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So, in this video, I'm going to walk you
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through my early programming history.
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Before we get to what's on the screen
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here, I'm going to go back a lot
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further.
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So, I began programming in the sixth
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grade.
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This was in the 80s.
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My father owned a business and he got
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computers very early when they came out
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and I used to just break his all the
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time. So I learned
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just had a natural interest and affinity
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for it. Started with GW Basic.
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I built a program in that for my band
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teacher called Name My Note
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uh that she used with her students to
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help them learn notes on a scale.
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Next, I learned Pascale.
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That was a fun language to learn.
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I wrote Monopoly in it. I distribute
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that on a bulletin board system and got
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a cease and desist letter as a child.
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Wrote a bunch of batch tools.
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This is before I learned about Linux.
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I distributed those on BBS's.
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I used to read a lot of programming
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books. I used to just
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read them cover to cover.
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I used to write code on paper.
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I used to run entire systems in my head.
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I I could write code on paper and and
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just run the logic in my head. Just
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that's how I started building my first
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real project, the net wizard matrix
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server, which is one of the very first
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content management systems I ever
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created.
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Very passionate about it.
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The whole point behind that was so that
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I could give so I had a solid foundation
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for building projects on and a way to
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give my clients the ability to manage
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some of their own content so they didn't
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have to rely on me for as much.
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It had very advanced capabilities
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that
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to this day some content management
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systems have never implemented.
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And it lacked in many other ways because
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it was, you know, a a young project that
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I didn't maintain for more than a couple
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of years. But it could have grown into
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something pretty massive if I had kept
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with it. But I
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like everyone
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entered the job market and I did that
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through freelancing.
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I actually worked on a lot of different
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projects uh both on Guru and outside of
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the platform. So I had relationships
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with companies like Comcast. I used to
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write databases for them. Um I wrote a
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project called Tech Opsswite which
[3:02]
they used in the field for their
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technicians. It was a scheduling system
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and a way to confirm that they actually
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got everything working at a house cuz it
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was an internet based system.
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I just worked on a lot of different
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projects over the years with you know
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the people that I would encounter in my
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life.
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Then when I moved on to guru which is
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what this here is
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I worked for 25 different
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employers on there for varying types of
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projects. So these could have been
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simple fixes. they just something was
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broken on their site and they needed
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someone to fix it for them real fast
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to
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scraping data. You know, that's kind of
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common. Uh it feel felt like back then.
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Um just and there is, you know, I I'm
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just going to say yes, there is an
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ethical line there. This is probably the
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closest I've ever gone to stepping over
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my own ethics because, you know, but I
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felt like it was always done in an
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ethical way. like we were we were you
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know scraping from from public sources.
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So I mean you know there's just some I
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just feel like if I'm going to put this
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on video I better just say that much. So
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um you know just lots of different kinds
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of projects using lots of different
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technologies. I've been using you know I
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know lots of languages and technologies
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and um I always maintain my own servers
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so I almost always had my own like
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environmental server somewhere.
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um
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uh to host people's projects,
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do lots of backend work,
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and
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the other projects that I talked about
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in my other videos um you know, grew out
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of
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uh a career in freelancing. So,
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when I wasn't working on those big
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projects, this is where I would come.
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how to come to guru and
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I feel like
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so one thing I was
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one of the I was the only individual in
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the top 10 in the programming category
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on guru at the time that I was super
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active on this thing and I was very
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proud of that cuz I mean as an
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individual to make it to that status
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you know that that feels like something
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worth sharing especially
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I mean I'm not bragging. It's not
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boasting. I just
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very proud of that.
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I know that my customers really
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appreciated the services I provide as
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these reviews show. And I thought for
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this video, that's basically what I'll
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do. I'll go through these reviews with
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you. We'll look at some of them and
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maybe I'll tell you a little bit about
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their projects. Um, another reason for
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doing it is because Guru has mostly
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um stagnated. There aren't a lot of
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projects on there anymore.
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Everyone is on Upwork. I don't have much
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of a reputation there.
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But you can't share links
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and your proposals to employers.
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So, I can't show them all the reviews
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that I have from all the work I've done
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in freelancing
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unless I come up with some creative way
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to do it. And here we are. So, um, just
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take you through some of these reviews
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here.
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So, just starting from the top here, the
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first one says, "Samuel is super smart
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and understands the task fast and gets
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it done right on the first time. Highly
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recommended." It's a nice review. Next
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one says, "Absolutely the most talented
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and capable guru I've worked with from
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this site and I've used it off and on
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for over seven years. You will not find
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a more thorough and creative programmer
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who possesses the intellect and ability
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necessary to manage smaller enterprise
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level jobs. If you have any hesitation
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on hiring this guru, feel free to
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contact me directly. Today, Enetwizard
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is the only guru I would recommend and
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endorse.
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My company named Enet Wizard
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Incorporated, and I started out doing
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database scraping with this client, but
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then ended up doing a whole lot of other
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things.
[7:17]
Excellent. Met all expectations and
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more. deserved a bonus. Will definitely
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use again and recommend to others.
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Sadly, I don't remember this one.
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Excellent work. Highly skilled.
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Extremely knowledgeable. Will hire
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again.
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I
[7:33]
remember that one either. Some of these
[7:35]
were probably pretty small. I remember
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Darlow. Our website looked amazing on
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desktop computers and mobile devices,
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but it had some issues on tablets.
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Samuel acknowledged the problem, took
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ownership of it, spent several days
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fixing it, and did not charge us
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anything because he felt the fault was
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his own. That was very commendable of
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him and a rare quality. His advice and
[7:55]
suggestions on how to improve the user
[7:57]
experience of our website were all very
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brilliant, and he significantly
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discounted the cost to do make these
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enhancements just so it would be done to
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improve the conversion rate on your
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site. Samuel is an exceptional guru. I
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can't recommend him enough.
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He had a very interesting project that I
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built from scratch. So, he's actually
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got some other reviews on here.
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Um,
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I'm not going to read all of them
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because you can just pause the screen
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and read them. Uh, I think there's a
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couple in here though that I want to
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highlight. So, I remember Donald Gladi
[8:29]
had this interesting um pet adoption
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service or
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I think that's not it wasn't an adoption
[8:37]
service. He gave certificates for the
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type of dog you had. I don't know what
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that it was. He was very passionate
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about this and his website was broken
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and you know it was a very
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messy site. I fixed it for him and
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whenever you know he needed something I
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was there and he says Samuel White is
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easy to work with. He does ask a lot of
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questions and then solves my problems
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the very first time. He is fast and
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extremely proficient. trust this man. I
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don't know if that phone number works
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anymore. That's, you know, this is kind
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of ancient.
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Um,
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let's see what else we have in here.
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So, I think this might have been one of
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my first reviews. What a fine. Samuel's
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fluent in JavaScript, PHP, MySQL, CSS,
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Madright. In fact, everything I threw at
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him. Amazing speed and quality. Highly
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recommended. The reason I would
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highlight this one is because I remember
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working with him and he was coding
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himself
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and would just ask me to do certain
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tasks and I would do them for him and
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everything he threw at me I would just
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turn around for him and in an hour or
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two and you know that's kind of how that
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relationship started. It was
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very fast programmic excellent strategic
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thinker. I'm always sharing
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my my thoughts on the patterns that I
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see in a project and where I think it
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could go and you know just it's just how
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my mind works. I'm a systems thinker.
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I don't remember this one. Thank you for
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the professional service and quick
[10:17]
response. Everything went much better
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than I thought possible. The PHP script
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works great and saves me a lot of
[10:23]
frustration and time. So, I just wrote
[10:25]
some script for this person. I don't
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know if like um these work. Oh, they do
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work. Okay. You know, I I wasn't sure.
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My website is on a Linux server and I
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need to get a secure script that will
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allow customers to request a printed
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catalog. Oh, so I just made him some
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kind of contact form basically. That
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would have been easy.
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Um let's see what else we got in here.
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Lots of people like to, you know,
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comment about my speed.
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This was a very complicated project.
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This one involved um
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um
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a studio that took the portraits of high
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school students and they and it was a
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schedule for that was, you know, we had
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an admin for it and um I actually went
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down and visited that company when I
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worked with them. Um, they were in
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Florida and I drove down there and met
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them in person and that was a nice
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relationship.
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So, I don't remember this one.
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He had a pretty good idea of what he
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wanted done, right?
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Um,
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but looks like he was happy. I was
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incredibly impressed with Mr. White's
[11:53]
handling of my project. He was very
[11:55]
professional. Communication was awesome.
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Completion of the programming was swift
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and the final product is doing exactly
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what I wanted it to do and a little
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more. Oh, I do remember this. So, yeah,
[12:06]
he was doing some kind of tracking like
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he had a bunch of their little websites
[12:09]
that were like landing pages for
[12:11]
services that he was offering and they
[12:14]
had affiliate um marketing. like he
[12:19]
uh others
[12:21]
could market his products and so he had
[12:23]
to track those affiliates and this was
[12:26]
all about cookies and stuff. Yeah, I
[12:28]
remember him actually.
[12:30]
Um let's see. Robert Sam White work was
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superb in all facets of this project.
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His knowledge and technical skill
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concerning databases is greater than
[12:37]
anyone with whom I have ever worked. He
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completed the project much faster than I
[12:42]
expected and even discounted his fee.
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Moreover, his communication and concern
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for meeting my needs continues. While
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after completing his work, he remains
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open to answering questions and helping
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me adjust my database. Could not have
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asked for a more reliable or skilled
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partner in this project and hope to work
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with Samuel in the future. So, this was
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a Microsoft Access database. I've
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written a bunch of those. I really
[13:04]
enjoyed working in that. Um,
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it's really uncommon to find one now.
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Even the tech opite actually there was
[13:12]
an access version of that. I completely
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blanked on that for a minute there, but
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we didn't just have the internet
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version. We also had an access database
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version. Um,
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but I did a whole bunch of stuff in
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that. I I I really enjoyed working in
[13:27]
that environment and um I felt like my
[13:30]
design skills were better there. I just
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I truly loved working in Access. It's
[13:34]
just not really a thing anymore.
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So, this one, Samuel was a pleasure to
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work with. He responded to all
[13:40]
communication quickly, demonstrated his
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vast knowledge and programming and
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completed project on time, leaving the
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door wide open for follow-up questions
[13:47]
and training on tools put in place. We
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look forward to and will award Samuel
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future projects.
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So, you can see a pattern there. Um,
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I always try to be reasonable with my
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clients and I, you know, I'm very
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communicative and
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um, even after a transaction is done,
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you know, if you have questions about
[14:11]
something, I'm definitely there to
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answer them. And, you know,
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this the same client as um, earlier.
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So I was done quicker than anticipated
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and had nothing to work with from the
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beginning. Extensive knowledge and was
[14:28]
able to complete everything I requested.
[14:30]
Oh, I remember this. So this was this
[14:34]
was actually pretty cool. So
[14:37]
this person
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bought and sold vehicles
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like a lot of them and he needed a
[14:47]
platform where where he could list them,
[14:50]
you know, for sale where people could
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look at them. I created created a site
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for that.
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This is one of my oldest clients who um
[15:02]
I knew before Guru and he came on to
[15:05]
Guru for future work that I did with him
[15:08]
to help me start to build um a
[15:12]
reputation on this site. So, it was just
[15:14]
an old client that I had and I was
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always doing database work for him.
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So that takes us to the um the end of
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them. Mr. White has been on our team for
[15:27]
only a short time, but he has already
[15:29]
proven his value through a thoughtful
[15:31]
critical analysis of our website. We
[15:33]
look forward to a long productive
[15:34]
working relationship.
[15:36]
Um so that one actually didn't really
[15:38]
pan out. I ended up doing a lot of other
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things.
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Um, but yeah, these are these are the
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reviews that I received on Guru and you
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know, I worked hard for them and I'm
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going to work just as hard for the ones
[15:51]
that I'll get on up Upwork and hopefully
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hopefully I'm able to build um a new
[15:59]
presence on there like I had on Guru.
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So, that's what this video is for. I
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hope you enjoyed it.
