all or nothing
So I stopped blogging for a while. While I was away, I also did very little blogroll reading. I felt uneasy at first, as if the world might wrongfully conclude I was giving up on vanity. At the same time, it felt great - I was productive and what’s more, I was productive!
By no means is this post a condemnation of blogs (despite all the posts I’ve read today about blogging being dead, or not). Instead, this is an acknowledgement that maybe some things just don’t fit the ‘all or nothing’ agenda.
For me, blogging has never been about who’s listening. Occasionally I think things that I wish I could share with more people (not that I don’t love my 5 devoted readers… Hi MOM!). More often than not though, this blog is an outlet. It’s a way to formalize and organize thoughts. Blogging everyday versus not blogging at all, is no more a reflection of my life in those moments than my posts themselves. I recently heard Scoble’s ‘Blog of the Future’ Kyte.tv rant in which he describes the different components of an online presence. He cites Facebook as his “Identity” vehicle. For me, this blog is an extension of that identity and nothing else - not a revenue stream, not a public relations effort, not an offer.
So when I consider Seth Godin’s ‘Dip’ theory, I have to ask myself whether or not the activities we perform for our own amusement, subscribe to a different model. Seth’s account is that we often find ourselves asking if the goal is even worth the hassle. My question is what we should do if there is no set goal?
This is a list of things I’ve undertaken in my life for no reason at all:
1. I have spent years studying irrelevant sports statistics, the result; I am very good at back-of-a-napkin calculations.
2. I’ve created full blown reports with analysis for companies that didn’t even solicit my services, the result; I’m better at deciding if a report is needed based on napkin calculations.
3. I’ve submitted business plans to YCombinator and TechStars with zero chance of getting selected, the result; I have an understanding of what it takes to create something ‘web 2.0′ as oppose to just report on it.
4. I used to use an Atlas to learn city names, then I’d assign that city an imaginary sports franchise, the result; I got very good at creating descriptive names, which has served me well when communicating abstract ideas.
5. I’m writing a book that I’ll never see published; the result, I am better at communicating both abstractly and with a point.
6. I read blogs, the result; I get to the point quickly and it eventually led to me starting my own.
7. I write a blog, the result; to be determined… a betting man might say it will somehow be a reflection of me.
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Someone who talks a lot, listens a lot, sings on the streets and loves big ideas. If you need a discipline or two for piece of mind, try Marketer and Entrepreneur. If you need a title to legitimize why you'd waste your time here, I can't help you. I work with people on fire for the things they love.
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