Alvin Alexander worked as a consultant for over twenty years. He began at the bottom, working for a small salary plus the exciting promise of "performance incentives". Sadly, those incentives didn't come right away. In fact, they barely came at all during the first year. But he kept pushing on, and after working 90-hour weeks for 18-24 months, and making pretty much every mistake a consultant can make -- such as offering advice without knowing all the facts, or before anyone actually asked for his advice -- things got better. The short story is that he created his own consulting firm, grew his income to over $300,000 per year, sold his business, and "retired" before his 45th birthday. Here's how Mr. Alexander describes A Survival Guide for New Consultants: As I wrote this book, I kept thinking back to my first years as a consultant -- the lean years -- and asked, "Would this information have helped me?" I also thought about the employees I hired, and how I coached them to prepare for meetings and handle certain situations. If I thought a story told an important lesson, I included it here. In the end, this book is for any consultant with ambition. It's written for the consultant who wants to be involved in the big decisions, the consultant who meets with clients and prospects to discuss their most challenging problems, the consultant who makes the big presentations, influences decision-makers, and has happy, long-term customers. It's for the person who aspires to be a partner in a consulting firm, or who wants to run his own consulting business. Finally, with the summary sections ("cheat sheets") at the end of the book, you can also use this as a reference manual, such as reminding yourself of the important points the night before a big meeting. I hope you enjoy this book, and I hope it leads to a rewarding, fulfilling career. All the best, Al (Note: This book was originally published as a Kindle eBook under the name, "Zen & the Art of Consulting".)
Alvin Alexander took the circuitous route to success as a consultant. He managed to get a degree in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University while all he was really trying to do was play baseball. Once he became a practicing engineer, he realized he liked software and programming more than engineering. So in approximate order he taught himself Fortran, C, C++, Unix, network administration, Perl, Java, PHP, Ruby, and Scala. During this process he started a software consulting firm, grew it to fifteen people, sold it, retired, and moved to Alaska, and meditated in the mountains until returning to the "Lower 48" in late 2011. He now lives just outside Boulder, Colorado. In 2013 his "Scala Cookbook" was published by O'Reilly, and is currently five-star rated on both the O'Reilly and Amazon.com websites.
