My First Mentor: Lessons from Dr. Allan Nowakowski

When I think back on the beginning of my career in software development, one name immediately comes to mind: Dr. Allan Nowakowski. He wasn’t just my first mentor—he became a good friend and someone I admire to this day.

In 1991, I began an internship with Dr. Nowakowski. At the time, I didn’t realize just how unique his background was. He was a surgeon by training, but he had also started his own software company. Not only did he know surgery, but he knew how to write good software—really good software. That combination was rare then, and it’s still rare today.

What struck me most about working with him was how his approach to surgery carried over into his approach to software. Surgery demands great planning, detail, precision, and a mindset of getting it right the first time. You can’t afford shortcuts in an operating room—and he believed the same was true in software development.

That mindset shaped the way I learned to code and think about projects. He taught me that writing software wasn’t just about making it work—it was about making it work well, with the same attention to detail you’d want in any life-critical system.

I ended up working full-time for him for nearly four years. During that time, I absorbed not only technical skills but also a philosophy: that excellence is found in the details, and that careful planning and execution pay off in the long run.

Looking back now, decades later, I can see how much of my career—and even the way we approach projects at Sovereign Systems—was influenced by those early years. Dr. Nowakowski didn’t just teach me how to be a better developer. He taught me how to think, how to care about quality, and how to bring the mindset of “getting it right the first time” into everything I build.

For that, I’ll always be grateful.

In loving memory of Dr. Allan Nowakowski