Question of the week

I blogged last week that I would start a weekly post answering questions that were posed to me.  You can see the widget on the right hand side of this blog where you can ask a question.  I got a lot of questions.  Really great ones.  Some of them can be coupled together and others are definitely single blog posts. 

The first question that I am going to answer is really the perfect kick off for this weekly post. 

why did you start blogging? what was your first topic? how has that initial desire to blog evolved?

I began blogging on October 4, 2003.  Nine years ago.  It was my birthday. I was 42 years old.  Since then I have written 3,226 posts. 

Here is my original post:

I have been hemming and hawing about what should I do next?  I have had 6 careers.  Buyer at Macys,  ran a company in the rag trade,  dabbled in a few friends businesses, spearheaded sales of a start-up magazine/ezine/events company in Silicon Alley, chaired a non-profit organization focused on technology in inner city school (mostly high schools), sat on a few profit and non-profit boards. Now, I sit on the exec board of my kids school and the most important job - a full time mom. 

So, today I decided since I can't seem to figure out a job that would fit perfectly into my schedule which would take up only 2 - 3 hours daily, depending on the day.  I decided I'd start a blog.  

I'll write about what I do.  People are always asking me for information.  Have you seen any interesting art lately?  Any good restaurants? Good recipes?  Where should I get this stuff for my kids?  Good books?  New stores?  Websites?  Political discussions.  What CD's should I buy or download?  Etc., etc., etc..

My biggest focus these days is just being around for my kids.  Hey, they are only young once.  Bigger kids, bigger issues.   I'm fortunate that I am able to do it.  So, perhaps my blog will lead me in the direction of my next career but it certainly fits into my criteria of the 2 -3 hour a day availability.

I starting blogging because I wanted to remain connected to the tech industry but I did not want to be involved like I had been.  Being involved in the tech world is pretty much a 24/7 life and I couldn't do that anymore.  I know how difficult a start-up is.  It takes over your entire existence even when you are having dinner with friends, that business is just sitting in your head.  You can't help it. 

I wanted to have something that I could call my own and blogging was the perfect thing.  At the start I did not write every day.  As time passed and the tech world rebounded I began to write daily as blogging became part of our culture and I ramped up just like everyone else did. 

The last few sentences in my original post sums it up.  Perhaps my blog will lead me into a new direction of my next career.  I feel pretty confident in saying that it did.  I began to hear from people particularly women who wanted to share their businesses, their anxieties about having kids and figuring out how to balance their lives and I started to have people in other communities just reach out. 

Here I am nine years later in a very different spot.  This blog gave me the platform to reinvent myself.  So now when people ask me what do you do instead of answering I am a superhero I get to answer I am a blogger and an angel investor...and it feels pretty damn good.