About This Episode

Sometimes life takes you on a wild ride, and other times you’re granted choices that have the possibility of changing everything. Then there are people like Derek Gabriel, Co-Founder and CEO of Ignite Solutions Group. As you’ll hear in this episode, Derek is one of those people who doesn’t wait for life to offer up wild rides and lucky breaks: he carves the map himself.

Listen in for a great tale of experimentation and gutsy moves from Fargo, to Bismarck, to Kansas… to Hawaii.

1:49 – Derek shares how having a remote job (back before remote jobs were prevalent) allowed him the flexibility to move to Hawaii on a whim.

6:15 – Derek’s tale of just trying things moves to his time as a sales service support specialist at a Ford dealership in Hawaii. He shares how two coworkers were instrumental in teaching him how to interact with people of various different backgrounds on the islands, preventing him from making many mainlander mistakes that would have cost him business.

9:55 – Derek takes us back in time to a job he worked doing Y2K preparations for a large printing company. He shares how a leader can shape the future of an industry just by embracing technology and giving software developers room to play.

14:54 – Derek’s journey moves to a period of overqualification that led to his desire to find a job with the least amount of responsibility possible. He also shares how a better brand doesn’t always mean a better experience, especially when it comes to company culture.

18:59 – The latest chapter in Derek’s story begins with a random phone call to a friend in Kansas City. Derek shares how a simple question turned into his own branch (and the title of Pacific Director), and eventually into Ignite Solutions Group. Brian leaves listeners with the reminder that if you just keep trying things and putting your best foot forward, you’ll eventually get to where you need to go.