almost everything!  He was really happy to see someone else take some of the tasks, like programming or scheduling employees.  Some of his responsibilities he was more sad to lose, but as more work arrived, they needed more hands to take the load.  And the orders kept coming in.  In fact, they have doubled their sales nearly every year since Christopher joined, which is just astounding.

Christopher's boss always said that keeping his employees happy was a big key to their success.  He figured that he would lose so much money training new employees that perks like a stocked fridge in the break room were a drop in the bucket.  And he wanted everyone to feel happy to be at work, and happy to go home.  Soon he started organizing trips- some with your spouse and co-workers, so we all felt like a solid family at work, and ones with your family to Disneyland, so you could be a happy family at home too.  We have felt so blessed over the years by all of those trips! Spoiled might be a better word.  We went to Maui, St. Thomas, Cancun, Napa Valley, Midway a few times, cruised in the Mediterranean and Caribbean, took our family to San Diego, home to Ohio twice, and went to Disneyland for Christmas 5 times.  Seriously, who gets to do that?

We knew something that good could never last, so we tried to soak up every minute, and squirrel away everything we could to prepare for the future.

Eventually, the company was doing so well that the entrepreneurial spirit in his boss got restless.  He was itching to find a new project to start, so he handed over the company to other people.  By this time, the small office had grown and grown, and instead of working with a handful of close friends, it had turned into new faces every week with much of the office politics Christopher wanted to avoid.  And, as these things usually go, a few of the new people in the office didn't jive with Christopher as much as the old ones.  The company was sold, and things just weren't the same.  We saw signs that the new boss wasn't interested in keeping Christopher around a long time ago.

Now, the grand master plan has always been that Christopher wanted to start his own company one day.  We figured that he would work for other people until we had all of our kids in school, and I could go back to work and be the income and insurance while he did his own thing.  But when he saw how things were going a year ago, he saw an opportunity with a friend and went for it.

We've known Hyrum for a long time.  He's always seemed like a salesman from the first time I met him. Christopher said he probably wasn't going to run any marathons that year, but after running into Hyrum he suddenly was convinced to run 5 marathons that summer with Hyrum.  I remember when Hyrum decided to found the Utah Valley Marathon, and was just scrounging for runners.  He told us that he needed 200 people to sign up or he wouldn't break even.  It took years of work, but that marathon sells out almost every year now.

But Hyrum wasn't very happy with how the race registration systems that were available.  They took a large cut and didn't have all the features that he wanted as a race director.  So he started his own company, Race Entry, to be what he wished existed. And a year ago, Christopher came in as a partner on that company.  It was a side job for Chris.  At that point, it separated his employment into two jobs- one job that paid well but had depreciating satisfaction, and another job with growing opportunity in which he could once again work as an important and valued contributor.

Christopher figured that he would keep working at Digicert until Race Entry required his full attention, and then move on.

When he was called in to see the CEO of Digicert a couple of months ago and informed that they were letting him go, he wasn't surprised.  It was such a surreal and odd thing for us, to be honest.  We have been married for ten years, and he has worked there for nine.  It was just who we were, in some strange way.  He put his heart and soul into that company, and the work he did has saved them millions of dollars.  But at the end of the day, it isn't the same place he used to enjoy working at anymore.

Out with the old.

Christopher is now working at Race Entry full time now.  Disappointingly, I only had him home during the day for about three days before he decided to go into their office and work every single day.  I enjoyed playing hookie with him while it lasted.

On New Year's Day, I had to reflect on just how drastically Digicert has impacted our lives.  It was tough to see it go, in many ways, but the parts we miss the most were gone a while ago.  It's time to see where this new ride takes us.