Restarting my blog...

Happy New Year!!
It's 2008 and much has changed.

Firstly, I have moved on from Medullan, the healthcare software company that I've been attached to for the last year and a half. I still believe it to be a great company with great people who I've grown to respect enormously.

Why leave then? This really is a difficult question to answer without risking offending these same folks, some of whom I considered my best mentors and some of whom I've hoped I provided some ground knowledge into their own paths to becoming great leaders in themselves.

There were small reasons such as my inability to manage my own time well enough to have enough for my pet projects, blogging (both reading and writing) and community activities which contributed to it. These were never deal breakers as I considered them part and parcel of the price of helping to build a new company.

One major factor was my health. Without going into too much personal detail, my quest to balance my work demands with an active exercise program was leading me to fail in both aspects. A doctor's visit after a trip to the US in late November and a talk with a few trusted family members provided what I think was one key items in my decision to leave and focus solely on maintaining a healthier lifestyle for a while.
Once I've gotten that right, I think I'll be able to return to a strong, active work life and have a better chance at maintaining the balance on both ends.

That being said, I realise now in retrospect there was also a second reason which contributed.
In reading Rajesh Shetty's mini-saga a subsection of it caught my eye since it expresses my thoughts best:
"While the pay and position were good, there was
some discomfort. He didn’t think that he was reporting to a person who
could lift him to the next level. He silently walked away."

While I respect the opportunities I was given to lead and the people I worked with greatly, there had to be this alignment between being in a position within the organisation to be a high value contributor and also feeling that the contribution was rising me to "the next level".

I don't mean to be facetious, and I don't claim to be right about my judgment call. But at the end of the day that's how I felt. It happens. It doesn't mean either party did something wrong, or that the company now sucked, or even that the folks there still aren't the best at what they do.

It just meant two diverging paths for now, and this doesn't mean they won't align again some day.
One positive for me now though is that I get time to blog again since I have time for my pet projects...more on one of them soon!