We’ve all had those people in our lives, those that took a chance on us. Thanks to them for rolling the dice.

With eight years combined at NW Bell and US WEST, including three years as a CO Tech, I could work on any switch in the metro area. I was in no way the most experienced or technical in my group. Was I ready to be promoted to CO Supervisor of one of the largest Central Offices in the country? Maybe one out of 100 people that knew me back then would have thought so. The one that did was my Second-Level Manager for Network. Thanks Renae for rolling the dice on this wet-behind-the-ears Tech back in 1990.

When she offered me the CO Supervisor job, I immediately thought it was in Switching, because that’s all I knew. But when she said it was in Carrier/Transmission, my heart sank a bit. I didn’t know a thing about Carrier or Fiber Optics. But when I left 3 years later, I knew a lot about everything from an OC-1 to an OC-48. In fact, I could still bore the pants off of you about the differences between a Uni-Directional Path Switched Ring and a Bi-Directional Line Switched Ring…but I won’t.

Everything I learned back then I carry with me today. Given that chance so many years ago propelled me to every opportunity I have had since in this industry.

I also want to thank all of you, my past and present customers who took a chance eight years ago. Back when I started at Clearfield, many of you hadn’t heard of our company (even though the heritage of Clearfield went back over 20 years).

When you look back on your decision to give Clearfield a try, I am confident you will have no regrets.

As it turns out, taking a chance on Clearfield really wasn’t much of a gamble at all.

By Jim Pilgrim