As many stories do, it started with curiosity. Not the polished, career-driven kind, but the kind that begins with a kid, a computer, and a fascination with how things work.
Where It All Began
Brandon Trabon didn’t set out to work in ERP. His journey began somewhere far more familiar and far more playful. “I was always really into video games,” he recalls. “That’s really what got me started… trying to learn how to create my own.”
By eighth grade, he was already deep in it. His family’s first computer, an expensive and almost mythical object at the time, opened a door, and he took every course he could find, chasing the idea that he could build something of his own.
But like many paths in tech, the destination didn’t quite match the starting point. “Ironically, that’s not where I ended up.”
And maybe that’s the point.
Falling Into ERP, and Finding Meaning
Brandon doesn’t romanticise his entry into ERP. “I sort of fell into it more than anything.”
What he found there was not just a career, but a pattern. About a decade into his journey, something shifted. He began noticing the subtle signals most people overlook, the early cracks in projects that, on the surface, seemed fine. “I realised that there was something wrong in the way things were done.”
It was not always obvious. Deadlines were missed but explained away, code issues pushed into “later,” and warnings softened until they disappeared.
“Before long, it’s not ‘we’ll catch up next sprint’… it’s every sprint.”
Slowly and almost invisibly, failure becomes normal.
When Failure Becomes The Norm
One project in particular stayed with him. Years later, he still talks about it. Not because it succeeded, but because it didn’t. “For all the things we did right… the delivery just completely went flat.”
The team had built something complex and even impressive, but when it came time to deliver, nothing worked. “That was like the ultimate failure.”
What made it different was not just the outcome, it was that Brandon had seen it coming. He had raised the concerns, flagged the direction, and tried to course-correct, but no one listened. That moment quietly shaped how he would show up in every project after.
Learning To See, and Speak Up
Today, Brandon sits close to the ground level of projects, the place where problems are born.
“The problem starts in things like bad code… missed deadlines… things that get excused.”
From there, he has learned something many never do, how to translate those early signals into something others can hear, not with blame or ego, but with care.
“I always try to bring it up from a standpoint of trying to be helpful.”
He has seen what happens when teams turn on each other. “It becomes nothing but fights… and then the project’s gone.”
So he leans into something simpler and harder. “You get more flies with honey than vinegar.”
It is advice passed down from his mother, and in the high-pressure world of ERP, it has become a philosophy.
The Real Work: Course Correction
Brandon’s role is not officially “project manager,” but in many ways, he is doing something just as critical. He connects the dots early, says “we’ve been here before,” and tries, gently and persistently, to shift direction before it is too late.
Sometimes people listen, corrections are made, and the project succeeds. Sometimes they don’t, and it usually ends the same way.
Still, he keeps showing up, because for Brandon, the work is not just about building software. It is about protecting the people, the effort, and the belief behind it.
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