I read, listen and watch a great deal of content about success, business, marketing and new media. What I hear over and over again is you will be most successful pursuing your passion. This is especially true in the new media world. It gets me thinking about my own passion which I have outlined before, but I will do again. I don’t think it hurts to revisit this topic to further refine and crystalize it.

From as early as I can remember, I have been most passionate about three main things. Technology, media, and communications. Media and communications could be considered one in the same and they predate technology so let’s take that first. I love media, all kinds of media. Print, radio, tv, magazines, all of it. I was a big fan of the “zine” trend that I first connected with in the 80′s. Enabled by new technology like personal computers and the first laser printer, ordinary people started producing their own magazines, often about very niche topics and distributed them online and via small indie bookshops. Some people still used the even older school technology of manual paste up and copiers to produce zines. This was one of the first examples of regular people using technology to produce their own media for a specific audience. It was the beginning of the media disruption. I produced my own zine using Quark Express and Adobe Acrobat. It was digital only and was briefly distributed on a website of mine. I only did one issue but it was a fun experiment. What distracted me was the web. But I digress.

I also grew up a great lover of radio. In Los Angeles, I was fortunate to have some of the best radio personalities to listen to. This was also a time of greater creative freedom in radio before the industry started killing itself with computer programed playlists and robot dj’s. We had radio greats like Jim Ladd, Mary Turner and Frazer Smith. Sports radio legends like Chick Hern and Vin Scully were better to listen to than watch the tv broadcast. Finally, CBS Radio Mystery Theatre brought dramatic productions to light during the late night hours. I can’t count the number of nights I fell asleep listening to these stories.

I am old enough to remember life before cable tv. I very clearly remember the day we got cable installed. The man finished and there we were watching Australian rules football from Australia. It’s hard to describe how amazing that was. I was there to see firsthand when MTV was truly revolutionary.

Then, my friend’s mother brought home a Commodore PET computer from her school for us to play with on the weekends. This computer was so ancient that it used cassette tapes to load programs. But it had a great Monopoly game which we played all the time. Don’t let anyone tell you games are not a valuable experience. It was these early video games that fueled our continued interest in technology. It was a few months later that my personal tipping point happened. I convinced my parents to get me an Apple //e and I installed a modem into it. When I first dialed out on that modem and connected to my first old school BBS is when my life changed forever. I could connect on this computer. I could connect to people locally and around the world. I could connect to people with similar interests that I would never have the opportunity to interact with otherwise. I love people, I love discussion and interaction. This intersection of communication and technology is where my passion truly lives. I love any kind of gadget or gizmo that enhances our ability to connect and communicate. Obviously the web was a watershed event for me as has been the explosion of connected mobile technology.

These are the forces that lead me straight into the social media world. And so it made sense for me to form Connected World Media and make it my career. Another one of my passions is helping people understand technology better so I have made training a cornerstone of the business. I’ll be working harder on in person training and online screencast training videos as we near the end of this year. As always, I’d love to work with you or your company on social media strategy, training or media production. Don’t hesitate to contact me and we can talk about how I may be of service to you.

So, what is your passion? Are you pursuing it actively? It’s something worth spending time thinking about.