Stand Next to Expensive Things: 10 Lessons from SQL Server Master Brent Ozar

02 Feb 2025 #misc

You don’t know where you will find him next. In a bathtub, a garage, an exotic beach in Mexico, somewhere in Iceland, or his office.

In every Office Hour, Brent shows a small glimpse of his personality and life.

I started to follow him for SQL Server advice. He’s maybe the SQL Server expert. In fact, I took his courses. But I ended up showing up to his Office Hours for career and consulting advice.

After watching Brent’s YouTube live sessions, here are 10 lessons I learned from him:

#1. Stand next to expensive things. Each SQL Server license costs around ~5k per core. Anything Brent charges for his consulting services is way cheaper than the licensing costs of an average server. Stand next to expensive things to charge premium rates.

#2. When planning your next workshop or course, start by writing the takeaway slide first. Then, create the rest of the content around that.

#3. If you ask “when is it time to leave my job?,” then it’s already time. If you wait for a layoff to look for a new job, it’s too late. The best time is when you don’t need a job

#4. If you’re planning to start consulting, start blogging and presenting months and years before to build your reputation. And always finish your presentations by saying “If you need more help, feel free to contact me.”

#5. Work on the smallest change that brings the most impact. This is something I learned from his Mastering courses. Often, we start to turn knobs and push buttons to make our SQL Server faster, without making any noticeable impact. The same applies to work outside the database work.

#6. Take a photo of you in your current work environment. That’s a future reminder of where you were and what brought you to where you are now.

#7. People follow you by who you are. Ok, Brent is opinionated and doesn’t restrict himself from roasting people in his YouTube live sessions. That’s one of the reasons people (and I) follow him. Authenticity.

#8. Impostor syndrome never goes away. The other day, I asked him how to deal with impostor syndrome. And hearing one of the top SQL Server experts saying he still feels like an impostor when working with clients was relieving. We’re all constantly learning and improving.

#9. You don’t have to be THE expert, you just need to know a bit more than the person you’re helping. This goes hand in hand with #8. It takes yeaaars to be the #1 in the world at anything, if you ever reach that point. But you don’t have to wait to be the #1 to start helping others and start making money.

#10. Build a brand so powerful that clients line up. Chances are that if you google anything related to SQL Server, Brent’s website will pop up. You’ll find him in YouTube, Twitch, and maybe TikTok. At this point, he doesn’t need to chase clients. He has a strong online presence. And it takes years to build one.

In my hometown, there’s a saying: build a reputation, then go to bed. Brent did that.

To learn how to make your SQL Server go faster with Brent—and support this blog—buy the Fundamentals Bundle here and the Fundamentals + Mastering Bundle here. I can’t recommend Brent’s courses enough. Learn from a real expert, with real queries.