Yesterday, I offered a friend some advice: If it doesn't make you happy, don't do it.
... and my friends... with those 9 simple words.. and in less the 4 hours... I killed off Scott-O-Rama.
Well, not really... but it sounded pretty dramatic now didn't it?
While it may not always be better to give than to receive... but, at least for me, when it comes to advice I find it much easier to dole it out. While I knew it was something Scott truly loves/loved, I had sensed his blog had morphed into something not fun. And, of course, I wasn't telling him anything that he didn't already know... but I could relate.
Alas dear reader, it does not regard the very blog you are now reading... for the foreseeable future, you are stuck with me... and in true self-centered blogger fashion, I will now turn this post to be all about me!
Several (several!) years ago, I had the opportunity to do what was pretty much my dream job. I was a writer and photographer for an online tennis magazine (a very bold idea at the time - and typically involved having to explain the words "online" and Internet)... but it was a fantasy come true, three of my true loves all wrapped into one. I attended a whole bunch of tennis tournaments as "media," brushing shoulders with the likes of Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf, the Williams sisters (at the time in their corn-rowed heavily-beaded hair)... even asking Stefan Edberg a question at a post-match press conference and "interviewing" Lindsay Davenport (it was a very odd "walk and talk" across the tournament grounds).
But over time it became "work"... dealing with long days at the tournament site, struggling to figure out a new way to possibly write up something on a tennis match, struggling as an outsider amongst the very clique-y (only made worse, by not being a terribly outgoing, social person), the pressure of deadlines and expectations (many of them self-imposed), and getting a bit roughed up by folks (and egos) within the tennis world and also internally at the magazine.
It unfolded slowly and I didn't realize until after the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back" moment that ultimtely ended it all, that the cost-benefit coin of this "dream job" had been flipped a long time. There was a great sense of relief when it was over and no long-term regrets, except perhaps that I had not come to the realization sooner and before there were some hurt feelings.
It is my hope that Scott is feeling that same sense of relief. I found that particular feeling surfaced pretty instantaneously... while the lack of regret or second-guessing part may take just a tad longer... but I think it will come.
And so, dear readers, I offer the same bit advice to all of you (and for myself, for that matter!)...
If it doesn't make you happy, don't do it.
I wish my friend Scott well. At a point in my life where "making new friends" appeared to be a thing of the past (working from home definitely limits one's opportunity to do so), I'm glad our online friendship transferred into the real-world and look forward to more fun times ahead!
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