This page will eventually be replaced with a video. Apparently trying to build a full website and wrap up all the financial, health, and work requirements in a week is a little bit of effort.
Me. Ben Alberts.
If you haven’t met me, that means this website is doing way better than I could have ever imagined.
So who am I?
I’m a 28 year old guy who just quit working for one of the largest tech companies in the world to travel for 14 months.
Outside of work I compete in triathlons, play volleyball (and almost any other sport), camp, hike, snowboard, photograph, climb mountains, travel, cook, read and a bunch of other things.
And now blog and attempt to make videos apparently.
But the truth is I feel like stories tell way more about a person than words. So here are three stories that I think best describe me.
The Eagle Scout Project
Seven weeks before I turned 18, I hadn’t started my Eagle Scout Project.
School, college applications, sports, and DECA had all taken priority and I was running out of time.
Even my scoutmaster had assumed I wasn’t going for it.
The capstone project of 7 years of scouting involves a massive amount of work identifying a need in the community, getting approval by local government, motivating and organizing younger scounts, and executing on that plan.
Aka. PM 101.
In those 7 weeks I went from conception, through approval to leading a 150 man hour project to turn a dilapidated section just outside the parking lot into an outdoor learning center.
It was exhausting and exhilarating.
And it was the first moment I realized that project management was something that I could be great at.
Biking up Haleakala w/ dad
When my dad first biked up Haleakala with his friends in 2015, it was a insane.
An impossibility that I could never achieve. Larger than life.
So of course I set it as a goal to do it with him.
I was overweight, couldn’t run more than 3 miles, and the smallest bike climbs left me exhausted.
Then in 2018 I started getting healthier.
Hiking. Biking. Running. Swimming. Better Diet.
The results started coming through in 2019. I competed in my first Sprint & Olympic triathlons and was finally getting confident in riding. Hitting 50 miles & 3k feet.
It was still 25 miles & 7k feet of climbing short.
In 2020 I biked up Hurricane Ridge. The hardest ride I had ever done. I was exhausted
Officially half of the way there.
This year I finally started pushing myself. Climbing Rainier, Biking up Hurricane Ridge and then going back up halfway. Running my first half marathon.
I was ready. (With a bum knee & some pain meds)
12 hours. 10k feet of climbing. 73 miles. And some of my most cherished memories later we celebrated with root beers.
Streaking gets me inadvertently promoted
My managers may tell you otherwise; but, in my mind it’s the truth.
Back in October of 2019 I was on a business trip that was not going well.
The company we were working with was not happy with where things were at and I, leading a team of engineers was sent to placate them and get things on the right track.
And at 11 AM things were bad.
We were getting reamed in a meeting getting streamed to the rest of the team back in Redmond.
And in all honesty I was only 80% there. I was dealing with painful after effects of my cancer surgery 2 months beforehand and was in the middle of moving apartments, just trying to keep my head above water.
By lunchtime the trip was looking like a disaster.
Then everything changed when the topic of traffic on 280 came up.
And I went for it.
I told the group over lunch that I had run across the highway. And after a positive reception I added one more word.
Naked.
The tension drained away as everyone burst into laughter.
From that moment on the meeting changed. We began having productive discussions, leaving with clear actionable work items and a much better working relationship.
6 months later and that trip was a major pillar in my next promotion.