If you’re looking for a great read about one of your own, read this! Adam tells two real-life experiences that will resonate with you at one point in your career. Funny, frightening, and very, very real.

OSP: Explain what you do for a living in 20 words or fewer.
Adam: We provide services on the leading edge of technology to rural subscribers.

OSP: Give us 3 words that describe you best.
Adam: Honest, Fun, and Heavy.

OSP: What is the favorite part of your job?
Adam: Knowing that every day could be a new or different challenge.

OSP: When do you feel the most frustrated professionally?
Adam: When I do what I would call my best and not achieve my goal in the time allowed.

OSP: What is your favorite setting to work?
Adam: Outside on a beautiful Colorado spring morning.

OSP: What treat do you keep hidden in your office/desk/truck that helps you through an OSP day?
Adam: Coffee, and a picture of my kids.

OSP: If you had to live one day again in your career, what day would that be and why?
Adam: It’s a love/hate day really, but it’s the day we cut over to our current Internet backbone Provider. We switched over and disconnected our old services while still on a leg of a half-built fiber ring which we all know could be hazardous -- and it was. We had a card fail down the line (85 miles) and it was giving no alarms, and with a lot of help found the problem in 3 days with a lot of unhappy customers! If I could relive that day I would have kept our old system active for a longer testing period.

OSP: What is the trait you deplore most in yourself?
Adam: I need to be in better shape!

OSP: Where and why do you read OSP magazine?
Adam: At my desk. I really like the technology updates as well as Don McCarty’s OSP Expert articles.

OSP: When do you feel the most satisfied professionally?
Adam: When I see a customer happy that we went above and beyond what they expected!

OSP: What is the quality you admire most in a colleague?
Adam: Good attitudes -- Happy.

OSP: What’s your favorite quote?
Adam: “Well done is better than well said.” (Benjamin Franklin)

OSP: Tell us the most extraordinary/unusual experience you’ve had out in the field.
Adam: I was on call and we had a lightning storm, I had been on quite a few calls that day but one in particular was pretty scary! It was a horse barn with an apartment inside where the family lived, and they called for no Internet. When I got there the modem had been hit by lightning and I needed to replace it. I had just hooked up the new modem and they got a direct hit with another lightning strike.

When it hit the lights went out and something hit me in the chest. I turned on my flashlight and I could smell the burning of plastic. I shined the flashlight on the floor and the entire faceplate of the modem blew off and hit me in the chest. As I shined the light around the walls you could see where every electric line ran with black marks through the sheetrock. I was very close to getting electrocuted that day. I left their house with 2 bad modems, and scared to death. Needless to say they had to do some electrical work before I could get their Internet back up!

OSP: Tell us the funniest customer experience you’ve faced in the field.
Adam: My coworker and I at the time were walking into a house -- and I have had issues at this place before but this time was bad. It was a call on Internet trouble and we needed to take a look inside the house. When the customer opened the door a wall of horrible smells hit me, and all I could do is hand my coworker the modem, turn, and run.

I made it to the end of the deck before I lost it. I heard the customer ask Anthony “What’s wrong with him?” and Anthony says: “Adam is kind of sick today.” It turns out they are composting in their home, and I couldn’t take it that day. I felt bad for Anthony but he understood my weak stomach and was a trooper! We still laugh about it today. Thank you, Buddy!

OSP: Tell us how you got into telecommunications. By chance or plan?
Adam: By plan. I went to Mitchel Technical Institute for an associate’s degree in Telecommunications and stumbled across this job opening on a website when looking for a job before graduation! I wouldn’t take it back for anything.

OSP: If you could ask your CEO one question, what would it be?
Adam: There are 5 people that work at Nunn Telephone, so I talk to him on a daily basis. One question that stands out to me at the moment is: “What will Nunn Telephone Company be in 5 years?”