justplainbil

Just Plain Bill

“525,600 minutes,

how do you measure a year?”

I love this song from the musical Rent because it asks and answers such a powerful question that is understandable to everyone: How do I measure a year?

The most public accomplishment in my 75^th year was to write a weekly entry on this blog site Just Plain Bill. Over the past 52 weeks, I’ve been writing on a variety of personal experiences and observations, fulfilling a commitment I made a year ago, both driving and allowing me to follow through with the discipline that’s been lacking in my life in far too many areas over the years.

David Girard, attorney and owner of David Girard Vineyards, is a friend I’ve known for 40 years. As good friends will do for each other, he candidly shared a perception and some constructive criticism. He once said that I have a wealth of good, creative ideas – but I’ve not followed up on enough of them. At last, I can finally say to David that I have followed up on two major quests. One is my commitment to writing this weekly blog. The other was working with two serial entrepreneurs, David Chan and Alex Tran, writing and publishing an eBook titled The Virtual Office: Success Tools for Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses. I also believe my writing ability has improved, which is significant at my age when competencies do not grow willingly, and therefore is certainly worthy of sharing as a minor quest!

An associated enhancement to my past year included benefiting from the awesome support of my dear friend and editor, Allyn Geer, who, while living in Florida, has proved that a virtual relationship can work exceptionally well. I feel truly blessed!

My latest 525,600 minutes has also included the return of my health after more than three years of dealing with maladies (including two bouts of pneumonia) resulting from the stress from staying in a toxic work environment.  All the warnings I have given to others – and occasionally not heeded myself – came to a long overdue conclusion as I finally left an unhealthy work life…an environment exacerbated by a world-class micromanager.

Future blogs during my next 525,600 minutes will be addressing types of management, the comparison of leadership with management, and many steps in-between. The role of unions in the survival of either subject will also be addressed, leading to the question –  “Is the right-to-work truly a right, and is it time to eliminate collective bargaining?” as I believe that collective bargaining is an oxymoron and has outlived its usefulness. Just a tad controversial, eh?

I’d love to hear how you “measure a year”?