John Sonmez was a shy, unathletic kid who one day decided that he could be anyone he wanted to be. With this realization, he began a journey of personal and career growth. Today he teaches software developers how to plan and execute their own journey of increasing their hourly rate, have better relationships and live a healthy lifestyle.

As a new mobile developer in the early days of mobile development, James Montemagno was given two months to build a cross-platform app for remote DVR management. Luckily, he discovered the Mono Runtime and was able to hit his aggressive target because IT JUST WORKED. Today he helps the mobile development community successfully build and launch native cross-platform applications using Xamarin.

In her past, Shelli Austin had to endure a horrible boss who used demeaning language and fear tactics to intimidate their staff. Now as a technical recruiter, Shelli advises consultants to research the position and the hiring manager before accepting a job. When you spend more time with the people you work with rather than the people you live with, Shelli wants her clients to be as happy as possible in their position.

When Joe Zack (of Coding Blocks podcast) reflected upon a list of New Year's Resolutions very thoughtfully planned out and realized he had accomplished nothing throughout the year, he realized he didn't care about the goal but was rather looking forward to the notches in his belt. Yes, life gets in the way, but Joe now understands that a goal means nothing if you don't have your heart in it.

"It's going to be ok." Chad Lowe wondered if he would ever find out the gender of his unborn baby or ever see that baby born. The individual that had brought a gun into Chad's bank made him question if he would be going home that evening or not. But when his employee asked if they were going to survive or not, he reassured her that everything would be okay.

When work sucks the life out of him, Jeff Souders escapes the bonds of earth by flying in his WW-II era open cockpit biplane from the runway he built in his backyard. He also runs a popular YouTube channel that highlights his passion of traveling, flying drones and landscape photography.

If you're painting a picture of a sunset and someone tells you to add a dolphin, does that person's idea represent your vision? If not, Bear Cahill recommends that you thank them for the input and move on. Entrepreneurs have to strike a critical balance between building community and social presence, and staying true to the founder's vision. Bear suggests that you surround yourself with like-minded people who "get you" and share in the vision to achieve success.

When David Okun's new manager empowered him to take ownership of the mobile application, David took it upon himself to implement a new process across the team. Initially met with a collection of eye-rolling, David ignored the negativity and slowly introduced practices that increased the productivity across the whole organization. His approach included a self-deprecating humor that showed the team that he was an easy-going individual that was open to feedback.

Santosh Hari discusses the challenges with working with regulatory agencies to provide cell and internet access in developing countries, the benefits of building your platform on cloud technologies such as Microsoft Azure and the future of IoT.

After a surfing buddy talked him into moving away from philosophy and into computer science, Edward Skrod pursued the opportunity with gusto. Now with only a year and a half experience in the industry, he is transitioning into his first software leadership role. Regrets from his past are ensuring he won't make the same mistakes as he did in a former career.