Getting Started

I've never had the desire to blog. It could be that I missed the generational cut off line like how my grandparents didn't use computers or VCRs. However maybe I'm just showing my age and contempt to the activity sort of an early onset of: "Hey! you kids get off my lawn." For those of you that have went before me here unless you're total narcissists you're probably like me in thinking: Who is going to read what I have to say?

Let's find out:

Malcom Gladwell in his book Outliers talked about the 10,000 hour rule. His thought was that it takes at least 10,000 hours at an activity to have a level of mastery in it. I remember reading that and thinking great now how have I been spending my time?

The two areas that I probably have that level of mastery are in my career (VP of Sales of used telecom products) and in writing poetry. Right now, you've probably slumped back on your sectional sofa and thinking, "Man, that guy is living the dream." I know. I sometimes get jealous of myself too.

While I could go into how to price product and make money in the used market, let's start with poetry.

When Gladwell says it takes 10,000 hours to master something, he fails to point out how awful the first 9,000 of those hours are. I've produced some truly awful work. I remember struggling with concepts that now are second nature to me.

I'll try to take you all through some of my early work (shudder). Go over some of the things I learned either through trial and error or from other sources, and also share some of my later work (which I'll probably cringe at in another ten years as well.

Writing is a lifetime sort of thing. While I just sent a few poems out for publication (they were solicited), I mostly don't write to publish. I write to create something worthwhile.

There are many times that I wish I chose carpentry, or auto mechanics, or just about anything practical to spend my 10,000 hours on, but we ultimately get what we get--and anyway people with those skills are probably wishing they wrote, painted, or played music.

More later