Introduction- Bo Gulledge - "I make projects, processes and systems kick-ass!"
Hola Steemit! I’m excited to find you all here and tell you a little bit about myself. I LOVE PROBLEMS! I get the biggest kick out of digging into tough problems and finding solutions. I live for that "AHA!" moment when the team pumps fists and gives high-fives all around! Thinking is hard but someone's got to do it! I remember having my first chore list at eight years old. I remember pushing a big lawn mower up our hilly yard. The lawn mower towered over me. When I grabbed the handles my hands were way over my head. As I pushed and struggled with that mower I remember thinking, "When I grow up I want to think for living! Phooey on mowing grass!" Now that I'm a family man I still have to mow the grass but for my career I get paid to think! Yeah!
I’ve found a way to make that childhood dream come true. On my first real job, and all others after, I automated repetitive manual tasks. Computers became my forte, and understanding the processes and systems they supported became my area of research. Ever since the beginning I have worked to streamline, automate, remove constraints, work with teams and stakekholders, and to make projects, processes and systems kick-ass. It hasn't all happened easily, yet I've always loved the successes at the end. I’m passionate about sharing some of the cool things I've learned along the way in my journeys so far with this awesome community, and I look forward to reading and learning from all of YOUR journeys!
After seeing projects fail, get defunded, and killed I became a student of business. I became passionate about understanding not only how to make projects, processes and systems work better but whether those same projects, processes or systems really served the stated business goals. Most often the REAL problems I found were out-dated policies that served the goals of the business at one time but had never been reviewed or updated to reflect the changing business needs.
Finding the business novels, "The Goal" and, "It's Not Luck" by Eliyahu Goldratt, and all the subsequent Theory of Constraints (TOC) books, I found a set of Thinking Tools to guide my passion to deliver greater and greater throughput to my clients. I eventually achieved TOC Certification, known as a "Jonah" based on a character in, "The Goal." I now have my own consulting company, Breakthru Solutions Group, based on these methodologies to provide my clients with more and more value as I continue to learn and grow more.
PHILOSOPHY
As a teenager I read lots of psychology, philosophy, religion and New Age books looking to understand the big questions in life: "Why are we here?" "What's the meaning of life?" "Why do people believe what they do?" "Is there a GOD?", and more. In college I began majoring in Philosophy and Religion but graduated with a degree in Psychology. I loved engaging in dorm room discussions about life, the universe and everything. I've continued pursuing these discussions to this day and I look forward to sharing and learning from you and hearing your journeys.
COMPUTERS
I started my learning about computers at work. They had WIndows PCs. I bought books and a used-computer to teach myself more about them at home. I started taking my home computer apart and putting it back together. I spent many a sleepless night breaking the thing then having to figure out what I did wrong!. Along the way I ended up in Hawaii and got a job installing Novell Networks in the Hawaiian Islands. This was great fun since my work would fly me island to island while I lived in Waikiki. Going to an install on Maui on Friday morning I'd stay the weekiend and fly back to work on Monday morning! When I got back home to Florida a year later I decided to get a Masters degree in Computer Science. After graduating I worked at a startup as a developer that entailed long hours and sleeping under the desk. During the long hours I'd think, "Oh, why did I leave my carefree days in Hawaii!" Through my software development career I also became expert in databases. I eventually did huge data conversion and data warehouse work for the State of Kentucky as a contractor. During my IT career I've gone hands-on with lots of alphabet soup! C, C++, C#, COBOL, VB, Java, Ada, JScript; plus all the shells: C, Bourne, Korn, Powershell; OSs: Windows, UNIX, LINUX, AIX; databases: DB2, SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle; there's more but that's enough for now!
ENTREPRENEUR
I focus now on up-ing my marketing and value delivery game. I belong to a great mastermind group called The Society International that meets four times a year for a weekend.
At these weekend "Intensives" we have world-class speakers come and work with us. For example, last week (September 2016) we met in San Diego for a Wealth and Abundance Intensive. We had Steemit's founder Ned Scott 
Besides Society Founder, Neil Strauss
An example of another recent Intensive in June this year (2016) we all went to Las Vegas and had a Superhuman Intensive. It had the tagline, "Bond+Bourne=YOU!" We learned and practiced Parkour, moving rapidly through an area negotiating obstacles by running, jumping, and climbing. We learned from Israeli Counter-Terrorist instructors how to escape from handcuffs, rope, zip ties and duct tape. They also taught us Krav Maga combat techniques where we practiced knife, pistol and rifle disarms. We got inoculated from stress by being bound, blind-folded, waterboarded and tasered. Once you've done that the rest of life's stressors are all small! We practiced Executive Protection driving skills like 180 degree bootlegger and J turns. We social engineered our way into exclusive Las Vegas night clubs and went on many missions to build and stretch our skills!
For the culmination of the weekend we fired AK-47s, M-4s, pisols and shotguns. Oh! And I got to crush a car with a tank!
OTHER PASSIONS: PAST AND PRESENT
I LOVE FLAMENCO DANCING! Back before my children were born I took lessons for several years. I hope to resume lessons at some point. I hate it when my feet start getting stupid again!
When I was sixteen I took banjo lessons. I learned three-finger Scruggs-style bluegrass playing. Over time I branched out to other genre's and really like playing blues and ragtime on the banjo. A story for another time is how I got into a prestigious A Capella Choir because I played the banjo!
Back in my bluegrass playing banjo days I also taught myself bluegrass mandolin. I previously had a girlfriend in high school that had turned me on to Vivaldi as her father was a professor of music at the local university. I was determined to learn to play a Vivaldi concerto on the mandolin. Instead of learning music I took the path of converting the music for Vivaldi's Mandolin Concerto in C to tabulature. Some of you might be familiar with the first part of the first movement of this concerto as it was featured as the theme to the movie, "Kramer vs Kramer" with Merly Streep. Eventually, I could play it at tempo with a recording I had of it with a real orchestra. Later in life I joined the Louisville Mandolin Orchestra (LMO) and finally learned to read music for the mandolin. They have several albums out. I'm a second mandolin playing on the album, "Last Call at Hawley-Cooke."
I've been a magician since I turned eight years old. I would buy magic tricks at the drug store and my friends and I would put on neighborhood magic shows. I performed magic professionally for awhile for trade shows, parties, night clubs and restaurants. Now I perform at charity events and for fun with friends. Magic is a continuing passion of mine and you'll likely see me perform something if you meet me in-person. Ask me to do the bunnies!
I love making origami $ Dollar Bill Animals! A magician friend of mine tipped a waitress with a dollar bill elephant. I begged him to teach me. He did. I made a dollar bill elephants myself for about fifteen years, slowly adding little touches and enhancements over time to make it look better and better. I tipped with them everywhere and gave them away to just about anyone, too, since I loved the expression of joy on everyone's face when I gave them one! After fifteen years, though, I figured there might be other animals you can make with a dollar bill. I found a great book on Amazon by John Montroll. Today I can make 50 different animals. I would ask someone for there favorite animal. Sometimes they'd name something I didn't know how to do, or I didn't particullary like the design from a book. I started making a few of my own. I designed a dragon, a kangaroo, a monkey and a pegasus. I'm most proud of my pegasus. A friend actually made a video of how to fold it based on my instructions and posted it online: Dollar Origami Bo Gulledge Pegasus
I studied Chito-ryu karate for five years in high school. In college I studied Aikido for two years. I had a friend that was a black-belt in ninjutsu that beat me up for about a year! I gained a lot of respect for the art but didn't learn much of it myself. Now my five year old is taking Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I better start learning that or he'll soon be able to kick my ass!
I've studied wilderness survival for many years. I've taken many week-long classes through the years. I was the webmaster for Tom Brown's Tracker School for many years and became a personal friend of Tom and his family. A friend of mine's dad, Rob Russo, designed the Tom Brown Tracker Knife and I'm enjoying helping him research the history of the the knife since I have had three different versions of the knife and the current knife produced by TOPSKnives was templated from one of my knives. The Tracker Knife was prominent in the movie, "The Hunted" with Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio del Toro. It was also featured on the cover of BLADE magazine. Strange as it may seem, here's picture of me playing golf in Disney World with Tom Brown, Jr, his son Tom Brown, III, another gentleman and me. I'm on the right.
TRAVEL
I love to travel! I'm fairly fluent in Spanish and have a knack for languages. I can get around pretty well in Germany and Italy when I brush up on those languages.
My dad was a Marine helicopter pilot in Vietnam. The Vietnam era entry milieu in the Marine Corps Museum is based on his historical documentation of the Siege of Hill 881S . The museum is AWESOME! My dad took me on a trip to Vietnam with him and the marines that survived the Siege of Hill 881S. It was a great trip and I learned a lot! Among many things I saw, in Hanoi I saw Ho Chi Minh's embalmed body and visited the "Hanoi Hilton" prison where US POWs were incarcerated. In the picture below Hill 881S is behind me. It's signifcance is it was the site of the longest siege of a USMC outpost during the Vietnam conflict.
My Brothers in the Society and I went to Juneau, Alaska this year (June 2016). We paddled Mendenhall Glacier Lake and climbed the glacier. Afterwards we went whale watching on a trip to Haines, Alaska. We also visited a cool ice cave under the glacier!
MY GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT - FATHERHOOD!
Here's my lovely wife Tonya holding our twins Parker and Scarlet, and our five-year-old son Carlton.
I hope to be a valuable part of this community and to build many more wonderful relationships here.