Tom Nora, software architect and startup founder, moved to Santa Fe for personal fulfillment rather than business reasons. He credits mentors with shaping his career and now mentors others, advocates for presence with loved ones, and says his favorite business book taught him to accept uncertainty and focus on what you love.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite makes the process of becoming a published bestselling author as simple as sipping your morning cup of coffee. You can learn more about Authors Unite at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Tom Nora with us. He is a software architect, serial startup founder, and the author of the book Hacking the Core. Currently he's building a new startup, Precog Security, in the cybersec space. So welcome to the show, man.
Thank you, thanks for having me.
Of course, man, pumped to have you on. We'll jump right into the first one, Tom. The first question I have for you is, what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Now, you know, these questions are tough. There's so many. I guess one of the best ones I could give is I've moved around the country a lot. I've lived in several different states and moved around for startups a lot. But one time I decided to move to a new city for my own purposes, just for me. And it was Santa Fe, New Mexico, and wound up living there for several years. And of course got back into the startup scene there, and as well as a lot of other stuff, but it was one of the best decisions I ever made because it was for me instead of, you know, business or work or money or something. So I think that's really, it's had an impact on, incredible impact on my life. Mm.
And what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Ah, I think based on what I do, I see a lot of people who feel like the tech world is this special secret thing. And I think really the piece of information I'd like to give everybody is that pretty much anybody can fit into the technology world. Every startup can use more help. Stick, stick with what you know, stick with what you're good at, instead of trying to learn something different or something or start over. And, you know, come in with a contribution, bring something to the party. But I think anybody should feel comfortable about reaching out on LinkedIn or whatever, find something you're interested in and your town or something and, and jump in there because there's plenty of room for everybody.
And what's your best piece of overall, and maybe you kind of answered it there as well, but overall business advice, they're not necessarily industry specific.
Well, yeah, I guess I kind of answered it, but I think the piece of it that is the most important is to give back. It's a little bit different, but people helped me early in my career and I wasn't even sure why. I had a couple of bosses and people like that that would just do things for me and help me that had big impacts on me. And then I started doing that, and I realized that that's part of the game, is to constantly be giving back to the industry and help other people that need help or want to be a part of it. So it's almost, yeah, the same answer.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Uh, I think it's to try to have a little more perspective in looking at opportunities in your life. When I look back, I realize that there are a lot of, well, not a lot, maybe a few opportunities I had in my life that I chose the wrong reasons to turn down. You know, it was from small, silly, personal, ego, whatever, wrong town, you know, things like that. And, you know, some of those turned out to be things that I probably should have done. So I think just Try to have a bigger long-term perspective in looking at business opportunities in your life.
And in your opinion, what's the key to happiness?
I think the key to happiness, and I used to talk more about things that more almost talked about Eastern religion, and it's kind of morphed a little bit to me, but I think the most important thing is to spend time with people you care about and be present in the moments when you're with those people, as opposed to on your cell phone or talking about something else. And so it's a little bit like Buddhist or Eastern religion, but, um, spend the time that you can as much as possible with the people you care about.
And, uh, I'm excited for your answer on this one because I know you, you have a book of your own, What is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
You know, of course my book, but no. There's so many, I'm such a book reader. And you know, now that I'm a writer, I love reading books. I've always been that way. And I tried to think of, I get to ask this question a lot. So I tried to think of something that kind of triggered for me, 'cause I'm very current on books, but I think some of the best business books, for example, I'm a big fan of business books. And I think one of the best ones I ever read was a book called Thriving on Chaos. And it was a Tom Peters book. Tom Peters is the guy that wrote In Search of Excellence. He actually has a brand new book out that he just wrote. I haven't read it yet, but, you know, he's from— it was from a while ago, but he kind of predicted the whole internet age with thriving on chaos and a different way of thinking and just-in-time lean, some of those things. And this was in the '90s sometime. So that's the one I would probably recommend. And what I learned from that book is you can't really control things or predict the future or worry about it. Just be out there doing your thing, do what you're great at, do what you love, and the chaotic world around you will make it happen for you.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
Again, so many possibilities there. I'm a big fan of Winston Churchill quotes, but I think the one that I would say is, because this comes up a lot with people that are kind of hesitant about jumping into their own business or whatever, is the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The next best time is today. It's a Chinese proverb.
Yeah, I actually, I love that quote as well. And dude, thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is, where is the best place for people to find and connect with you online?
Well, there's, uh, tomnorr.com, and, um, you know, I'm on LinkedIn. That's where most people contact me. You can Google my name, but I would say LinkedIn probably is the best one.
Perfect, man. Thanks again for jumping on.
Hey, thank you. Talk to you later.
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