Dear Colleagues! Today is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #143. Pharma Veterans shares your wealth of knowledge and wisdom with others for the benefit of entire Pharma Community. It aims to recognize and celebrate the Pharma Industry Professionals. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please share your stories, ideas and thoughts. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here.
I started writing blog in 2010 under the title of Management Matters at https://wordpress.com/posts/asrarqureshi.wordpress.com . It was an irregular activity in all respects. The topics were diverse, and the publishing did not follow any fixed schedule. Whenever I could write on anything, I would; and publish. Between 2010 and 2013, I wrote and published 22 odd blogs and then stopped.
I turned sixty in 2016 and retired by law, but kept working full-time on contract. During second half of 2017, I thought of retiring from regular work. I thought that I would do some part-time work and focus more or writing. Blog was an obvious pick as I had some exposure to this genre already. And I was continuously reading blog posts published in Harvard Business Review, Inc., Fast Company, Engadget, Techcrunch etc. I liked blogs because these were short, precise and focused on one topic. In fact, I picked up many points from the bloggers whose posts were published in highly prestigious magazines. They wrote wonderful pieces and it was a delight reading them.
So, blogging was what I was going to do for sure. I also planned to write a book. But even at that time I was not very clear about what topics to choose.
I have been a regular reader of HBR magazine and other publications for many years. I liked some bloggers particularly and followed all of their posts. One of them was/is Dorie Clark (https://dorieclark.com)
Dorie Clark herself has an interesting trajectory. She says she started in journalism but then became redundant quickly. She then joined the political campaign of a candidate, but he lost the election and Dorie became jobless again. Then she started her consultancy as a Marketing Strategist and gradually tried to build business. Meanwhile, she started contributing blog posts to highly placed magazines, from where I got acquainted to her. One of her blog posts in HBR got extremely popular and she converted the subject matter into her first book ‘Reinventing You’( https://wordpress.com/posts/asrarqureshi.wordpress.com ). The book became an instant bestseller. Dorie went from strength to strength. Her second book titled ‘Stand Out’ was published. Dorie became highly recognized, highly demanded consultant.
Sometime in 2016, Dorie Clark floated the idea of an online course titled ‘Recognized Experts Course’. She ran a pilot program. It was at a discounted price. I thought of joining but didn’t. Few months later, the first regular course was floated. The price was higher, but I joined. It was a wonderful experience. Learning from Dorie was one delight; learning from the array of highly diverse experts was/is an even greater delight. The community of this group became ReXers. There is a highly interactive FB group by the name of Recognized Experts. As a ReXer, I am a life time member of the community.
Towards the end of 2017, Dorie announced her third book ‘Entrepreneurial You’. She offered that any ReXer could sign up for advance digital copy (before publishing), which they could read and review at Amazon. I signed up, got the copy and posted a review at Amazon.
I downloaded and read the entire book on my mobile phone. It is a very useful book/handbook on how to monetize your expertise. It is an interesting read.
It was during reading of this book, that the idea crystallized in my mind about what I would write in my blog.
To be continued……
