Celebrating Pine Islanders: Adam Chido
(Who finally got on the front page!)
Adam Chido said he is a professional computer nerd, in fact, he describes himself as a general practitioner in this industry.
“I guess you could consider me a computer technician,” Chido said.
He confesses he’s had many roles in the span of his career, and often he and his colleagues refer to themselves as system administrators.
“If I had to go look for a job, I’d be looking for a system administrator’s job,” Chido said, although he owns Tarpon Technology solutions.
The most important things to know about him, he said, are that he is personally empathetic and professionally geared toward customer service. Overall, he said he sees himself as being available more than anything.
Chido said his family has been on Pine Island since the 1980s.
“I remember visiting here in the early ’80s,” Chido said, although he said he didn’t move here until 2008.
After his mother moved to Pine Island, Chido said he came to visit and during the visit, while out on a kayak, he caught a big trout and had an epiphany. He said he wondered what he was doing with his life.
“I’ve been a computer technician or systems admin for just years, for big corporations. I had just been laid off before Christmas. My lease was up for renewal and I’d just paid off the car. I was at a real transition point,” Chido said.
He said it was literally on a whim that he found himself packing up his truck and he drove down to Florida. He said he found himself without work in his field for roughly 90 days. It was at this point, he said, that he made business cards that his family passed around for him.
“Thus, Tarpon Technology Solutions was born and I’ve been pretty busy ever since,” Chido said.
Although he said flip-flops are an official part of his uniform, and he loves that part of his career decision to have his own island business, his best impact on the island has become his ability to skip billing charitable island organizations or churches when they need computer help.
‘That’s a small way that I try to give back. I understand that it’s a small community and these are the community leaders and the people who are directly benefitting the community, so that’s my way to help keep the machines running, ” Chido said.
When having to describe the island, Chido said he would refer folks to a sign he saw years ago in the deli, which said, ‘No surf, no beaches, no see’ums.’
“It’s a fairly quiet, rural island with no stoplights and one bridge on and off,” Chido said.
If he had one wish for Pine Island, Chido said, it would definitely be slow growth.
“I’d have to try to think about something I have to leave the island for to have, but I never leave the island except for work,” Chido said with a laugh.
His greatest wish for himself and Pine Island, he said, is that he would never leave, as this is where he’s lived the longest and he’s never leaving.
To reach PAULETTE LeBLANC / pleblanc@breezenewspapers.com, please email