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Member Profile: |
Occupation: |
Independent Contractor |
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Sod was the issue of her day when it was time for the profile interview. The phone rang and she snatched it off its hook, expecting the call to be from a landscaper. The slope in front of her Seattle home was barren and vulnerable to erosion during the imminent winter rain. A truckload of sod had failed to arrive. Charla urged the landscapers to install “Something – anything! Just do it!” is her preferred method. Around the midpoint of her career, she began thinking about working for herself. Having “always wanted to [be in] research and development,” Charla had a plan. When it was “time to do it,” she would be ready. Her origins are in Boston, Massachusetts, where cultural arts are abundant, and things move fast without delay or obstacles. Those characteristics, and a deep interest in baseball followed her to Detroit, Michigan. By the time she bailed out of Detroit and was Seattle-bound, she had put about 20-years into her career. Not only that, but she had become a loyal fan of the Detroit Tigers baseball team. This year, 2003, she quit her Seattle job and began an earnest business plan for offering technical product development processes. Her keen sense of opportunity told her “It was time.” She looks forward to customizing and arranging elements of an efficient process for each customer. This appeals to her sense of purpose, focus, determination, and predicted consequences based on a background rich with experience. Given her tendency toward effective strategy, an elegant chessboard with purple glass pieces in her living room is a fitting accent. It also serves to fascinate Roada, the resident cat. Part Siamese, the cat studies the board and moves the pieces around with her mouth and paws. According to Charla, the cat’s real intent is to abscond with the pieces and hide them among the sofa cushions. Roada came to the house by way of the Interstate, where a friend of Charla’s found her as a kitten. The cat, originally dubbed “Roadkill,” was renamed upon arrival by her new hostess, who took it upon herself to predict the future for a cat with such name. Roada regarded the big, old dog already in residence as something structural to walk underneath. So far, so good, as far as the cat’s concerned. As there are rarely straight lines in the path to opportunity, there are no straight lines in nature. Her plan for the back yard landscape includes a patch of grass in the middle. The challenge is in obtaining a consensus as to what it should look like. It should be amorphous, and she wants the grass to ease into the adjacent surfaces. As with Charla’s course through life, it would be bothersome and unnatural for her to confine growth within rigid borders. |
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About the Author: Marla Davis is an STC Senior Member in the Phoenix Chapter. |