Goggle Man? What in the World?

Adventures of Goggle Man?  What kind of blog name is that?  This is what I heard from my wife as I was trying to think of a theme for this social experiment.  There has been a lot of changes in my life both personally and professionally and I have found the courage to start sharing them with the world. 

Goggle Man has become my alter ego.  Like all super heroes, we have two selves.   There is the person we are and super hero within.  Think of Clark Kent and Superman. Goggle Man is that for me.  

To better understand, here is the story of Goggle Man.  

This past winter, I picked up snowboarding again after a 15 year hiatus.   My 7 year old daughter wanted to learn now to board, so it provided me with inspiration to go out and renew an old passion of mine.  My wife and oldest daughter wanted to ride the tube hill later that day, so we met them after our morning snowboarding adventure.   This is where Goggle Man appears...  Have you ever shown up somewhere and "thought" that you would fit in?  Continuing to wear my snow goggles  and highlighter yellow (cool) snowboarding boots seemed to fit for the tube hill.  We were spending two hours in the snow at the end of the day.  Seems to work.  Nope.  I was surrounded by moms and little kids who barely had snow gear on.   I looked like I was going to summit Mt. Everest.  To make matters worse, my wife took the liberty of poking fun of my attire (a thing we do) while we were waiting to tube.   I chuckled, but then out of nowhere a guy piped in and started to brag how he only uses sunglasses and couldn't believe that I needed goggles.   I thought to myself, ok, I get it, I'm overdressed.   As luck would have it I ran into that guy at every pass of the hill.   Every time, he would point at his sunglasses and shake his head.  I think he was just jealous of my awesome goggles...

Needless to say, the goggles were not the only issue that day.  Have you ever had one of those days that nothing goes right?  It was one of those days for me.   Within a two hour period, Goggle Man stopped the rope pull several times, fell off his tube numerous times ran a group of kids over, and got stuck while trying to get off the rope pull.  You get the idea.  It was an off day and the only thing I could do is laugh at myself and point to my goggles yell and "Goggle Man" like I was a superhero  However, everyone seemed to look at me like a superzero.   Each time, my wife and kids would laugh and yell back "Goggle Man!"   The cool part was I didn't care what everyone else on the hill thought.  Was it the goggles?  I was focused on having a fun time with my family bombing down the hill and making memories.  

I am forever Goggle Man- the start of who I want to be.   My "alter ego" has pushed me to be unique in my professional life as well.  I am now breaking social norms and pushing my creativeness within my team at Microsoft.   

There were some valuable lessons that I learned during that day and have applied them in my life.  

• Be ME: It is ok to be unique and following the crowd is not for everyone.  We can show up wearing goggles if that is what we want to do.  
• Find who you are: I am now Goggle Man to my family and would not change it. 
• Don't be afraid to try new adventures:  fail fast and fix quickly.  That is an area that I am applying in my role at Microsoft.  
• Perseverance: don't give up even if you are having a bad day.  Tomorrow is a new day!  
• Laugh (even at yourself) 

This was a day that I will always remember.  Goggle Man had an interesting day that did not go 100% as planned, but what day is really perfect?   I am proud that I taught my family how to be unique, not afraid to be different, and not to give up.  I have had  (and know I will have) some awesome adventures.   I am challenging myself to venture into places that are not as comfortable for me.   That is part of growing, right?

Is it strange that my superhero persona is not perfect, but is exactly who I want to be? I want to be real.  Goggle Man allows me to be who I am and breaks down societies pressures.  As I meet more people in life, I embrace what makes them who they are.  That is what I love about Microsoft.  We are a culmination of different people changing the world. 

So here we are, embarking on a journey with a guy who works at Microsoft, who has a superhero persona that is not perfect, but helps him take on new challenges and risks.   Will Goggle Man succeed?  Will he overcome the challenges presented to him? You will have to read on to find out!

Buckle up and enjoy the ride- Goggle Man is driving this blog!

-Goggle Man Out!