No one understands why I write a blog each day.
There are a growing (slowly) group of individuals who like to read the blog daily and some less frequently than daily but I suspect if you asked any of them they would not understand why I wrote it.
My wife certainly doesn’t understand why I write it.
We have recently changed the format of the blog and the web provider for The Campbell Academy website so the blog is now hosted there. I question the wisdom of this from time to time because, really it should be hosted on its own page with no external interference from anywhere else but it works well for it to be hosted on one of the pages we already have. When web designers and IT guys look at the blog they ask how it’s being ‘monetised’. People ask where the leverage for the blog is or suggest that I take some of the 1200 blogs that i’ve previously published and re-publish them randomly on Twitter and Facebook to get a ‘greater reach’. That is to miss the point entirely of why the blog is written.
I write it because I can and I write it because it’s free. If I were being paid to write the blog it would be entirely different and if it were sponsored by a dental supply company or other people I would never be able to write what I write.
I was recently given the opportunity to put my name forward for a position of employment of enormous importance and seniority. Circumstances then quickly changed and my name was not suitable to be put forward for one reason or another (and i’m not able to discuss specifics) but the fact that I was even considered for the position was quite incredible.
Part of the discussion of putting my name forward though was the fact that I may have to stop writing the blog… immediately the position became untenable to me.
In one of the articles which are listed in Matthew Syed’s latest book ‘The Greatest’ (the latest book which spawns 1000 blog posts!) he references a study where artists were separated into two groups to have their art assessed. The first group commissioned pieces of art (paid for) the second non-commissioned (for the love of the work) The pieces were then randomised and assessed by artists and art critics and guess what?... the non-commissioned pieces of art rated much more highly independently in a blind trial than the ones that were commissioned. When questioned, the artists themselves understood this entirely as they could explain the fact that they felt constrained by commissioning and released to be able to provide art for the sake of art.
In a separate study artists were questioned at art school why they had entered that and what their primary purpose was. Those who had a financial motivation to enter art school were identified and those who had no financial motivation were also singled out. 20 years later these people were then sought out and questioned and guess what?.. surprise surprise, by any measure the people who had a non-financial imperative had succeeded in the art world almost exclusively better than those who had chosen the route of financial gain. This has always seemed to me to be self evident and I’ve always taught the philosophy when teaching young dentists of ‘If you start trying to be good you will probably end up rich and good. If you start trying to be rich you’re unlikely to end up good’
It’s beautifully epitomised in Lord of the Rings when the Elven Queen Galadriel looks into the eyes of the dwarf (a notoriously greedy race) and sees his future and declares, “Gold will run through your fingers but over you Gold will have no dominion”
He who sees the beauty and wonder if wise indeed and the blog is my only possibility to create a small amount of beauty and wonder.
I never persisted at drawing or sculpting and I never practised it. I don’t play an instrument (although I’d like to try but it might be a little bit late to get any good) so the only art I can create it speaking and writing. It’s funny because the blog was never designed to be ‘monetised’ it was never designed to be leveraged into an income; but when I’ve tried to explain recently to several web designers why it’s written and why it’s important to me and why they should pay attention to it despite the fact that they can’t see the point, it became apparent that it has created some of the greatest opportunities i’ve had in my professional career. It has given me the chance to do things I never would have done or could never have bought.
In May last year I spoke to the British Dental Conference about my FtP case and my ideas for solutions. At the end of the talk someone stood up, then the whole audience stood up and I received a standing ovation for approximately 10 minutes. It makes my eyes water to write about it even now. I was never paid for that lecture and I didn’t even claim travel expenses, but the reason I got to lecture there was because I wrote a blog about my GDC case. I was never paid for the blog, I received nothing for writing about it but that experience, sat on that stage watching people stand up one by one and two by two until everyone had stood up, will stay with me forever as one of my greatest achievements in dentistry.
I could not have bought that.
I have never spoke about the GDC case in public like that again.
Interestingly though, I recently went to Gloucester to speak to another group and there was someone sat in the front row of about 80 dentists and I mentioned the BDA lecture, he piped up “I was there” and I asked him “Did you stand up?” he replied “Everybody stood up” I said “Thank you”
Even then the ripples of that lecture continued through my professional life.
Start today to do something good that might create a little bit of joy and wonder, even to one person or two and continue to do it and see what happens.
Sometimes I need to convince myself why I continue to write and so this is a post for that. It’s selfish and narcissistic to publish it but it’s important to me and I don’t force anyone else to read.
I just hope that people will copy this and do something of their own like this which makes me smile, inspires me or makes me consider what i’m doing. Everyone has it in them. It’s never about extraordinary people doing extraordinary things; it’s always about ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
Blog Post Number - 1232
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