‘Cause after a while and a thousand miles, it all becomes
the same... - Bill Joel
Once upon a time in his song The
Entertainer about life on the road as a musician.
This is my 1,000th blog post under the
LotusEvangelist brand/title/moniker/aura. I had planned to write this one
December 31st or when the latest IBM Champion announcement came out,
but I was a few blog posts short.
The early days, 2007 or so, I was blogging quite frequently
but over the years that slowed down considerably. Last year I had barely a post
a month. I could blame G+, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin or just face a reality
that one cannot write forever. It is not writer’s block but more likely I have
said all I wanted to say on this topic. This of course is not true, but it
would seem this way based on the data.
Many of my posts were about technical peculiarities and
things I, and hopefully you, learned along the way. The ecosystem of Lotus, now
IBM Notes and Domino, thrived because we all worked together to help it grow,
collaboration at its best. The original belief I had that we, the experienced
ones, needed to help the new admins and people who were not getting training
anymore was what led me to continue writing once I found my muse for this blog.
The Muse was a lack of evangelism around the Lotus brand.
Many Lotus, now IBM, technical blogs exist, but few theory or business related
ones. In particular no one really wanted to engage the enemies of our
livelihood. It was a role I had when I worked for Lotus and one which I
desperately wanted to see the Tiger team and SWAT teams perform, but that never
happened. Internally I know they published but it was the lack of external
information which pushed me further down this blog of a rabbit hole.
There were 70 FUD Buster Friday posts which were way too
much fun to write until there was not enough to really write about further. As
Paul Simon once said, “I could see the writing on the wall”. Plus, to be
honest, I don’t like the serial, “I have to write another Friday” post feeling,
it goes against my free spirited view of life. However, it is the best way to create a
following, by being consistent.
Of course the other vendors also stopped publishing the hard
core stuff against us. A few people, not many, asked me to stop wasting my time
on these posts and yet many others ask if I will write more for posts and the upstarts
they come across. Being an IBM Champion has caused me to respond to these maybe
too often. I don’t apologize, they were written because I wanted to write them,
not because I thought I needed to do so, or because IBM or anyone else pushed
me to do so. The life of an evangelist is a double edged sword at times.
My blog also was used to help promote events. I tried to
promote not just the many conferences and training events I was a part of, but some
of the ones I never could get to as well. I tried to average 4 events a year to
be a part of, and help, where, and when I could with other ones. My blog also
helped me speak on 3 different occasions at SugarCon, the SugarCRM annual
event.
Sometimes I wrote things I regretted, sometimes I wrote the
most amazing posts and no one read them. What encourages readership is beyond
me at times but I do know that timing is everything. My iNotes posts from years
ago are still hit every.single.day, go figure.
I had some fun posts, various holidays and quirks of pop
culture and even discussions about the opera and live tweeting it. Yes, it has
been quite a bit of fun over the years. The blog helped me become an IBM
Redbooks Thought Leader with a Social Residency. I wish I could be a part of these
further for IBM and help train the new people and also protect them from the
zombieness of canned social media. Be yourself, some of you out there get it
and you should be encouraged further.
Speaking of IBM Redbooks, there were various Redbooks I
wrote or took part in writing. There were articles written for The View and
Exams that I wrote. I would be remiss if I did not mention the Quickr
Administrator book. All of these great things, and people, may not have come
about if I had not been blogging and getting my name out there in some way
shape or form. And almost all of this was before I was an IBM Champion too.
And now, now I believe it is time to admit that much of what
I wanted to say has been said. Are there still things I’d like to post, yes.
Will I? That is a good question and only time will tell.
My next project is taking shape and as it grows I will keep
you informed but I believe it will take much of my free time and so I am not
going to say this is the end, but I do not expect to post often and given the
last year or so, I think I am being pretty open and honest on this point.
The friends, places and events which I have been a part of
over the years are what give me hope for the future endeavors we all embark
upon to shine the light of collaboration, trust, friendship and experience no
matter what business, or where, we end up.
For the first time in my life I feel old. I go to events and
realize I am not the average attendee age, I am the old guy in the room. I
wasn’t expecting this to happen, not yet at least. The interesting thing is my
peers and friends, and readers, are in the same boat. We see the new people
coming up the ranks and some of them really are as good, if not better, than we
were and are today. Some of us also only get better with age.
Blogging is not a young or old thing to do. It is an
expression of creativity, or sanity check, which I have enjoyed. I cannot
express my appreciation enough to all the people who commented, liked a post,
met me at an event and shook my hand, bought me a drink or thanked me for being
there and helping them out, or just encouraging them to go for broke, but keep
their day job too.
It was, and is, worth it and I don’t regret more than 2-3
posts over all that time which I think is a pretty good ratio.
Last second words of Wisdom:
Don’t post Shit(but do write some
fun posts), think about how people will react when you are being provocative,
don’t dump on the hand that feeds you, be it IBM or any vendor, or your
customers. Try to give credit to others when it is due, if you get great help
from support please blog about it for their managers benefit(Yes, I know it is
about the survey but I also know it lets the support people know we care).
I’d like to think I will write another 1,000 posts in time, just
not wait 9 years again to reach the milestone.
No idea when I will see you next, maybe at the next
conference, maybe in an airport passing through, but we will see each other
again soon my friends.