Today is the 11th anniversary of Mitch's Blog, and I am ecstatic because the anniversary happens to be on the regular day that I normally post on my other blog, but close enough. This is also article #1,253, which isn't all that bad if you ask me. If I may, I'd like to take a quick look back at the past year for this blog and my business.

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The first thing I want to mention is that last June I hit my 14th year in business, working for myself. That means this is actually a milestone year, and I'm going to have to work hard to top last year's post. At least I still have 4 months to get there, but I can truly say that no one was happier for 2015 to end as it pertains to business than I was. That's all I'm going to say about that.

The second thing is that I finished my second book on leadership, Leadership Is/Isn't Easy, which I'm selling as a PDF right now. At some point I will probably do what I did back in 2004, that being to have it printed so that I can carry copies around with me to speaking engagements and sell them off my website as well. I have a list of publisher numbers so I could put them online elsewhere, but I never got around to doing that sort of thing, and I realize it's not the type of book that you send to publishers to see what they think. Luckily I can live with that.

The third thing is that I did something in December on this blog that I had never done before, that being to have a blog post every day for the month. Most of those posts were on leadership, but I touched upon other business/employee related subjects as well. That was a lot of fun, and it was part of an experiment that didn't necessarily turn out as I thought it might.

I have to tell you that writing about leadership can be challenging. It's not that I need more information to be able to write on the subject because I always have ideas. The hard part is getting people to recognize you as any kind of authority, even if you have books, because it can be hard to get people to actually read articles on leadership unless you're associated with a site like Forbes, Huffington Post or INC. I have always hoped that being listed on Alltop, which is Guy Kawasaki's site, would help me to some degree but it hasn't except for giving me other leadership blogs that I can look at from time to time.

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I have also realized that creating videos on leadership generate the same lack of heat. It's interesting because I have, if I can use this term because I'm not necessarily sure how true it is, more passion for the subject of leadership than anything else in my life, not including family. I believe that we need better leaders in business and in life than we have now. We need better leaders in politics than we probably have now, and for those that are religious most of you probably need better leaders there also.

I've done what I can to help people think about the topic of leadership by telling my stories and offering my opinions. These aren't just things I thought about, because quite often if I'm telling a story it's something that has happened in my history, whether I was still an employee or as a consultant in different locations. Sometimes I tell other people's stories because I can relate to them, and because they offer the opportunity to impart lessons and beliefs.

I don't always offer answers, because I feel that sometimes just telling the story might get readers to understand what was wrong in the first place. I don't get a lot of questions from people on how to handle leadership issues, and that's somewhat disappointing but I'm not overly shocked because bad leaders don't often know they're bad, and those that figure it out don't want to admit it to anybody. Still, if you ever have any questions for me click on my About page, the link of which is under my picture over there to the top right, copy my email address into your email program and send me a quick email.

A friend of mine asked me why I continue to write on leadership, diversity, communication, employee relations and other topics if I'm not generating any real income from it. That's something I find interesting, that there are so many people who believe that if you're doing something and not making big money from it that you're just wasting your time. How many people take vacation and make money from it?

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I don't necessarily do what people expect of folks like me as it regards my time and my energy. Would I love to be known as an authority on leadership and have people paying me hundreds of thousands of dollars to help them become better leaders, or travel around the country giving seminars on the subject and being lauded by top executives of Fortune 500 companies? Absolutely! But to get to those highs, you have to do things that help to show that you at least know what you're talking about.

My way is blogging and writing, and even if nobody is reading, I know that the work is out there, mostly on this blog, and that someone is going to discover it. And if it's just one person, and that one person can either become a better leader or feel better about themselves and others, or I write something that makes them think about something in a different way that helps them to grow, then I'm pretty satisfied because I will always find other ways to make money. I am a consultant after all.

If you made it through all of the above, I thank you for that, and this is the time where I get to share my favorite 11 articles of the year. Let's see what they are:

5 Leadership Lessons From Mom

My Dad The Manager

Are We Ready For A Morning Conversation About Race?

When Motivational Messages Go Astray

Reverse Racism? Let’s Talk About Inclusion…

9 Ways To Make Leadership Easy

The “Wussification” of Leadership

Do You Know What You’re Talking About?

Haters Gonna Hate… Do It Anyway…

Do You Feel Guilty By Word Association?

22 Leadership Lessons From Star Trek TV

There you go. I hope to have plenty more to talk about as we proceed through 2016, on our way towards 15 years in business, 1,300 posts and a very successful business year. Thanks y'all! 🙂