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20 Years of Six Pixels of Separation

It was on September 29th, 2003 that I first created and posted to this blog.

There are not many things in life that we consistently do for twenty years.
It wasn’t long after that when I published the first episode of the Six Pixels of Separation Podcast (that was May 22nd, 2006).

There are countless lessons we learn from doing things with consistency.

These days, I often think about the saying: You pay for things with either discipline or regret.
That… and: I publish a new episode of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast every Sunday… because it’s Sunday.
I don’t regret a post.
I don’t regret an episode.
From every word written and spoken, I have grown.

What have I really learnt from posting regularly over 20 years?

I’ve learned that it’s very easy to do the things that you can’t stop doing.
And, yes, it’s that simple/hard.
Writing and having conversations is hard work.
When something looks easy, that’s because (most) people don’t know/can’t image/can’t see the years of toiling in the dirt that happened before the output or the work.
The hours of labor going on behind the scenes to make it happen are where the real struggle (and work) takes place.
But, hard work is easy when you don’t ever want to stop doing it.

If you can find something like that in your life, then you have also truly defined “success.”

I’d love to rattle off a list a names and companies that have helped bring Six Pixels of Separation to life, but there isn’t one.
Sure, I have the good people at Plank (thanks, Warren and Kayla) who make sure that the servers are running, and that every bit of software and plug-ins are up-to-date, but this is – truly – my solo project.
I write every word.
I edit every post.
I choose every photo.
I input it all into WordPress and ensure that it gets published.
I manage MailChimp to ensure that an email goes out to the thousands of people who subscribe to it (and if you would like to subscribe, just input your email here).
I choose every guest for the podcast.
I organize and handle every recording date.
I record the episodes on my own.
I edit the episodes on my own.
I input it all into Libsyn, WordPress, etc. and ensure that the show gets published every Sunday.
I’m pretty sure I could get someone else to do it.
It would probably save me a lot of time to do this.

But this is me.

20 years in.
No thoughts of throwing in the towel.
More words and conversations to have.
More words and conversations to share.

I’m glad that you’re here for the ride.

I’m ok if you decide that this is not for you.
Selfishly? I’m not doing this for you or to grow an audience.
I do this because it’s the one thing that truly forces me to stay present, think, express that thinking, be wrong, think again and keep growing.
It forces me to think about tomorrow… the future… and how we can decode it to make our work better.
Reading and thinking is great.
It’s just not enough for me.
This is the extra layer that forces me to grow.
With that, thanks for joining me on this long and winding road.

Here’s to another 20 years…

Before you go… ThinkersOne is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.