Overloaded -- Please Bear With Me

Hello all. Less than six weeks ago, I wrote here about an experience that was forcing me to make major changes in my life. On June 25, 2018, for all intents and purposes, I died. At least I technically died. And I was unconscious, completely unresponsive, seemingly lifeless, and largely blue for over three and a half hours. No one knows how I "came back to life." No one has been able to determine the cause of near-death, although there has been much testing and numerous theories.

Then, less than 10 days later, on July 4, 2018, I suffered what appears to have been a minor heart attack, which I also survived. However, any recovery I've had since these incidents has been very minor -- virtually none. I've been left exhausted, weak as a baby, devoid of energy, extremely fatigued, in considerable pain, and I'm still undergoing tests with more to come. It's not been fun.

When I last wrote, I said I was being forced to "retire." Let me re-phrase that. Since that time, I've engaged with numerous people, have done a few favors here and there, read a few things, offered some advice, and had a new company website put up showing the professional services I'm going to be willing to occasionally render, health and circumstances permitting. You see, I actually get hundreds of emails and messages every day, many dozens or more from my dear friends and colleagues on LinkedIn. And while I value each one, I've found that I've really fallen behind in my ability to respond to the ones requiring a response. Moreover, when I obtain new connections here, I typically attempt to contact each one personally to thank them for adding me to their network, and sometimes I'll say a few extra words, various things. And I've been keeping this up for months. And it's gotten to the point where I no longer can do that. I've tried to respond to everyone within 24 hours over the past half year, but recently, I've fallen behind, and I owe hundreds of you a message from me thanking you for the connection. I owe many of you personal responses to messages and emails you've sent me, ranging from asking me to read or write articles, papers, etc, analyze such, test and review products, introduce people to others in my network, offer job advice, coaching, tips, career transition coaching, offers to attend and to speak at various conferences, company and individual advising, and more. While I'm tremendously flattered, I'm also tremendously overwhelmed, and can't possibly begin to respond to each and every communication I receive, let alone do everything asked of me. And I apologize for that, because I do like to help people out when I can, to help my connections. It's just that, currently, I can't do very much.

We took our website down several months ago to put the company on hiatus due to my severe health problems, but last week, I had a new one created and put online, listing the select services I'm willing to offer, when interested and possible. You can find this here: https://wiremedesigns.com/services/. And I want to ask those of you with favors to ask of me, or advice, or services, or whatever, to go to the website and fill out the contact form, so that all of my important messages will be collected and waiting for me when I check my email. Because I get so many messages on LI, I actually miss many dozens of them that I never see, only to find out much later, someone sent me an important message. Another purpose of this new website and its contact form is to separate those asking for a simple favor -- which I'm perfectly will to do for free -- from those asking me to take on actual projects that can and do turn out to be time and labor-intensive -- gratis. Please remember, while I do like to help my connections out when I can, I also do many of these things for a living, so please try to keep that in mind if you're asking me to help manage a total career transition, or to read, analyze, and prepare a brief on a white paper or position paper. And I'm always willing to "introduce" connections to each other, but there's a limit, realistically. I'm willing to introduce people to several select connections, but if a -- say -- professor wants to be introduced to all of the international university presidents and chancellors in my network, that's going to be very time intensive for me, so there will be a fee associated with that. It should be understandable. I'm not a charity, I'm not a nonprofit. I delight in helping people out, but I don't wish to be taken advantage of, even without people consciously meaning to do so, which I believe is usually the case.

So, to sum up. I've been very ill for several months, and especially so the past six weeks, and I remain very weak and fatigued, and in great pain. My time is extremely limited and I've fallen behind in my correspondence and ability to respond to requests for favors or help. If you have a "favor" or project that is actually going to be more than a simple favor, please be kind enough to recall I do this for a living, and either be willing to ask for my rates, ask for a limited free favor, or please decline from asking, as I'm snowed under at the moment. And please be patient with my getting back to you, and getting in touch with you. Some days I'm largely incapacitated the entire day. There's actually a good chance I may not get back to all of you at all right now! Which is embarrassing and discouraging, but I'm just having to accept certain facts I have a hard time accepting right now, and I'm having to convey them to you publicly. I truly hope this statement hasn't offended anyone, and if so, I apologize. I just felt it important to provide an update on my status, and to explain why I've not gotten back to some people, why I may not at all, and that while I continue to be willing to help connections out for free, there's a natural limit to what can be asked of me gratis, so please consider that when approaching me. I appreciate it very much, and wish you all a good weekend. -- Scott Holstad