“I’ve answered questions, responded to emails, and been on phone calls…when asked.” – Harlan Carvey

I feel obligated to respond to one of Harlan Carvey’s points in his recent blog post, Book Writing Misconceptions (https://windowsir.blogspot.com/2019/03/book-writing-misconceptions.html).  I agree with everything he points out about book writing, so no need to regurgitate any of what he wrote, except to say, ‘ditto’ on the book stuff.

The thing that I want to expand is that of Harlan taking phone calls.

Back in the day, from my narc desk, in my narc office, when I was contemplating whether to dip my toe into ‘computer forensics’, I found Harlan Carvey’s email on the Internet while I was researching if I really wanted to get into this thing called computer forensics. Harlan’s email has never been a secret by the way…he’s had the same one from more than a decade now.

I figured that since he put his email in the public view and that I was thinking hard on getting into forensics, I would cold shot Harlan with an email.  Surprisely, Harlan replied within a few minutes with his phone number. Of course I called him :)

He may or may not remember that call, and no need to get into the details of the call other than to say that this call was the deciding factor in me jumping wholeheartedly into this field. There was no other person, and no other thing which made such a directional turn in my career into this field more than this one cold shot email and phone call to Harlan. I’m not the kind of person that does anything half way; you could say that I went overboard in forensics as soon as I hung up the phone and haven’t slowed down since.  When I wasn’t undercover arranging drug deals, I was planning, learning, and conspiring to get into forensics one way or another. And I did.

The point being, Harlan aint no joke when he says he responds to emails and phone calls. In my example, it was one of the most important calls that I have ever made.

The other big point

Your words are heavy.  Your advice can inspire someone to their potential. Your personal recommendations and advice can guide a person in a direction that benefits them personally and professionally, and you (by extension) will help others tenfold. Or not, if you don’t take your words seriously.

As for me, I suggest that lending an ear, offering your hand, and gently pushing someone to their potential greatness is the most honorable thing a person can do in their life.