So there it is. It happened. Again. I am back to the MVP Program as a PowerPoint MVP!

Some of you may know that back then when I was a SQL Server person, I got the SQL Server MVP award and held it for three consecutive years. Of course, it didn’t happen easy as my application was declined first but that just motivated me even more to push even harder and prove Microsoft that I deserved that recognition. I was 22 back then and probably was one of the youngest MVPs Microsoft has ever had…

Then 356labs happened and that… changed a lot of things. Most importantly – changed the fact that I was not contributing to the SQL Server world anymore and so I told Microsoft that they will have to drop me out of the program because I don’t deserve the MVP status anymore. Why? I was just not doing anything SQL. Simple as that.

However, since we launched 356labs, our presentation agency, I started doing a ton of PowerPoint work – wrote 300+ blog posts, organized and participated in tens if not even hundreds of events, pushed the product and built a community of people who understood that PowerPoint can actually be used to create presentations that win multimillion-dollar deals, and win huge investments. So I asked myself – why shouldn’t I try and get the PowerPoint MVP award?

I tried. I submitted my application almost 2 years after we started 356labs and pushed so hard all of the things above. The result? Got rejected. Why? They wanted to see that I will continue to do what I do because it’s just been an year or two now and that’s not enough.

Well, I agree. That’s really the case and honestly speaking, it makes sense. That’s why I continued to push and pushed even harder. I thought myself that I need to do so much so that I will put Microsoft in a position where they don’t have any other option but to give me the award(yeap, one of the MVP leads will tell you that these are the exact words I told him). When I submitted my application again I had more than 55 activities(as Microsoft calls them) and just one of them were the 300+ articles(to give you context of how much effort it takes).

On February 1, while waiting for the confirmation mail, I received a tweet from a friend who is a SQL Server MVP and the tweet was saying that I got the award… I still don’t know why they pushed this information through FB instead of email but let’s not get into this one. 😉

Lesson from the story: Never give up! I learned that looking at the people who inspired me and who achieved things I admired and hopefully this short article will once again remind you that this old advice “Never give up!” is here for a reason. It’s here because it’s true.

Thanks to everyone who made this award possible and especially to everyone in our team at 356labs. That was not going to be possible without your effort!