I reached the most important crossroads of my career as soon as I graduated from college. Most of my peers were entering the oil and gas industry, accepting roles in sedimentary petrology and well log analysis. All good and well for these gifted engineers and geologists, but something in my gut told me traditional oil and gas wasn’t for me.

I wanted to explore something new, so I chose a technology that was almost unknown at the time: geothermal energy.

When I first voiced my interest in this emerging field, there were plenty of skeptics. I wanted to learn about geothermal energy, but there were only three U.S. universities that offered geothermal curricula. I was told that I should be doing a PhD (not a master’s degree) if I wanted to get a Fulbright Scholarship. I became skeptical of their skepticism.

I did some homework, secured the scholarship, and set my path exactly where I wanted to go: New Zealand’s Auckland University. The resulting work took me farther than I ever imagined, gaining a deep understanding of the limitless heat within our earth after seeing, hearing, and feeling geothermal power beneath my feet.

At times, I have to pinch myself to remind me how lucky I am to do the work that I deliberately chose. Evaluating and quantifying hundreds of geothermal resources and supporting clean power projects seemed like a dream, but it’s real—and my geothermal career has been extraordinarily satisfying.

After 41 years and countless projects in dozens of countries, I’m seeing concrete results from my life’s work: geothermal is a household name worldwide, and next-gen technologies are enabling us to deliver its power at scale. It took a while, especially given that I started thinking about Enhanced Geothermal Systems back in 1997, but it was well worth the wait.

To be clear, I didn’t do this alone. I know what I know, but I’m also keenly aware of what I don’t know, which is one of the things I love most about this job: I’m continuously surrounded by brilliant minds that are willing to answer my never-ending questions.

It’s probably no surprise for those who know me that the best technical skill I learned in my long career at GeothermEx (and now at SLB) is posing questions to people smarter than me. It’s literally the fastest way to understand complex technologies, increase my knowledge, and quickly get on with the work at hand, as a good consultant does.

I greatly admire the people of SLB, their skills, their diversity of thought, their willingness to share, and more. My understanding of geothermal energy has continued to grow because of their input. Most of all, I appreciate the decision from our CEO to create the New Energy division of SLB in the first place, enabling us to deliver energy with minimal emissions.

New Energy is my work, my joy, and my honor. And as I reflect upon how far SLB has come over the last 100 years, I can only imagine how far we will go in the next 100.