Who Am I?

The other night, I was just asked the question... Who am I? I generally respond to this question in the form of a résumé... in that I tend to label myself by what I do... much like Adam Sandler in the film Anger Management when Jack Nicholson's character asks "Who are you?" and he commences by telling what he does... to which Nicholson replies "I asked you who you are, not what you do..." to which Sandler just gets frustrated and starts to lose it a bit. By the way, I have actually been through anger management (many years ago) and I am apparently much like Adam Sandler's character in that film in that respect, prior to his being able to express his anger... so my Girlfriend tells me. I haven't been able to get angry in a very long time... which is apparently something I need to work on... DAMMIT! :p

I've been a lot of things career and job wise... very few of which I've actually been qualified for. When asked if I can do something I've always emphatically agreed that yes, I can do that... which is true... if I don't know how to do something I'll just learn it on my own. I've always been a very quick learner and despite my prestigious collection of degrees... they've really never directly helped my career.

Some of the previous careers I've held include: photographer, photographic re-toucher, fine artist ( I had gallery representation for awhile in Chicago, had a number of shows... internationally, too and was also a portrait artist on the side for a number of years), I worked for the theatre (set design/construction and did a bit of writing and acting) for a number of years, mostly in Indianapolis and Chicago (yes, I was pretty much broke during those years, but it was also one of the happier times of my life. When I was attending university, I worked as a bread baker and barista (I was damn good at that j.o.b., too! ...if I do say so myself... much better than the $8.50 I was making an hour, at least).

I was also a manager for a health foods supermarket for awhile, which led to my becoming their chief graphic designer for over ten years and helped them to become the international leader that they've since become, by opening up the first international location in Toronto. After that I continued to freelance and attend university and eventually worked for CitiGroup as a vice-president and was quite successful (again, no qualifications, but I was consistently one of the top producers despite that slight handicap). I was a consultant (computer, business), software developer, a G-man for several years, website designer, bread baker, and administrator.

Anyway, I currently consider myself a freelance website designer and plan on doing that for quite awhile... that is, until I become interested in something else, or am offered a new challenge. Whenever I hired employees I always looked beyond their résumé and focused on who they were more than what they've done, that's what is most important.