by don.monistereFirst, let me introduce myself. My name is Don Monistere, I am the President of General Informatics and my wife and I pictured on the right are originally from Louisiana and of course are die hard LSU fans. But this blog is about something entirely different. When I first met Nick, I knew he had IT! No, not Information Technology, the industry that I have worked in for the past 30 years. He had it! Where did it come from? His walk, his talk, he walks into a room as if everyone is waiting for him to show up. Not in a selfish way or so cocky that you can’t stand to be around him (that is reserved fore me) I digress.
Nick has the confidence that good upbringing, sports and living the kind of life where nothing is handed to you. I new I was going to hire him and when he asked me to be a guest blogger on his site, I jumped at the chance. Got to give it to the guy, he wants to learn and he is on a very similar journey that I started in 1993 when I started my own Information Technology company, Vista Information Systems. It seems easy now that I have gotten to know him that of course this dude is good at what he does, but How did I know? How would you know if you were the hiring manager. Well, as an author of two books about life, being an awesome executive and my third due out this summer about corporate frameworks, I have interviewed countless executives and individual contributors over the years and what Nick has that seems to be consistent among all high performers. A thirst for knowledge and improvement, the will to compete and win and most of all a real tight grasp on who he is and the character that he will always maintain. Find someone with those three traits and I suggest you hire them! Immediately! It doesn’t matter what for. Nick’s approach to life “I’m headed to the morgue, so I better do everything I can today to get as much out of life as I can” is a testament to who he is as a person! So, how do you know? Sometimes you just freaking know!