In 2010, Seth Godin asked people to make a list of what they shipped. I did the exercise in 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017. I have come to believe that this is a important exercise, especially for entrepreneuers to see what they have accomplished.
2018 felt like a reset year for me.
In April, I stepped out of my role at IT Revolution, something I had been involved with since 2013. It took me some time to get figure how to spend my time. Walking away from something that was a significant chunk of my life and professional identity made it feel like I didn’t accomplish much this year.
And then I started making this list and it proved yet again why it is such a good exercise.
What did I ship this year?
- Published a completely updated version of Every Book Is A Startup.
- Started a networking group for book publishing professionals in Portland. We met four times throughout the year.
- Worked with three authors on their book projects.
- Helped my wife Amy move into and open her new office for Silver Mountain Health.
- I posted a series of 40-ish blog posts to test what it was like writing with that frequency again.
- I started a podcast called Better Books and posted three episodes.
- Signed the next author I’ll be publishing in 2019.
- Walked 12.5 miles from my house to Dharma Rain Zen Center on an early morning to mark the opening of our Fall Ango training period.
- I sat for my first week-long meditation retreat at Dharma Rain. I also sat for two other four day retreats.
- Celebrated a company I helped start got sold to Google.