It’s been about 2 months since my sabbatical and that long since I have written for this blog, or for INC magazine, or crafted a new Tweet. Yep, 8 weeks or about 60 days. Miss me? Well I missed writing but I did not miss the deadlines.
What did I learn from being away?
- My writing muscles began to atrophy. Seriously, it’s like starting all over again.
- My brain feels much less cluttered.
- I don’t feel like I am chasing shit – shit seems to be finding me.
- The world continues on – however, many of you have reached out and asked me when I am going to start writing again. Thanks for those thoughts.
- I am developing a new set of themes that I want to explore including (fundraising experiences, founder self-awareness, RTP phase “next”, views from outside RTP).
What am I doing now post-TSF?
- First of all, Dave and I still have 35 investments to manage and help succeed – that is the commitment we made to our investors.
- I am spending time outside of Raleigh/Durham to talk to others involved in similar activities. I need to hear what is going on and get some different perspectives. Stops in DC, New York, Boulder, Austin, and the valley are scheduled.
- I am getting the writing back up to speed with INC, this blog, and the start of another book.
- Lastly, I am continuing to hit the speaker circuit around the country. I love this (personally) and it gives me a platform to talk about startups, investment, community building all of which shines a bright light back to RTP.
As part of my sabbatical, Patty and I took a 3 week break in St. John USVI. I feel very lucky. First of all I have never taken a break this long where the only mission was to not use my brain. I did not take a computer and checked my email every couple days (my vacation auto-responder said email with the word URGENT in the subject line if it is important). My email scan took all of 2 minutes. I mean off the grid. I also read a ton of stupid crime novel paperbacks. And sat on the most gorgeous beaches I have ever seen.
The result – a clarity that I have not had for a long time. I am super excited to share what comes next as soon as it crystallizes (probably over the next 60 days).
Thanks for having me back and look for some new thoughts . . .