If you scroll back far enough, you can still find my first post here at TonyFerrar.com (here’s a link if you’d rather have a shortcut). In August, 2016 my life was quite a bit different than it is today. I enjoyed those days, the start of my career as a professor. My first son was due to be born, my wife and I were excited to start a new chapter, and I was learning a massive amount about how I wanted to shape my life.
I started this site as a place to capture what I was learning. It turned out to be helpful for my students, as we shared many of the same challenges – those of any young adult trying to get their life started. How should we spend our time? What does it look like to be good at managing money? Can I build a career that I will find enjoyable, lucrative, and impactful? I was haunted by the idea that I only get one wild and precious life, and I was going to squeeze out every drop!
Somewhere along the way, I started hearing from folks that I ought to try and earn an income with the ideas I was sketching here. If you’re really into reading you can find where the tone of my posts changed. I shifted from provocateur to entrepreneur.
I tried hard, but sales never materialized. It turns out selling information to college students is a tough market to break into. It’s a fool’s errand to sell courses to college students who are already spending a life savings on taking courses. More importantly, I never felt good about it. I don’t really care for selling the ideas I developed here, becoming the next online bro-preneur, telling folks they just needed to hustle and grind their way to success. Trying to be salesy robbed me of authenticity.
In short, it just wasn’t as much fun. I started this site to be helpful. To sketch things out. To work at the intellectual side of my persona. Don’t get me wrong, many entrepreneurial endeavors are quite impactful, and I’ve seen firsthand the power of a double- or triple-bottom-line business. I just don’t care to run one around my blog.
So I guess this is a rebirth post. A reminder that I’m still here. An announcement that I am present. Dusting off the keyboard, I just want to make things I like again. Share what I’m learning about life, philosophy, and how education can be a powerful force for good in our society. No promises on a schedule, or themes, or anything else. But I do mean to reignite the habit of writing here more often.
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