Maybe the title should be "Will blog for coffee" since I’ve got the mobile office visiting a brand new Starbucks today; I’m at the Lansdale, PA coffeehouse testing the WiFi. Unlike James’ recent experience, no salsa music here. I’d call it some type of world-beat music but I listen to Country and New Age, so what would I know? ;)
I suppose it’s time to come clean as I’ve received a number of e-mails asking what I’m up to. Some recent reader comments asking about my mobile movement have elicited nothing but pithy responses from me, but I strongly believe in transparency, so let me explain the post title and get you all up to date.
My Twitter friends have known this for a few weeks, but for better or worse, I’ve left my 15-year career in Information Technology. Over the years, I was graced with a lucrative salary working on various projects for companies like EDS, General Motors and most recently, Aetna. We’ll keep the numbers out of this but I can tell you that based on the small amount of advertising and affiliate revenues we get here, I’ve effectively taken a 90% cut in salary. Crazy? Perhaps. Have I given it a second thought since I left the corporate world earlier this month. Not once.
For too many years, I’ve gone through the motions at work. At first, it was exciting and fun but as I moved up and down the corporate ladder, it became abundantly clear that I wanted out. If your profession isn’t enjoyable you’ll eventually burn out and walk away as a husk of a person; nothing inside regardless of how much money you did or didn’t make. In the end, I believe in taking one day at a time; enjoying that day to the fullest. That’s why two years ago, Barbara and I made a two year plan to get me to this point. I’m happy to say two years later, I’m there.
How long will I do this? Good question. I’ve built up some savings and I have a wealth of support from Barbara as I try to give this a go, but there’s a limit to the timetable. It’s not relevant to this discussion to say how long that is because there are so many variables, but there is a timetable for me to make this work. To do that, I’ll continue blogging here; hopefully more than I have in the past. The new freedom should provide more time for original content which I think is the backbone of any writing medium. Sure, we try to keep you up to date on the mobile tech news and even tell you how we think it will impact you, but original content is important too.
I’ll also be looking to do more print magazine articles; the feelers are out there, but unfortunately, no responses yet. We’ve also got some secret projects going on here; if they pan out, we’ll be sure to share the news with you. You might have also noticed a few changes here and there at jkOnTheRun; just last night we added links to the five most recent stories on every individual post page. While our regular readers scour every bit from our front page (and we love that you do!), a large number of visitors find us via search engines and therefore go a specific post page. This new feature helps let them see that we’ve got other content they might benefit from.
Who knows if this will work out? Not me, but I’m enjoying today: using mobile tech to write about a subject I’m passionate about. Hopefully, you’re enjoying it too. I do know this: it has always been and will always be a privilege to write for you: the readers. Passion for a topic is essentially wasted if there’s nobody to share it with. I’ll continue to share it with you each day while learning more from you than you from me.
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