Episode 191 | Aaron Olson - Tracking and Automation

Guest: Aaron Olson @aarondolson Aaron Olson talks with Dave Rael about using automation to make life better, being an entrepreneur, pillars to hold up your life in tough times, and becoming a team player Aaron Olson is an Operations Manager who has been hanging out in the IT distribution industry with a passion for making all things better with software. He had been focused on the hardware side of the industry for 11 years until The Cloud showed up and completely changed how businesses consume IT resources. All was not lost as it became an opportunity for him to start a business which provides cloud-based storage & security services, put more of his programming skills to work and discover his love for entrepreneurship. When he's not working he enjoys spending time with his wife and 19 month old son and they are looking forward to the arrival of their 2nd child who is coming any day now. Chapters: 0:57 - Dave introduces the show and Aaron Olson3:01 - Aaron's "pillars of life"3:47 - Aaron's experiences with health issues and tracking to become a "quantified self"9:04 - How Aaron learned to automate things and ultimately to write software10:53 - The things that "light Aaron up"12:45 - Aaron's story of getting into software development by taking initiative to make an inefficient operation work better via automation18:49 - Aaron's current life as an entrepreneur and the course of the business he's operating23:40 - Aaron's story of failure - a deficiency of collaborative software development effort28:04 - Aaron's success story - getting to a position of financial sustainability with a business self-built and knowing it all started with automation29:50 - How Aaron stays current with what he needs to know33:46 - Aaron's book recommendations37:23 - The things that have Aaron most excited40:46 - Aaron's causes of pain and suffering41:51 - Aaron's top 3 tips for delivering more value43:15 - Keep up with Aaron Resources: Quantified Self All by Myself! - Aliki Front-end Masters Sandi Metz on Developer On Fire Entreprogrammers Aaron's book recommendation: The Total Money Makeover: Classic Edition: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness - Dave Ramsey EntreLeadership: 20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom from the Trenches - Dave Ramsey Aaron's top 3 tips for delivering more value: Have trackable goals Listen Don't be afraid to put yourself out there