Twenty years in technology sales will teach you a lot — about people, about pressure, about the strange mix of brilliance and chaos that fills every conference room and every quota cycle. I’ve built a career on logic, pattern recognition, and the kind of pragmatism you only get from chasing numbers quarter after quarter.

I’m not a 100% believer in the supernatural. I don’t fundamentally accept everything in the Bible as completely acurate interpretation. (It been fundamentally rewritten over centuries and by different society cultures before the printing press…) I’m a skeptic by nature and by profession. My world is built on data, outcomes. I have hard‑earned wisdom that comes from watching multi-million $$$ deals fall apart for reasons that have nothing to do with technology.

And yet — as I get older — I find myself returning to certain biblical verses. Not because I suddenly believe in miracles, but because some of these ancient observations about human behavior are painfully, almost hilariously accurate.

Especially when it comes to fools. I should know because at the beginning of my career, I could have careened into many dead end.

Why These Verses Hit Different at Midlife?

here’s a line in Proverbs that says:

“He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.” (Proverbs 13:20)

You don’t need faith to understand that.
You just need a few decades of working with people.

In sales, in business, and in life, you eventually learn that foolishness is expensive. It drains your time, your energy, your focus. It pulls you into drama you didn’t ask for. It derails your goals. And sometimes, it puts you in the blast radius of someone else’s bad decisions.

Another verse says:

“Leave the presence of a fool, for there you do not meet words of knowledge.” (Proverbs 14:7)

Tell me that doesn’t describe at least more than a couple meetings you’ve sat through in the past year.

The Older I Get, the More This Lands

I don’t turn to these verses because I’m becoming more fundamental in my beliefs.
I turn to them because they help me reflect.

They help me remember the friends who shaped me — the wise ones who sharpened my thinking, and the foolish ones who taught me what not to tolerate. They help me make sense of the patterns I’ve seen in twenty years of selling technology to every cult of personality type under the sun. (I try to not be the center cult of personity on a M$FT Teams call, but sometimes I can get roudy with a good ol’ boys club.)

They remind me that wisdom isn’t mystical.
It’s practical.
It’s earned.
And sometimes it’s hidden in places you don’t expect.

Why I Keep Coming Back to This Theme

Maybe it’s age.
Maybe it’s nostalgia.
Maybe it’s the realization that time is too short and your friends and family are growing old with you.

Whatever the reason, I find myself meditating on more in Psalms and Proverbs more than I ever thought I would. Again, I have a complicated belief structure around how acurately, historically correct the Bible is — but almost all truths don’t need to be supernatural to be true.

And if there’s one truth I’ve learned the hard way, it’s this:

Choose your company wisely.
Fools cost more than any bad quarter ever will.

P.S. I need to meditate on trying to be the friendly individual that invites others to be welcomed and be apart of a good ol’ boys club. (eye roll emoji) that sounds like church…

P.P.S Shut up old man.