I’m rarely on social media. But the COVID-19 outbreak has got me thinking, “how can I serve others in the midst of the fear and panic?” While these may be challenging times, we have the opportunity to help make this world a better place.

I’m writing a series of Life-Pro Tips (LPT) to help you navigate these challenging times. Feel free to share this in your groups, with your friends and family, and anyone who you think will benefit from this.

I was just talking to a friend from back home on Facebook Messenger. Instead of relying on the news for updates, I ask people I know. Their first-hand experience of what’s happening around them tell a better story than what the news usually say. The challenge, however, is that the way they tell their stories are often tainted with their emotional state. This one was no exception.

He was laid off from work because of the government’s directive for a lockdown. The lockdown has slowed the economy down with businesses being closed. No business, no revenue. And no revenue means no money for payroll. And he’s not alone. Nearly one million Canadians applied for jobless claims since the COVID-19 outbreak started. In the US, it’s 3.3 million. That’s 4.3 million people in North America alone that lost their jobs in the last 2 weeks alone. And the numbers will continue to rise. What could have been a week to spend some time off work for spring break ended up being the most stressful week of 2020. With bills to pay and no financial reserves, it’s no wonder people are terrified of what’s going on around the world. Imagine what it feels like checking your bank account after getting laid off and seeing only $300 in your balance. How are you going to survive until the situation gets back to normal when you know you have limited supplies and no means to get more? You can feel your heart skip a beat when you get that phone call from your bank telling you of non-sufficient funds.

It gets worse. Research from previous economic downturns like that of the 2008 global economic crisis suggests that unemployment has a negative impact in an individual’s physical and mental health. Unemployed workers are clearly in worse health than their employed counterparts. They are less self-confident and appear overwhelmed by their problems. I don’t blame them. When you don’t know where to get the money to pay the bills or buy groceries, when nobody wants to hire you because the economy is just bad, it’s easy to fall into depression and hopelessness. Their self-esteem and self-worth drops. Couple that with the fear of contracting the virus or the anxiety of staying indoors most of the time. It’s overwhelming.

And as I mentioned in the previous post, while we cannot control the things that are happening around us, we can certainly control these two things – our actions and our emotions.

Write down your wins daily

Growing up, we were told we’re not enough – not good enough, not smart enough, not fast enough, not artistic enough, not strong enough. If you failed in a test, you were labeled “not smart enough”. When you didn’t make it to the track team, you were “not fast enough”. We compare ourselves with others who are better, stronger, smarter, faster. It’s no wonder we don’t accomplish much. And why would we when we feel that what we do doesn’t quite make it – because it’s not enough.

But we don’t seem to notice that we now know how to use a smartphone when most people older than us don’t even want to be anywhere near the alien device. We know how to do our jobs well. We know how to earn a living, to make money. We know how to make someone laugh and brighten up their day. I’m sure this made you feel good about yourself. Yet, we reduce, if not ignore, their importance.

I learned this exercise from one of my coaches a few years back. And I struggled with doing it the first few months. My coach told me to do this together with my gratitude journal. And while I was already doing my daily gratitude for months, I still couldn’t get myself to do it. I felt like I was so conceited, self-absorbed, proud – you name it. Yet I was ignoring the very essence of why I was given this assignment. It was meant to remind myself of my greatness. Because I was created in the image of my Creator. I have unexplored power within me that can be harnessed if only I choose to search for them. And that’s what this exercise did for me.

You might think, “nothing spectacular happened to me today, so what would I write?” It doesn’t have to be something that happened today or anything recent. It could be something you’ve done a long time ago, something you can be proud of. Here are a few things I’ve written down when I first started doing this daily exercise.

• I hate hostility. I avoid it at all cost. One thing that I learned in Aikido is to strive to remain in harmony. If somebody wants to pick a fight, I avoid it or, if I can, de-escalate by being calm. That’s just who I am. But I remember a bully in high school who, together with his friends, started verbally assaulting a younger student. I heard it from afar and was about to avoid it when I recognized the bully. He knew me thru a common friend. I approached them, asked in a very respectful and calm way what’s going on as he was about to punch the kid on the face. The bully looked me in the eyes – he was way bigger than I was. I’ll admit I was scared, I don’t want his clenched fist anywhere near me. Yet, I remained calm and relaxed. I guess that got him to calm down, lower his hand, and have a conversation instead. I can’t remember exactly how the heated argument started but I do know how it ended – with me standing up to a bully and saving a kid from being punched in the face.
• Almost 20 years ago, I learned how to program in Visual Basic in 2 months that allowed me to write software for a small business – even when I failed my computer programming course in college. I spent an average of 16 hours daily in front of a computer, reading books about programming, and asking questions on chatrooms about how to write Visual Basic code. My eyes hurt from looking at the computer screen for so long and I developed back pain during those 2 months. But a happy customer was more than enough to convince me to become a computer programmer earlier in my career regardless of what my university transcript showed.
• I was buying French macarons when the store clerk was struggling to place them nicely in a box. It’s her first day at work and was getting stressed out for not being able to do her job well. It didn’t help that a young family with a kid entered the store and started ordering in a rushed tone. Good thing they didn’t need the pastries to be in a box. I told her to serve the family’s order first and I’ll patiently wait until they’re done. Once she got back to my order, I started to tell her how she was doing a great job being her first day at work. I told her that the French macarons required special handling due to the nature of the ingredients and how they were baked. Yet she handled them with grace, as if she was the one who baked them. In less than 5 minutes, she managed to properly place my order in the box, something she struggled with for more than 20 minutes before the young family came into the store. I saw with my very own eyes how encouragement and motivation can increase employee productivity.
• I got caught up in a lockdown and couldn’t fly back home. I don’t have everything that I need to do my work. So, what do I do? I took inventory of what I have and started thinking about what I can do. While I may not have everything that I need, I have the bare necessities – computer, internet, my resourcefulness, my creativity. Given the limited resources that I have, I decided to do a special run of my SQL Server Always On Availability Group: The Senior DBA’s Ultimate Field Guide and the SQL Server DBA’s Guide to Docker Containers training classes online. I have what it takes to make the most of any situation.

Your list doesn’t have to be spectacular. It could be as simple as waking up early without hitting the snooze button on your phone alarm several times. Celebrating that small win gives you the motivation to do it again tomorrow until it becomes a habit. Or making someone laugh because you’ll never know what they’re going thru. Or telling someone you appreciate what they did for you. Or making the effort to physically move when you’re locked down at home.

I can’t count how many times I had to read what I’ve written in the past. When I feel so discouraged that things I’m doing aren’t making any progress. When I couldn’t figure out how to do something. Or when I feel devastated because of what’s happening around me. Reading my wins gives me the confidence that I have what it takes to make things happen. It changes my emotional state and gets me going again, like a battery that was recharged  

Doing this on a regular basis develops your self-worth and improves your confidence. And when you face a challenging situation like getting laid off from work, you are absolutely sure you can get thru it because you have evidences of your wins written down in a journal.        

Now it’s your turn. What 3 things are you proud of?

One of the best investments I’ve made 13 years ago. And it has served me well.

Growing up, I was told I was very sick. I couldn’t do sports. I couldn’t play rough. I couldn’t do anything that would get me really exhausted. It’s the reason I ended up learning to play the piano.

Realizing that the things others said I couldn’t do was preventing me from growing, I decided I had enough. I joined the army reserve training in my university days. And was I in for a big surprise. First weekend of training, we were told to run around the university campus – a distance of 2.2 km. I’ve never done that before. But if I were to survive the first weekend of training, I needed to do it.

Surrounded by 30 people in my batch, we ran. Those were the most grueling 50 minutes of my life. For an entire week, my legs hurt. My entire body hurt. Even my arms hurt. I didn’t know your arms could hurt from running. And knowing that another weekend of intense physical training was just a few days ahead, I wanted to quit. Besides, everyone told me I was sick when I was a kid. I had all the reasons to bail out.

But I didn’t. I persisted. I pushed thru. I ended up doing a lot of physical activities throughout my university days. I didn’t do sports. But I chose to run. Because it was proof that I can push past the limitations that people place on me.

These days, I run in spite of the titanium rod in my right leg. When my therapist told me it would take months to fully heal, I decided to push myself physically. I hiked and climbed mountains when I can. I ran on uneven roads when I can. I can still feel a bit of pain in my right leg where the screws were attached. Yet I still do it.

Because growth only happens thru pain.

The irony of life is that we live in a world where we all want to avoid pain – at all cost. If there’s an easy way out, we take it. We look for shortcuts. The easy road to an easy life. If something is uncomfortable, we avoid it. If the task is too hard, we excuse ourselves from it.

If only we learn to accept pain as part of our road to greatness. That challenge that we have been avoiding all our life might just be the thing that can lead us down the path to greatness.

I’m monitoring the news everyday, something that I don’t really do regularly. I’m reading about the number of COVID-19 cases, fatalities, and recoveries here in the Philippines and around the world. Seeing the numbers can be discouraging. Even more discouraging is how people interpret those numbers based on what they’ve read on the news or social media. These numbers are causing people to panic, to be afraid, to be stressed out, to be anxious. And I can’t blame them.

Some of my acquaintances just lost their jobs despite working for the same company for years. Now they’re struggling to send resumes while companies are on hiring freeze. Others are worried that they won’t have a job to go back to after being told to stay at home for a while. Businesses fear that this pandemic could lead to closures within a month, causing more people to lose their jobs. Governments are now releasing stimulus packages to help in the economic downturn. People are concerned about food supplies and toilet paper, shortage of equipment and staff in healthcare facilities, and their current health and well-being. These events are overwhelming and can cause anyone to panic – we’ve never had anything like this before..

But fear, panic, anxiety, and stress are unhealthy responses to what’s going on around us right now.

In fact, these responses can cause more harm than the COVID-19 virus. Too much exposure on the information surrounding COVID-19 can make you feel like you already have it. A little bit of cough or mild fever can cause anyone to panic and believe that they are already infected. Until they eventually are. This unhealthy response is even more powerful than the virus itself because you are sending negative triggers to your brain that eventually compromises your immune system. Until you start to become weak.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying ignore the health experts’ recommendation of maintaining good hygiene, washing your hands frequently, maintaining social distancing, and all the health recommendations. What I’m simply saying is to replace the negative thoughts with positive ones – the fear with faith, the panic with calmness, the anxiety with trust, and the stress with relaxation. Instead of being afraid that you won’t have a job to come back to after things get back to normal, have faith that you have what it takes to pursue greater opportunities. Instead of being anxious and stressed about increased workload due to working from home, trust that this will provide ideas on how to do more with less, that you can learn how to relax and enjoy a different kind of normal.

This COVID-19 outbreak provides the perfect opportunity for you to play offense, to find ways to adopt and thrive – not give in to fear, panic, anxiety, and stress. Improve your SQL Server skills so you can be the subject matter expert for your next project. Increase your value so your company would think twice – or even three times – before they decide to let you go. And learn the art of being calm and relaxed during stressful situations that your peers and managers look to you for guidance.

I’m running my SQL Server Always On Availability Group: The Senior DBA’s Ultimate Field Guide and SQL Server DBA’s Guide to Docker Containers training classes from 06-Apr to 01-May. I’ve included strategies for overcoming fear, panic, stress & anxiety in these trying times. Because learning how to thrive – not just survive – in these challenging times is more important than ever. Sign up now while there’s still available seats – I’m limiting the number of registrations so I can really focus on serving you at a much higher level.

SQL Server Always On: The Senior DBA’s Ultimate Field Guide – April 06-May 01, 2020 02:30PM-04:30PM Eastern (19:30-21:30 UTC) online (click to see in your own time zone)

SQL Server DBA’s Guide to Docker Containers – April 06-17, 2020 05:00PM-7:00PM Eastern (22:00-24:00 UTC) online (click to see in your own time zone)

EMPATHY

Behind every technical problem is a struggling human being

Call to Action

It’s good for business

Relational marketing

I think I’ve coined the term “relational marketing” back in 1999, I just don’t have the appropriate attribution for it But I am a big believer of building and maintaining meaningful relationships. In fact, I share a very important concept that we can learn from databases on this:

RELATIONSHIPS

Given Microsoft’s recent announcement of SQL Server 2017 general availability, you somehow get an idea of the frequency of releases for future SQL Server versions. This translates to more database upgrade and migration work that SQL Server DBAs have to do. However, keeping up with the latest and greatest version is not practical from a business standpoint. What might end up happening is that there would be more frequent installations of service packs and cumulative updates to keep a specific version of SQL Server in a supported configuration.

In my online course Windows Server Failover Clustering for the Smart SQL Server DBA, I walk thru the process of installing service packs on a multi-instance, multi-node SQL Server failover cluster. The process is basically the same if you want to perform an in-place upgrade. Majority of SQL Server DBAs are mostly focused on the actual upgrade process. And, why not? This is where the real action happens. But from my experience, the actual upgrade process is just but a small portion of the overall activity. In fact, what happens before the actual upgrade process determines whether or not the upgrade becomes successful.

Here’s another thing that I observed in my experience: service pack and cumulative update installations are treated like normal operations tasks. That’s a huge mistake, especially if you do not have a high availability solution in place. I remember the days of installing service packs on a SQL Server 2000 failover cluster. I think I spent more time “hoping and praying” for the entire installation process to succeed than doing the actual work. Otherwise, I’ll be stuck with rebuilding an entire cluster.

Whether you are installing a service pack or upgrading from a lower version to a higher version of SQL Server, this video will show you the real secret to successfully perform these tasks.

In partnership with Brent Ozar (Twitter | blog).

The idea behind this partnership started last year when Brent was kind enough to spend one Saturday morning with me over breakfast at the Bar Siena Restaurant in Chicago. I have been thinking about launching my online course – Windows Server Failover Clustering for the Smart SQL Server DBA – but haven’t fully decided yet. I needed to add the SQL Server 2016-related features since they have just been released and still waiting to add the Windows Server 2016-related failover clustering features (I don’t want to add lessons for pre-release versions of the products lest I mention something that would jeopardize my non-disclosure agreement with Microsoft).

Brent didn’t take that long to respond. He simply said, “just do it.”  That was the best advise I got last year. Those who have subscribed to my online course have reaped the benefits because someone challenged me to “just do it.”

The virtual training class Always On Availability Groups: The Senior DBA’s Field Guide is yet another result of that advise. Brent and I found ourselves again chatting over lunch at the Congress Centre Centennial Hall in Wroclaw, Poland last May during the SQLDays event. We talked about the possibilities of doing a partnership thru this virtual training class, the logistics and some of the business aspects. In fact, Brent had already done some of the legwork even before I made it back home. It was a bit hard to respond to his emails due to our timezone differences – him being back in the US and me still in Europe. Plus, I don’t have an international data plan for my phone.

I’ve been doing presentations and workshops on SQL Server Availability Groups since 2011 (yes, even before it was publicly released), sharing the lessons I’ve learned from my previous customers and my own testing and research. This initially was intended to be a part of the Windows Server Failover Clustering for the Smart SQL Server DBA course. But as I started working on the content last year, I felt like it needed it’s own dedicated course.

There will be some overlaps on the content between the two courses, particularly the concepts and fundamentals behind Windows Server Failover Clustering. That’s because both SQL Server failover clustered instances and Availability Groups up until SQL Server 2016 run on top of Windows Server Failover Clustering (in case you’re wondering, I am NOT going to cover SQL Server Availability Groups on Linux – yet). You need to understand the underlying platform that makes SQL Server Availability Groups work.

The virtual training class will be delivered online – on 5 – 7 September 2017 0900H Eastern (1300 UTC) to 1700H Eastern (2100 UTC) –  in the comforts of your own desk, hosted via GoToWebinar. You will see me on webcam and my fancy lab environment via screen sharing. 

BONUS:

If you missed out on registering for my online course Windows Server Failover Clustering for the Smart SQL Server DBA, you know you will have to wait until October 2017 before you can sign up. If you register for this virtual training class, you’ll get one (1) year FREE access to the following:

• Windows Server Failover Clustering for the Smart SQL Server DBA (value: US$ 545). This course covers the basics and fundamentals of Windows Server Failover Clustering to successfully design, implement and manage SQL Server failover clustered instances.
• SQL Server High Availability and Disaster Recovery on Udemy (value: US$ 200, was US$ 315). This course covers all of the high availability and disaster recovery features in SQL Server and how to leverage them.
• How To Build A Personal Lab for Deploying SQL Server on a Windows Server Failover Cluster (value: US$ 95). This course walks you thru building an affordable lab environment for emulating a multi-data center deployment of a stretched, multi-site failover cluster in preparation for installing and configuring either a SQL Server failover clustered instance or Availability Group

Below is the abstract for the virtual training class. I think the cartoon sketch is amazing.

Always On Availability Groups: The Senior DBA’s Field Guide

A skilled database administrator is the key to successfully implementing and maintaining a highly available SQL Server database. This instructor-led training class is specifically designed for senior database administrators responsible for designing, implementing and managing a SQL Server Always On Availability Group.

In this live month-long program, attendees will learn:

• Fundamentals of Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) – the underlying platform that makes SQL Server Always On Availability Group possible – from the external dependencies like Active Directory and DNS to quorum and cluster configuration
• Designing and implementing a Windows Server Failover Cluster to meet both high availability and disaster recovery requirements
• Designing and implementing common topologies of SQL Server Always On Availability Group solutions for a single- or multi-data center deployments
• Leveraging additional SQL Server Always On Availability Group capabilities such as readable secondary replicas, backup preferences, distributed availability groups and basic availability groups
• Managing and monitoring SQL Server Always On Availability Group implementations
• Effective troubleshooting of availability issues for both the Windows Server Failover Cluster and the SQL Server Always On Availability Group

Failover clustering does not have to be confusing nor complicated. It just has to work. And when things we are responsible for don’t work, we get the blame. There’s a reason behind the running joke about the Default Blame Acceptor. People laugh at it when mentioned in a speech or presentation. They don’t when the joke is on them.

This course is an attempt to get you to raise the bar on operational excellence. To try out something you haven’t done before. Or just to build your confidence as you embark on that new project. I personally used the course this week to rebuild my entire lab environment and deploy a multi-data center SQL Server 2016 distributed Availability Group setup.

More details are available here. And since it’s a limited-time registration, you can only sign up for a few more days.

I look forward to having you join in.

The equation for fluid dynamics.

The concepts behind set theory.

The operators in relational algebra.

The mathematics behind materials strength.

The abstraction principle in computer programming.

If you’re an engineer or a computer professional, I’m sure you can relate. These are the things I’ve learned in engineering school. I learned how to use equations to solve a problem. To apply a specific principle to come up with a solution. I even have a diploma to prove it.

I went out to the real world applying the lessons that I’ve learned. I’ve written software, designed systems and fixed problems. I thought I was doing alright. I was wrong. I guess I’ve learned several mistakes along the way.

Mistake #1: Solution without Vision

I remember my very first enterprise-grade entity-relationship diagram for a national database that is supposed to store information for people with disabilities. I had all the forms that the organization used to capture the data. Armed with my legal pad and pen (hey, this was 2001), I started scribbling the design for the database. The design was translated into the database. My colleague and I then wrote the corresponding front-end web application. Everything was going well. The application was able to capture the data from all the printed forms that they have on file. Until it was time to demonstrate the solution to the management.

The solution has fallen short of the goal.

It turned out that the grand vision wasn’t just to create a national database. It was to assist policy makers in drafting legislation to benefit persons with disabilities. My colleague and I were so focused on writing code that we failed to see the bigger picture. It’s not that the solution didn’t work. It’s just missing the key ingredient that could help make a difference.

That mistake has taught me to always ask questions that go beyond the technical requirements. It also taught me to learn how to talk to decision makers and stakeholders.

Mistake #2: Technology without Empathy

We were about to roll out a custom high availability solution for a SQL Server 2000 database. I was the one responsible for designing the end-to-end solution. It involved several moving parts with some scripting to aid automation in case something went wrong. We had clearly defined SLAs and escalation procedures. Part of the escalation procedure was to get the operations engineers involved as the first response in case of an incident.

I was enjoying a long weekend with my family when I received a phone call. The voice on the other end sounded a bit frightened – I can hear his voice shaking. It was one of the operations engineers. The database has been offline for an hour (our SLA was 2 hours) and he’s been on the other line with the customer for half-an-hour. He was getting grilled and yelled at. I gave him instructions on how to resolve the problem and the database was back online after another 15 minutes.

I failed to realize that a solution is not supposed to showcase how good I am nor to pad keywords in my resume. A solution just has to work with the simplest design possible. More importantly, the people responsible for maintaining the solution should be well equipped to do so.

That mistake taught me to design with people in mind, not technology. It’s why I educate my customers every time I design and build a solution for them. And it’s the very reason I pursued this project.

Database engineers from the world’s 10th largest internet company will agree.

Mistake #3: Automatic without the Manual

No, this isn’t about your car.

I’m a big fan of automation. I’ve been working with PowerShell ever since the Monad days. I’ve written scripts, created workflows and wrote processes to automate repetitive tasks. It came to a point that I’ve literally forced myself out of a job – automation has taken over my day-to-day tasks. I did find another role within the same team.

It wasn’t always like this. I used to just write scripts. Anytime. Anywhere. In the bus, on the subway, across the atlantic. I’ve even deployed a full-blown SQL Server Availability Group on Microsoft Azure on board an Airbus A330. Talk about being on the cloud.

Write code. Test. It’s the shampoo algorithm. Engineers and computer professionals do this all the time.

The irony behind automation is that you have to really understand how manual labor works. Which means you have to do it over and over and over and over …  You get the point.

But the problem with automation is it forces us to think that it’s all about automation. In fact, I spent about 80% of the time in my previous job automating tasks. That was my biggest mistake. Because the more I automate things, the more often they fail. Then, I was back to square one.

That mistake taught me to start by defining processes – the manual. Process definition is key to successfully automating tasks. DevOps is a by-product of improved communication and collaboration between development and IT. In other words, better processes. Many engineers found it surprising when I told them I barely touched a computer when I was working as a data center engineer. That’s because I spent about 80% of the time defining and refining processes – a complete reverse of what I previously did. The streamlined process is what allowed our team to implement solid automation framework. Which made it possible for us to do disaster recovery exercises every quarter over a weekend despite running several hundred servers. And this was the year 2007, almost a decade ago.

I could list numerous other mistakes that I made – like that Windows XP image that I accidentally deployed on a SQL Server machine. Or that corrupted backup that I thought was useful. Maybe the audit script I ran that took out the production database. But when I think hard about all those other mistakes, they would fall under any of these three main mistakes.

It’s OK to fail. You just need to know the difference between a failure and a mistake.