LinkedIn 2020- My journey through 416 posts!

December 31, 2020

On January 01, 2020, I made a new year resolution!

That new year resolution was to post something meaningful on LinkedIn every day! What I defined as being "meaningful" was that the post should (a) be on a topic that is relevant to either my profession or to the businesses that I work with; (b) not be a vanity post i.e. where I merely showcase a personal/professional achievement; (c) provide my take on a contemporary development; or (d) share insights gleaned from a whole host of websites/resources that I track.

Now I've made new year resolutions at the beginning of so many years, only to end up not following them within the first 10 days of the year. So it is a pleasant surprise that here I am, on the last day of the year, typing out my 416th post! Of course, there have been a few vanity posts, but I can safely say that I've largely stuck to my goal of posting something "meaningful" and on most days. I missed just 4 days! I was aided in my goal by the unfortunate pandemic that hit the world in March 2020. Being homebound, being fortunate and being healthy (for all of which I am immensely grateful) contributed in no small measure as well.

Here's what I learnt over the last 366 days

(1) Discipline: There is a certain amount of discipline involved in penning one's thoughts and sharing them with the LinkedIn network. I did not have a fixed time of the day when I would post. There were days when I posted as soon as I came across something meaningful. On other days, I would only post after my work day was done, which would be past 09:00 PM in India. And there were 4 days where I forgot to write anything at all, which meant that my discipline had cracked on those days!!

(2) Thinking through issues and Reading: Posting 416 times meant that at the very least, I had to think 416 times this year! And thinking through the issues I chose to post on, meant that I had to read on those topics or read the article I was planning to share thoroughly. There have been many posts where people who were known to me or even those who are not known to me have challenged my line of thinking on a particular issue. I learnt that I could engage with them meaningfully only if I had read sufficiently on a particular topic! Else, I could be caught out!

(3) Writing and Editing: It's one thing to read an article/book/post or to view a video or listen to a podcast. Its another thing to share a succinct summary or my analysis of the article/book/post/video/podcast. Since I have not written too many articles/posts in recent years (nowhere near what I would have ideally liked), the new year resolution forced me to write a few words every day. What the 416 posts also made me do was to check for grammar, sentence formation, tone and substance of what I was writing. If nothing else, I hope this process has contributed to a small improvement in the way I write. And when I made mistakes in my posts, I would scamper back to edit the post as soon as I spotted the error!!

(4) What I wrote on: I tried to stick to topics that were relevant to my profession or to the businesses I work with. This meant that a large number of my posts were on legal/business issues pertaining to the following industries i.e. Sports, Entertainment and Gaming, Social Enterprises, and Technology, Media and Telecom. But as the year progressed, i started to share insights on events that I had attended, where there were several eminent speakers talking/making presentations on a range of issues. A few examples- I, alongwith my colleagues at GameChanger Law Advisors attended the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network's Virtual Conference in early June. We rapporteured for various sessions and produced session summaries, which were then shared both on the GameChanger Law Advisors LinkedIn handle as well on my personal handle. A similar exercise was done when the Sports Law and Policy Symposium was organized towards the end of June. I also happened to have the privilege of attending TechCrunch Disrupt 2020 for the first time ever on account of it going virtual. I shared insights from speakers at Disrupt 2020. I also shared what I felt were interesting articles from authoritative publications such as the Harvard Business Review, India Development Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Gamesindustry.biz and ESPNCricinfo to name a few. I also shared content that was produced either by myself or by my colleagues on a range of legal issues.

(5) Intrinsic Joy and Lifelong Learning: I quote from this Harvard Business Review piece from where I derived inspiration- "Life is a vector requiring both force and direction. The pursuit of happiness sets the direction, but feeling joy provides the daily confirmation that we are doing exactly what we should be doing, for the company and for the teammates who energize our efforts." The entire process of reading, thinking and writing gave me a sense of intrinsic joy. It mattered the least to me whether any of my posts were liked, shared or commented upon. If someone could take away something useful from a post, that was enough for me!

As for lifelong learning, I again quote from another Harvard Business Review piece: "We're all born with a natural curiosity. But the demands of work and personal life often diminish our time and will to engage that natural curiosity. Developing specific learning habits-consciously established and conscientiously cultivated-can be a route to both continued professional relevance and deep personal happiness. Maybe Roosevelt had it right: a lifetime of learning can be a success in itself."

Thanks are due to my family, friends, colleagues and well-wishers for encouraging me on this journey of lifelong learning!! Here's wishing everyone a very happy, safe, healthy and prosperous 2021!