Failing Forward: Turning Failures Into Fuel
Joe Heli delivers the closing keynote of Simply CyberCon 2024 with a talk that has nothing to do with technology and everything to do with the human side of our industry. He opens by calling himself a failure, then proceeds to show how that framing became his greatest asset.
The Background
Joe is an Army Airborne infantry veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has been a paramedic, police officer, moonshine distiller, mayor, legislative candidate, penetration tester, and red team lead. He is a father of two daughters and flies a paramotor. This diverse background is not just a resume flex. Each pivot represents a failure that pushed him forward.
The Raw Truth
This talk gets uncomfortable, and Joe warns the audience upfront. He grew up as a child of divorced parents with open drug abuse, domestic violence, and an absent father. As a 19-year-old fire team leader, he learned that authoritative leadership was all he knew because it was all he had seen. He openly discusses his mental health struggles and reveals that in 2009, he attempted suicide in Afghanistan. The gun did not fire. The room goes silent.
The Pattern of Failing Forward
Joe traces his entire career arc as a series of failures that became stepping stones. Failed as a police officer when mental health caught up. Failed to find cybersecurity work after getting his degree because he lacked traditional IT experience. Rather than starting on a help desk, he networked his way into an internship with Heath Adams at TCM Security, started streaming on Twitch during the pandemic, and eventually asked for help on LinkedIn, which is what finally led to job offers.
The Core Message
The thesis is simple but delivered with conviction: we are all failures, and we are all presented with a choice when failure arrives. You can accept failure as your identity and stagnate, or you can accept failure as an event and build from it. There is nothing special about Joe that others do not possess. The difference is continuing to put one foot in front of the other.
Who Should Watch
Anyone struggling with imposter syndrome, career transitions, or the mental health challenges that are endemic in cybersecurity. Veterans transitioning into tech will find particular resonance. This is not a technical talk. It is a human one, and it hits hard.