The Secret of the Hat

It was a Halloween costume. Yep. There it is Story over with.

The Real Long-winded Story of the Hat

I’ve always had a fascination with magic, both the “real world” magic that we see on stage and the fantasy magic of Merlin and Gandalf. (I still say Merlin was a better Wizard. He actually DID magic. Heck Merlin could’ve translocated that ring over Mount Doom.) This was true even when I was a small little kid. Wizarding was simply in my blood.

When did I stop being so cute? Thanks for making the costume mom!

My inner Wizard followed me through grade school, high school and college. Whenever I played a new video game and had the option? Yep, I was a Wizard. My class when I joined my friends from some roleplaying? Yep, I was a Wizard. I used to imagine that I could throw fireballs by conjuring them into existence on my hands. That would’ve been very handy lighting fires during boy scout events.

Eventually, I entered the workforce as an adult. I joined Pharmacy OneSource in 2007 as an implementation specialist. It wasn’t long until I was asked to take over admin and developer responsibilities for our Salesforce implementation. Soon after that I was introduce to Visualforce and began creating little “wizards” to help end users complete data in the system.

Then it was Halloween week. Pharmacy OneSource had this nice tradition of letting the employees dress up (Tactfully of course) for Halloween. We had a costume contest. I was planning on dressing up as a Wizard for Halloween anyways this year. I thought of a hilarious pun (you may have noticed I enjoy those).

I printed out a bunch of Salesforce logos. Back then they were that blocky-shaped S. I then cut the logos out and used scotch tape to adhere them to my Wizard’s Robe and Hat. I tried even placing them on the glowing sphere of my Wizard’s staff, but the effect was muted by the logos falling off.

I paraded the office wearing that costume. I walked past the Vice-President of Operations, while he was on a phone call. I’m pretty sure he had to put himself on mute because of the laughter.

Then someone took a photo.

Those logos are simply taped on. I had printed a bunch of extras, because they kept falling off.

Then a sign was made…

Beware Salesforce Wizard

It wasn’t long until my end-users insisted I wear that hat during trainings. Then one day, my hat went missing. Someone had stolen it! Woe to thee who evokes the wrath of the Wizard!

Turns out that Sarah Tearman loved my hat so much, she took it, printed the logo on CLOTH and sewed it on my hat. The new and improved hat is what everyone sees today.

So go thank Sarah for her contribution the Salesforce Wizard legacy. You can find her on Google plus and on Twitter

The next Dreamforce I wore that hat on the Expo floor. I was a little self-conscious. I mean I’m wearing a Wizard’s hat at business conference. Someone took a photo of me and a video. The next morning I awoke to see a second or two of my Wizard Hat on the Keynote welcome video.

From there it simply grew. Now, so many people know me simply by the Hat. The last two Dreamforces I spent a lot of time in the community lounge talking with people. I have lots of people come up to me to chat while I wore the hat. I took the hat off and suddenly no one came to say hello. I call it the reverse superman effect. Clark has to take off his glasses to become Superman. I have to put on a hat.

So there you have it folks. There’s the story of the Hat. I’ve made a couple of newer versions, but the best one is still the original.

I’ve been a Wizard all my life. It has only been recently that I’ve become the Salesforce Wizard.

I’ve always been a wizard