The first major agile project that I ran (I wrote the proposal, sold it to the customer, & architected all the processes) was in 1996. I turned around a failing US$25MM embedded real-time high fidelity aviation/avionics simulation program by re-engineering it for US$3.5MM, cutting the lifecycle in half, reducing system test defects from 6000 to 2, and earning a quality award from the US Air Force. The program was voted 1 of the top 5 US gov’t programs by a panel of experts that included Watts Humphrey (author of the S/W CMM) and Capers Jones.
As a teenager I possessed eidetic memory, was a champion musician, enjoyed advanced math, and once converted two 6-7-10 splits back to back.