I am an MVP again!

A few month ago, my 5-year-old son gave me a fortune cookie. My fortune stated “All your hard work will soon pay off”. I kept the fortune and stuck it on my home office monitor as motivation.

A couple of weeks ago, while in lockdown, I was checking my emails on that same monitor and I read this…

My hard work did pay off! I am happy to announce that I am back as a Microsoft Business Applications MVP.

In the words of Elaiza Benitez “pay it forward”. That is probably the one main reasons why we have such a strong community that supports each other. What is astonishing is that we don’t conciously do it. It just happens.

Last year I was the Microsoft Business Applications Summit where I reunited with some of the MVPs. While in Atlanta, I recorded an MVP Podcast episode with Gus Gonzalez, a few month later Gus and Nick Doelman were in New Zealand presenting at the Power Platform Saturday. While in New Zealand we also recorded a few more episodes and a couple of days later we were in Melbourne presenting at the Australian UG Summit; there we reunited with Gus, George Doubinski, and Leon Tribe to record a 3 episode podcast. All those were contributions to the community.

Similarly, while at MBAS I met with Reza Rad and Leila Etaati, I invited them to present at the 365 Saturday, and earlier this year I was presenting at their Difinity conference.

What I love about being back in the MVP program is this awesome community that cares and looks after each other.

A special thank you to:

• The community leads that believed in me;
  Purvin Patel and Shiva Ford,

• The MVPs and people at Microsoft that supported me and encouraged me to get back in the program;
  Gus Gonzalez, Nick Doelman, Julie Yack, Raz, Demian Raschkovan, Jon Stypula, Lee-ann Dias, and Sun,

• and last but certainly not least AK, Gayan, Reza, Leila and the members from the local New Zealand comunity.

Late last week I received my MVP gift package with the latest ring to add to my collection which I started in 2015, but the stand that holds them is in storage and due to the lockdown, not reachable. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of time to get it once out of lockdown…