I am blessed to have people in the space who have supported what I do for the last six years. Companies like 3Scale, Restlet, WSO2, Cloud Elements, and others have consistently helped me make ends meet. Numerous individuals stepped up in May to help me make it through the summer--expecting nothing in return, except that I continue being the API Evangelist.
I do API Evangelist because I enjoy staying in tune with the fast-growing landscape of industries being touched by APIs. I believe in what is possible when individuals, companies, organizations, institutions, and government agencies embark on their API journey (aka digital transformation). I do not operate as the API Evangelist to sell you a product, service, or to get rich. Don't get me wrong, I do ok, but I definitely am not getting rich--all I got is the domain, Twitter account, and my stories.
The prioritization of sales and profits over what is really important in the space always blows my mind, but rarely ever surprises me. I find myself regularly worrying about the companies and individuals who focus on sales over actual transformation, but I have to admit my friend Holger Reinhardt's post about the motivations behind their Wicked (cool) open source API management made me chuckle. Their API management work was in response to a sales lead that "felt that our focus on ‘just enough API management’ was too narrow and not addressing the larger needs (and bigger deal) of the ‘Digital Transformation’ of the Haufe Group." << I LOVE IT!!!
I've been through hundreds of enterprise sales pitches, sitting on both sides of the table, and experiencing this bullshit song and dance over and over was one of the catalysts for leaving working with SAP in 2010 and starting API Evangelist. I just wanted to tell honest, real stories about the impact technology could make--not scam someone into signing a two or three-year contract, or be duped by a vendor into doing the same. Granted, not all sales people are scammers, but if you are in the business, you know what I'm talking about.
All I can say is I am very glad I do not have to live in a sales deal-driven world and I refuse to go back. To brag a little, I know that a significant portion of my readers are enterprise. People who work at IBM, SAP, Oracle, SalesForce, Microsoft, Capital One, and on, and on read my blog, and I want you all to know: That NONE of your deal sizes are too big, or too small to be reading my blog--I give a shit about all of you. However, maybe you could let me know what your expected budget might be? ;-)
