Business is in my blood. Two entrepreneurs raised me and over the past 20+ years I have pursued my own ventures. I have worked as an exporter, a small business consultant and a restaurateur. As an exporter, I coordinated food shipments to Russia worth $20 million. As a consultant in Croatia, I partnered with steel workers and a cable TV operator to help them optimize operations. As a restaurant owner, I collaborated with a team that converted a tired deli into a neighborhood hotspot. In each of these ventures, I was energized by the process of developing a business, overcoming obstacles and creating a team to build a sustainable enterprise.Two enduring principles emerged from this varied career, namely, the critical nature of long term relationships and the importance of transparency. Whether the context involved shipping hot dogs from Oklahoma to Russia or executing a new menu in Chicago, I have learned repeatedly that successful ventures depend on solid relationships amongst stakeholders and an environment of trust.In reality, I didn’t need to travel far to learn these principles. Murphy & Associates, the consulting business that my family started in 1980, has always been based on trusted relationships and transparency. The company was founded on a model of full disclosure, such that clients have always been assured that they are getting the best talent available and contractors have always known their bill rates. Thanks to this approach, the business has developed a network of long lasting relationships. We have been fortunate to work with our clients over the course of decades because they trust us to fulfill their IT needs, while our associates continue to contract through us because they know that they will be treated fairly.After a long absence, I recently returned to Seattle to be closer to my family. My wife and I have just started our own family, and we want to give our daughter a semblance of the environment in which I grew up.