In 2019, Abel Wang (aka The Rockstar) gave me an amazing opportunity. I flew out to Redmond, WA and recorded my first episode on Microsoft’s developer channel, The DevOps Lab. I was ecstatic to say the least. I recorded that episode and spent one of the most memorable days of my career on campus at Microsoft HQ. Abel introduced me to absolute legends in the tech industry, I was living the dream. I can proudly say that many of these folks I can call friends.
From that moment, Abel invited me to speak around the world in his place. Abel had beaten cancer recently and wanted to spend more time with his wife Nina. I gladly accepted and jetsetted around the globe. Speaking at events in foreign countries and my highlight was speaking at Microsoft’s Ignite the Tour. My career started to take off in a way I never thought possible. Abel gave me opportunities that I never expected.
When Abel was diagnosed again with cancer, he was given a 14% chance of survival. Without question we know Abel is that 14%. Life had other plans.
The world has said goodbye to an amazing human being. I can’t thank him enough for all the things he did for me not only as a work colleague, but as a friend. His wife Nina is amazing, she is his rock. I have even read ALL of her books (even though romance novels aren’t my thing).
I sit here today as a Senior Cloud Developer Advocate at Microsoft, because Abel supported my dreams and believed in me. I am now leading the DevOps Lab show on Channel9, what an honor. I really enjoyed being a Senior Software Engineer, I loved working with customers and finding solutions to their technical problems. I also found other things that I was good at, showing others how to solve problems and share my technical knowledge. I never would have imagined how my career would turn out…I wouldn’t change it for the world. Always take that open door and run head first into it.
I ask all of you to raise your glass and have a drink for Abel. The world is a better place because of him.
Before he passed away, he asked me to run the Great Wall of China Marathon for him. So mark my words, I’ll be there…running for Abel. Fuck Cancer
AZApril - Azure with April 