I often get asked when do I find the time to blog. The answer rather self-evidently is right now. I with the not inconsiderable assistance of a 747 and trained crew am flying at 31000 feet en route to Singapore. Whichever direction one leaves from New York it is a long flight.
So the question might more provokingly be asked why don’t I write War and Peace or A Rembrance of Things Past rather than a measly couple of paragraphs. Well again the answer is obvious – because I can’t.
I have previously written on why I started and continue this blog (see Recursive Loops: A Blog on Blogging); today I simply tackle the "how." I write mostly on airplanes and occasionally on the ground late at night. I typically write the prospective piece as an email to myself these days on my iPad. This provides me a ready spell-checker and an easy means to later upload to the server that hosts this blog. I am not a brilliant time manager but I get a lot done because I am not lazy and at work I have an outstanding team.
When I started blogging over five years ago one of my staff suggested that it could be ghost-written and then run through Legal Marketing Communications etc. With the exception of good ideas which I borrow freely the text is unfortunately all mine. This certainly means that it will never rival Tolstoy or Proust but at least it is faithful to my voice.
Sir This Wed my company’s CEO in APAC came to me waving your name card and said: I met your boss’s boss’ boss’ boss. I am currently with a Swiss company in Singapore and I am responsible for all the translation for Thomson Reuters Legal in China. I used to use Westlaw in law school. It may seem funny but somehow I feel like I am part of Thomson Reuters as well. My best wishes for you and the Group.
Dear Tom “Aha so he gets the time to write blogs eh?” is a rather common refrain for one who decides to write alluding to almost a criminal act of dereliction of duty like the two were mutually exclusive. Having more CEOs writing blogs bolsters up the counter-argument in such situations and thank you Tom for helping the cause. Perhaps you can extend your interest to viral-ize blogging amongst the CEOs of firms that TR serves through its businesses. Even if most of their posts are sanitized by their organization it will be wonderful to get insights from the corner-offices. Sincerely
Glad to hear that you are enjoying your iPad. Maybe you can convince Thomson Reuters technology to come up with a way for iPads to be able to log into the VPN via Juniper (the new VPN that became effective July 1). This would allow your employees to work more efficiently on the road or in the air.