2008 The Year of Growth and Discovery

2007 was an amazing year. At the beginning, I said it would be a year of growth. At the end, I say it was a year of discovery. Without question it was both. The growth came in both my personal and professional development and the progression towards combining the two. My hope is that one day I won't talk about my professional life as something different than my personal life. They will be one in the same.

The discovery in 2007 was really the recognition that I have the freedom to live the life that I want to live and not one dictated to me by my job or by society. In fact, the discovery was that that is the ONLY way to live. But to do that, you have to know what is important to you, understand why, and you have to choose to live with that as the basis for your words, actions and decisions. Last year, just before Christmas, I discovered what was important to me and why (read more). What is important to me is my family, all my families, including my friends and the communities I participate in wherever I am. The reason why those communities are important to me is that communities are more powerful entities than individuals and, through communities, we have the capacity to create, discover, and achieve great things which, as individuals, would couldn't normally do. I also discovered last year that I have a deep hatred for emotional suffering, for sadness. while I recognize that sadness is an important human emotion, it's one I don't enjoy and would like to minimize. Communities have the power to help us deal with sadness because they provide support and nurturing for their members.

About half way through 2007, having recognized that I needed to start living my life based on the things I found important, I began investigating professional ways to explore my interest in communities. I looked at companies whose products promoted the creation or maintenance of communities and roles where my responsibility would involve creating meaningful communities. I also realized that my to-date career in wireless communications was probably motivated by the fact that wireless technology allows people to stay connected to their communities while giving them the freedom to leave those communities and explore their interests. In addition to investigating companies whose business was related to communities, I also considered an entrepreneurial approach to my life/career and decided that my business would address 3 key interests of mine, self-expression, creating communities and keeping communities connected. I had added self-expression to the list of important things in my life because I realized that expression was a pathway to self-discovery and that the best communities were those comprised of people who had a strong grip on their identities.

While looking for a job that fit my interests at the end of 2007, I started a project called License To Live which focused on promoting expression and overcoming social constraints. The launch of that project at the end of the year was one of the highlights of the year and also one of the highlights of my life. The other major highlight of 2007 was the family reunion in June at my grandmothers 90th birthday in Savannah, Georgia. Having 4 generations and 10 decades of family together was a great experience.

Other great events in 2007 were the birth of my niece, Savannah Mae Keck, the addition of new friends to my life, including Kris and Shashi, an adventure to South Africa, three trips to Ibiza, Burningman 2007 and the Recharge Ranch, a successful IT project delivered at Sky and my resignation from Accenture. A lot happened this year. It was a good year. I feel great about where I am in life and I'm looking forward to an amazing 2008...my prediction: the year of acceleration. Hope to see you there.