Around 6 or 7 years ago, one of my neighbors said, "I've got a friend who's got a couple of Russian kids staying with her. One of them is looking for a job and can't find anything. She thinks he can program. Would you mind talking to him?"
"Sure", I said, thinking it was probably a waste of his time and mine.
When he came to see me, he smiled a lot, but it was obvious that English was difficult for him. His eagerness counted for a lot. I could see he wanted very badly to do a good job, any job. He seemed bright. It's something you can often see, but it's hard to define how it is visible.
I gave him what I could, which wasn't very much at the time. An old PC, in an old room in the 1880's brick hotel we used for our offices. I could see right away that he was pouring himself into this little opportunity. He began to grow. He became a very good programmer. He met Natasha. He bought a house. They had two children. They bought a new house.
If you don't mind fast forwarding to this morning, you can find out what's happened so far. Nikolay Sokratov took hold at JRiver, learned to earn his way, then began to pay dividends, then began to lead by his skill and dedication. He did very well for himself and for JRiver.
This morning, he stood at my door, having been our CTO for the last several years and the architect and prime mover of Media Jukebox, and announced that he had been accepted in the MBA program at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. He said he and Natasha had opened a "very good" bottle of wine the night before on hearing the news.
Congratulations, Nikolay! A job very well done!
Author
Topic: A Salute to Nikolay (Read 2860 times)