Clint Macklin “Just start! Don’t fear failure. Have a goal and start with one thing towards reaching it and then do another thing. Soon it will be two things at once and then don’t look back.”  There is a very powerful saying, “I don’t want to work a 9-5 job, because 20 hours a day is just too much. How much does this stand true? Do we have real life examples which support the saying? Can we also step out of the job cycle? And If yes, what all does it take? Today in this article we will be writing about one such living example who followed a unique path and created history. Let’s get to know him more. The leader with entrepreneurial mindset Clint Macklin, the leader with an entrepreneurial mindset decided not to take the traditional career path and graduate high school, head straight to college, and then plunk into a degree related desk job to begin the climb up the corporate ladder. He was hesitant if college was the route for him, so he held a few 9-5 jobs but was never satisfied hustling for companies that he didn’t feel empowered to act like an owner. While working for other firms in digital marketing, he went to school and obtained his BS in Computer Information Systems while simultaneously starting a side hustle called Dilated Media. This gave him the confidence to work for himself and create a business that would empower others to act like an owner. His side hustle morphed into the creation of VEA Technologies, which he co-founded in 2016. He has always had an entrepreneurial mindset and has been curious if there might be a better way to do things. He has always had a high-risk tolerance and a persistent drive to work for himself and create a company culture that wasn’t available to him early in his career, all of which has led him to form several successful businesses over the years. He also founded CC Investments, a real estate investment firm focused on fix and flips and buy and holds, which has closed over twenty million in transactions since 2017.Clint is a native to Colorado. When he is not overseeing VEA’s dev projects or buying real estate he is spending time with his two daughters, fly fishing, golfing, and camping. His favourite part of VEA is learning about his client’s needs and finding solutions to improve their business through technology. He prides himself on his clients results and long-lasting relationships he has built in the industry. Clint looks forward to his future contributions to VEA and their client’s businesses. His Ideal theory of ‘Be Good and Do Good’ To put it simply, he just tries and be a good person. He does his best to lead by example with honesty and integrity. He doesn’t expect others to do things that he wouldn’t do, whether that be as an employee or as a customer. Creating a culture of high ethical standards and social responsibility starts with him. He wants to set the tone at VEA with his employees, customers, and prospects that they can build trust and loyalty in his product and people. He thinks that transparency is vital for building and retaining trust and he encourages his customers to provide their honest feedback. He wants the customers to feel valued and receive a consistent, high quality product that they are happy with. Openly communicating with his customers and  nviting their honest feedback elevates the customer experience and delivers the consistent message that issues will be proactively taken care of before trust is broken. Clint’s Greatest Strength Being adaptable and solution oriented. Change and issues are inevitable both personally and professionally, but obstacles provide opportunities. Through experience, he has learned to not just react but to appreciate the problem, change what doesn’t work, focus on finding solutions and do more of what is working. He has grown comfortable with failure and has often found failure leads to innovative solutions to complex problems.  All about VEA Technologies  VEA (pronounced vee-uh) means to be different yet not isolated — to be exquisitely unique and attractive to those that love something new. VEA Technologies is a collective of digital experts who are passionate about the clients they represent and the results they hope to achieve together. They have more than 60 years of combined experience in web development, design, branding, digital marketing, and consulting that they put to work to deliver an outstanding product for their clients. Their team has a diverse background with a wide range of industries, allowing them to work successfully alongside big companies and small businesses alike. This also allows them to provide a fresh perspective in many engagements that lead to new ideas and strategies. VEA Technologies is different because their people are different. They are highly motivated, focused, and committed to your success as much as they are committed to their own. This digital agency focused on web development, design, branding, digital marketing, and consulting. They have a talented team of 25 employees/contractors. Clint oversees the daily operations of the development department. Their biggest accomplishment to date has been the acquisition of our long-time partner Evoke Group in 2021. This acquisition allowed them to strengthen their digital marketing team and capabilities. They expanded their resources and bandwidth by absorbing their creative and advertising service offerings. Challenges imposed by pandemic In the beginning, they were very scared as almost all their clients halted any work in progress. They all were facing the same global issue, but it affected their businesses and lives in so many similar yet wildly different ways. After the initial shock of the severity that the pandemic had imposed, within a month, they had reached out to most of their clients and together found solutions to keep folks working. Their team worked together to adapt to the new and everchanging challenges that were thrown at them and their clients. While challenging it has also been very rewarding and he is grateful that their business has not only survived but has thrived in the

Janice L. Quigg Minimizing conflicts is the foolproof way to maximize profits Over time, we realize the power of persistence. It’s about fighting for what you believe in, unwavering in your convictions, and not taking rejection as an answer. It’s about being bold in the face of adversity to drive forward even when it feels nearly impossible. One example of such a personality is Janice L. Quigg, Executive VP/General Counsel, who is a construction lawyer with 22 years of golden experience. Throughout her legal career, she has devoted her complete self to teaching others uncovering the sources of conflict and handling them confidently. When we see a well-established business firm, we often don’t recognize all that goes behind in making it successful. The existence of conflicts in the workplace can cause stress which results in killing productivity. Janice at the Dependable Group of Companies helps businesses resolve these conflicts amicably and thus increase their customer satisfaction Daunting to most lawyers, construction law is an extremely technical area of law. Although the construction industry is highly male-dominated, Janice has made a mark and continues to inspire millions of aspiring female lawyers. In addition, she feels utterly delighted to have spoken at conferences for the Law Society of Ontario, the Ontario Bar Association, and other construction industry conferences. The Story of a Charismatic Lawyer  We are all constantly fighting battles, but have you ever been at peace while fighting for others? As a free-spirited person, Janice has always been brave enough to stand for herself. She had felt very driven to opt for a legal career, even as a child. At age twelve, she knew that she wanted to be a lawyer. Her undergraduate degree in Criminology and Sociology reinforced this dream and interest in law. When she applied to law school, it was extremely difficult to gain entry due to the increased competition, with approximately 3000 applicants for 250 seats. But she had her goals clear and took intentional steps to move forward. Soon after, she was accepted to a prestigious law school and graduated in the domain from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto. Janice has further learned Leadership Coaching Strategies at Harvard as well as Division of Continuing Education Professional Development Programs. Her positive approach towards hard work and a desire to help people prosper in life certainly offered her a plethora of growth opportunities. What Janice has in Store for her Clients?  For Janice, her clients are above anything else. With constant dedication, she is proud to be known as an exceptional lawyer who has never had a case go to trial. She offers businesses more cohesive and productive teams, less sick time, higher retention, and better innovation. Her parties benefit by moving from entrenched to common interests, thus improving the likelihood of success. In her entire legal career, Janice has been praised for her professionalism, humility, persistence, and high-flying behavior, which has enabled her to be an extraordinary leader in the business & commercial law industry. She thinks that great leaders view conflict resolution as a strategic advantage that engages employees, creating an open environment where great ideas flourish. Janice Quigg educates firms to not just resolve conflict, but to embrace it, harnessing their dynamic energy to serve their organization’s prominent goals. Many of her clients, after undergoing a bunch of changes in their functioning, have seen a visible peak in their productiveness and customer satisfaction. Driven to break down barriers in the construction law industry, Janice is confident to make a difference with her well-polished skills and expertise.   Awards & Achievements – Unimaginably Inspirational  A life-long learner, Janice Quigg has proved to be disciplined and achieved the balance many of us struggle to attain in life. She believes in sharing her experience with others to guide and help them realize their true potential. To make it possible, Janice became a TEDx speaker, which focused on the construction industry and all of the positive ripples it makes in the local community and globally. Then, she completed her mediation training at Harvard and developed a leadership model: L.E.A.D. Janice is glad to offer leadership courses to the business community which has always been received with great enthusiasm. She has also been a member of the Global Speakers Federation and Women Speakers Association.  Besides, she is now in-house counsel and newly appointed Vice President of the Dependable Group of Companies, which is a mechanical, electrical, and HVAC contracting firm. The firm specializes in the service of high voltage systems, heating, plumbing, energy management, and much more. Now that her role has expanded from legal counsel to leadership training & development, Janice is keen to see the company climb up the ladder of success and reach a significant level, along the side of its president, Rajesh Ahuja. Talking about her future plans, she is motivated to undertake new projects at the Dependable Group, while striving to improve their corporate culture. Apart from this, Janice is the proud CEO of Janice Quigg International Inc. which offers personal development courses, leadership training, and workshops to the corporate world. As Jack Certified Canfield Trainer, she intends to help business owners by giving them the tools to not just resolve conflict but embrace it as a positive and profitable force in their business.  This top lawyer, coach, and author is among the top 100 Canadian Professionals and 10 Most Admired Business Women 2021. In addition, she has grabbed her position in the 10 Most Admired Women Leaders in Business 2021. A true leader that she is, Janice is setting an example for dreaming big and believing in yourself.  Always looking for new challenges, over the last few years, Janice has expanded her intellectual activities to not only cover one field of research like before but to take on multiple spheres of activities. The award-winning author has co-written two books, one with Jack Canfield, author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and one with Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Airlines/Records. She has been honored with Editor’s

Shyamal Kumar Shyamal Kumar in  “THE TRAILBLAZERS: CEO’s” of Influence 2022 SHYAMAL KUMAR Shyamal Kumar is a data networking product leader, and a visionary in the technology business of today. He has led several platforms spanning data center, enterprise, and service provider networks. Shyamal is extremely passionate about embracing SDN and cloud technologies to bring simplicity and performance to data networks. Together with his team, he has brought to the market world-class SD-WAN products. Under his supreme guidance and supervision, Lavelle Networks has built some of the world’s largest SD-WAN rollouts in digital transformation projects in a record time of weeks. Shyamal is a graduate of BITS, Pilani and has been in the data networking space for the last 18 years leading products at Tata Elxsi, Juniper Networks, Inkra Networks, Telsima Communications, Riverstone Networks, NetContinuum and Versa Networks, among other companies. He is one of those few individuals whose strive for excellence has no bounds. He is a seeker and learner and empowers everyone around him to seek and learn. THE DAWN OF SHYAMAL’S CAREER Shyamal chose software over many other career options because he fell in love with the whole process of building great software and technology applications. Shyamal always knew that software and technology would play an extremely important role in shaping the future. While twenty years back it was a much smaller industry, today as we can see, the software has taken over every aspect of our lives. He is zealous and bullish on the road ahead in software, especially in the age of cloud and SaaS, where physical infrastructure no longer limits the power of the software we can build and serve. Shyamal was tempted to continue working for other global major corporations and just manage a large software product or team. But the opportunity to disrupt in the home market, and the vision to enable enterprises across India with the best networking technology possible, kept him and his team awake on many nights, and they decided that they will charter this unchartered path, from 2015 till today and achieve greatness. Although it has been seven years of building their company, their drive remains as focused today as it was back then. In fact, with the recent transformational partnership with Airtel, they are now getting ready to serve thousands of customers, growing rapidly using the foundation of their current 100+ customers. He has been working with software technology since 2000–when he saw the first start-up team at Net Continuum. It changed everything he had known before. He saw a small team of skilled, committed engineers take on huge industry giants and realized the power of a few people who believe in a cause and vision. He has been in half a dozen start-ups since then, and finally building his own now. In between, he has also spent time building the Juniper MX platform, which is a world-leading network solution today across all markets. He is fortunate to work with networking and the Internet, and he truly believes that after the fire, the wheel, electricity, the telephone, and the computer, the next big invention of mankind is simply–IP networks & The Internet. HIS IDEALS AND GOALS The most important goal for him is to excel in his God-given abilities. Shyamal believes that all of us are blessed with certain strengths, whether people can explain it via DNA, life influences, education influences, social influences. He feels that it doesn’t matter how we get our strengths, what matters is what we do with them. As an individual and a professional, Shyamal strives to be the best version of himself every single day. Not the best version of someone else, but the best version of himself. The next important goal in his life is to have integrity and honesty in all his relationships personal and professional. Integrity in everything we do. He feels that everyone can make mistakes, stumble like everyone else does in life, but he cherishes the ability to identify his mistake, and take the corrective actions–whether it means apologizing, changing a habit, or getting help from a coach for long-term improvements. HIS SOURCE OF INSPIRATION Shyamal is most inspired by leaders who have selflessly devoted themselves to the cause and vision of their lives. There is no single person who comes to his mind. He follows the lives of several leaders who have shown him how we can make a difference in our life. He deeply trusts his faith in God, and Shyamal believes that He is always his eternal inspiration to help him move forward despite any challenge life throws at him. With this faith and belief, he moves forward every day. HIS ADVICE TO THE NEXT GENERATION OF WORLD LEADERS Shyamal believes that the most important thing is to seek excellence. Your business, company or product is a way for you to become better at what you do or were born to do. The end goal is to become the best person who can build that business to its fullest potential. He urges the youth to benchmark against themselves so that they are not disappointed by near term challenges, ups and downs, or how the world would measure them. The world will keep changing its standards depending on the trend of the day, but they should not change the standards that they use for themselves. He asks them to be accountable to themselves, and take growth seriously. Shyamal says “In today’s world, it might not be possible to have perfect work-life balance, but always be aware of your priorities so that you can use your time well. I put my faith, then my health, then my family, my profession, and then my friends and personal pursuits in that order of priority. So, when I am pressed for time, I know where to compromise and where to focus and deliver. Time is limited, and your life’s mission comes with an expiry date, so spend your time well.” Seek excellence, and spend your time well–these are the two main things he would advise younger people to aspire for. HIS GREATEST STRENGTH His greatest strength is the ability to