Missing A Guest

Missing out on the missing day: Guest Speaker Shadrach White

Due to prior and unavoidable commitments I was unable to attend Shadrach White’s visit to the University of Washington, where he spoke to the entrepreneur class of students. I say “the” in reference to the class, because it is the only entrepreneur class on campus to my knowledge. I did learn something about the opportunity I missed during Shadrach’s visit by doing a little research on Mister White, hereafter referred to as Shadrach. And I certainly hope that he does not mind. But to me, it is oddly impersonal, on approach to insult, to refer to someone so formally and in, perhaps an antiquated manner, throughout written content on getting to know the person.

Shadrach has quite a presence in our Tacoma community and a good reputation. He has established an influential presence in the academic circles, with his involvement in the University of Washington’s School of Engineering and Technology advisory board. His presence on this board and his involvement with paid or unpaid efforts to improve the community, such as the community business connectivity work with Anthem Coffee, and scholarship efforts with Airlift. The most impressive part appears to be Shadrach’s technology in business acumen and reputation in solving problems using technology. Even more impressive, and I feel most valuable of all, is his reputation of integrity in business. It is for all these reasons that I really wish it could have worked out differently, this missing day and missing opportunity. And I did not even touch on his works as an author.