A few weeks ago, I was sent a blog post from my co-worker Aaron Bertrand (@AaronBertrand) that was created by Ed Leighton-Dick (@eleightondick) that he thought I should read. The post was about a call being made to the SQL Server community to start new blog posts via the SQL New Blogger Challenge (#SQLNewBlogger). Aaron is the same person that over a year ago challenged me to start Twittering (my 15 followers can blame him). So I somewhat knew what his new challenge was going to be based on Ed’s topic.
“The idea with the challenge is to have fun writing and to get ourselves
comfortable with publishing what we write (often the hardest part!).”
Let me say kudos to Ed for creating such a challenge; this is sheer genius. I believe this challenge could be the start for some of the best bloggers of the future. Giving “Newbs” the nudge to begin careers as bloggers by sharing content of personal interests, potentially teaching others new ideas and concepts, and building a better SQL Server community in the process.
This blog post will not be one of those! What could I ever contribute that would be of any value? I am not a technical expert like Grant Fritchey, Paul Randal, Kimberly Tripp, or the hundreds of other highly published SQL Server gurus. I came up with all the excuses of “Why Not” that Aaron listed in his recent blog post, Challenges for new community bloggers and speakers!
I am a sales geek that has been in and around technology since 1988. (I’ll pause here to give you time to make old jokes.) Throughout my sales career I have sold PCs, Macs, high-resolution image setting systems, backup software, security software, hospital dictation systems, medical records systems, and speech recognition systems. For the last 9 1/2 years I have had the privilege to be Vice President of Sales and Marketing for SQL Sentry. This has put me on the periphery of the SQL Server community and, from the edges, it looks pretty awesome.
To answer my own question, “What could I contribute that would be of any value?”, my hope is a lot. To provide a perspective to non-technical questions that some in our community may not ask but would like to know. I plan to use a little humor while writing about leadership, team dynamics and other topics that may be useful in everyday life. If I’m successful, I will be able to channel the writing styles of people like columnist and author Dave Barry, humorist Lewis Grizzard, and the wit of Jerry Seinfeld while making my point. In other words, somewhat as entertaining as Brent Ozar but nowhere near as technical. I have a more-than-even chance of succeeding if I follow the advice provided by co-worker Kevin Kline outlined in his recent post Advice To Aspiring Tech Bloggers. I appreciate both Kevin’s and Aaron’s help.
Thanks again Ed for the nudge. I hope you come back next week. Until next time… Live your own Harsh Reality, and I’ll live mine.
Nick (@nicharsh) is the Senior Vice President of Cloud Alliances for SentryOne and is responsible for leading the SentryOne relationships with Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and other cloud providers.
Prior to joining SentryOne, Nick was Vice President of National & Strategic Accounts for Dictaphone – Healthcare Division. Previous experience includes sales management positions with Computer Associates, NEC Computer USA, Tegra Varityper, and Heath/Zenith Computer Systems.
Nick holds a BA degree in Economics from University of Dayton in Dayton, OH.