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Personal Life
Flying has always held an extraordinary allure for me. The mechanics of flight are well-known, but there’s something about flying that is truly a transcendental experience. Seeing the world slide silently past below me, observing all of the intricate elements and their interplay, (terrain, lakes, rivers, plateaus, geography, geology, the impact of people) visible only from the air gives me a sense of wonder that I cherish, no matter how many times I see it. Watching the morning sun splash light on a slumbering world at the start of a new day puts everything in a fresh perspective. Everything and every creature is bursting with incredible potential and limitless possibilities. I never get tired of flying!
I’ve ridden motorcycles for a good many years. The sense of freedom I get on a motorcycle is one that I cherish, rain or shine. There’s something about sitting on a motorcycle, starting the engine, and heading off for an adventure that simply can’t be duplicated. I get the chance to live in the moment, relax, enjoy the scenery, and contemplate things that usually rush by so quickly in my day-to-day life that I give them scant attention.
I enjoy the use of language, especially the written word. Writing allows me to not only tell a story, but to examine the beliefs I hold and challenge myself with different facts or perspectives. Putting my thoughts and feelings down on paper, either the wood pulp or digital kind, is an expression of who I am and what I value. When I write, I have to condense my thoughts into a coherent form and push myself to understand new and old things in fresh ways, in order to tell a compelling tale. The joy I get when people take the time to say how much they enjoyed my stories is nearly beyond description. Even when someone shares less-than-kind remarks with me, I take the opportunity to evaluate his critique and assess its validity before I move forward.
I’ve had a passion for photography since I was a child. I’m as fascinated by photography now as when I picked up my first point-and-shoot camera and experimented with it. In some ways, photography is like a time machine. The instant the shutter opens, a fragment of time is forever frozen. Having the ability to document pictorially the past, present, and future in a cause-and-effect or correlative way is endlessly intriguing to me.
I currently take the majority of my photos with digital equipment. With the tremendous improvements in photo gear in the recent past, if a photo doesn’t come out the way I wanted it to, the issue is (almost) always the photographer and not the equipment. If I could take pictures that extracted 100% of the potential and capabilities out of my equipment, I be the happiest man you’ve ever seen! And my photos would be much better, too!
I’ll use a 35MM or a larger medium format camera when I want the photo to have a different “look” or “feel”. There are technical reasons for this, and if you’d like to learn some of the nuts-and-bolts of photography, please contact me.
Photography is something that gives me the opportunity to try to not only capture images from the world around me, but to record them as objectively as I can. It also provides an outlet for creativeness. More than anything else, it constantly reminds me that there is always more I can learn in order to achieve that ever-illusive perfect photo.
Painting is a new art form for me. I’ve gotten serious about it, but I have so much to learn that it’s going to be a never-ending effort. The techniques and materials are different from other media and I’m slowly mastering them. I find painting to be a way to express myself. I try to replicate the flora and fauna I see in the world around me. Much like photography, I know I’ll never produce the perfect painting, but that doesn’t mean I won’t try.
Philosophy
Here are some thoughts that I try to use to guide my life and my decisions. I’m not always as successful as I would like, but I try. Above all, I believe that no matter how much I learn there is still much more to know.
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. –Albert Einstein
Curiosity is the lust of the mind. –Thomas Hobbes
The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. –Jack London
Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. –Ralph Waldo Emerson
Be content to seem what you really are. –Marcus Aurelius
The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education. –Martin Luther King, Jr.
You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this and you will have strength. The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts. –Marcus Aurelius
What defines someone as a ‘man’ should not be the clothes they wear or how deep their voice is. It should be the content of his character, his strength in the face of overwhelming adversity, and his ability to still love and help others when the world has turned its back on him. —Karamo Brown
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. –Martin Luther King, Jr.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – – I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference. –Robert Frost
Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears. The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. –Marcus Aurelius
In matters of principle, stand like a tock; in matters of taste, swim with the current. –Thomas Jefferson
A mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled. –Plutarch
Professional Life
I earned a number of advanced degrees in a range of disciplines. I spent my professional life flying as often as I could and working in the high-tech industry (computers, telecom, RF, lasers, satellites, telemetry, networks, microwaves, databases, programming, encryption, financial analysis, personnel, budgeting, policy development, procedure implementation, strategic planning, business process improvement, ERP, CRM, and the acronym alphabet soup continues ad infinitum) in the private sector and for public agencies. Along the way, I was fortunate enough to found, grow, and sell several profitable firms.
I currently serve as President & CEO of a private holding company that owns a number of businesses, sit on several corporate Boards of Directors, and provide advice, assistance, experience, and expertise to various governmental agencies and companies of all sizes. The challenges I face on a regular basis keep me focused, challenge my skills, sharpen my values, test my mettle, and make me one of the luckiest people in the world!
I’ve had the privilege and joy of working with some incredibly gifted, superbly talented, and very dedicated people. I like to think that I contributed, probably in a small way, to the success of our endeavors. We have done some remarkable things and continue to have successes that often leave me speechless. I wouldn’t trade my friendships and experiences for anything!
Someone once said, “Life is about the journey and not the destination, because we all know how the trip ends. Make sure you enjoy yourself along the way!” My personal life is a joy to me because I challenge myself to learn something new, every day. My professional life allows me to earn a living doing what excites my passions and sharpens my skills. If you’re fortunate enough to enjoy what you do to earn your living, you really never work a day in your life!
Patrick Hale 