At long last, I have a personal Web site again. This one will be a little different than the one I had before, though – and that makes sense since it is a different time. A big difference is the presence of this – a blog – which was not a part of my prior one. This is all another subject for another time, but first, a little about the blog.
I had thought about launching my own personal Web site again for a while. A few things ultimately pushed me to make it happen, and it did not happen as quickly as I would have liked, but what is behind having a blog that will be active on the site stands out.
In the last year or so, I have become an avid fan of many podcasts, including Entrepreneur on Fire (EO Fire). One day, host John Lee Dumas had Chris Myers, the founder and CEO of a financial management solution for small businesses and startups, on his show. Chris also authored a book entitled Enlightened Entrepreneurship, which he talked about. I have not yet read the book, but want to get it and read it.
What I remember most from that podcast came near the end. John puts his guests through a rapid-fire round of questions called the Lightning Round, and one question he asks is, “What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?” Chris’ answer, which actually came from a business publication writer he knew, stayed with me: “Write every single day.”
I intend to at least come pretty close to that. I remember as soon as I heard that answer that it was something I ought to do. It probably won’t lead to a published book, as it was for Chris – he said this was basically how he wrote Enlightened Entrepreneurship – but it can only help. Some days, what I produce will be longer than others.
Sure, I already write for Hoopville, but not every day. Hoopville is also focused on one subject – college basketball and everything connected to it. That means there is also high school basketball with recruiting and the NBA with the draft (which is two days away as I write this). But I have thoughts on so much more. It’s high time I put them together, especially since I feel I can do a good job of it.
That is what this place will be. Writing every single day will be easier said than done, but I will certainly try. My initial goal is to at least write every single weekday. On some days, I may let my Hoopville writing be my writing for the day.
There is value in writing no matter what you do for a living. My day job is in software engineering; writing might not strike you as being particularly important there. However, we must communicate often in writing if we send e-mail to a colleague or even someone outside the business. Sometimes, we are tasked with writing a spec of some other document, and these are not of minor importance. I have authored user manuals, theory of operation documents and software generation documents in my career.
There is much more to software engineering than sitting down at a PC with a source code editor open and writing code. I won’t mind occasionally shedding some light on that for those who are not privy to the industry.
So this is the beginning of trying to follow the best advice Chris Myers ever received, passed on from a business writer. It is the beginning of writing every single day, or, as a former colleague (among other people) used to say, a reasonable facsimile thereof.