The other day I was asked… “Lee, for what you do, don’t you think you’re leaving your job at the worst time possible?�?
This is not something new to my consciousness. In planning the trip, we knew there would be sacrifices and there are sacrifices – there have to be. A sacrifice for my professional life with Common Craft is walking away from projects that I love. The March of Dimes Share Community, blog strategy work at Microsoft, and other projects that will essentially end on December 1, 2005.
At the same time, it appears that the demand for Social Design and Common Craft is growing and would grow significantly in 2006. But I won’t be here to act on it.
I’ve been convinced for a while that there is something big afoot; a wave of innovation and community-related ideas that will change the way we look at the web. I see 2006 as the first year this will happen on a large scale.... and I’ll be taking a boat down the Mekong.
But I don’t fret.
We could spend our whole lives waiting for the best moment to appear. We have chosen our course and feel, deep in our hearts, that this is the best time for us to do this trip.
After all, we're not just vacationing and touring. We’ve built a web site that is an experiment in Social Design- I am practicing what I preach and plan to push the limits of mobile blogging.
The networking won’t stop. I’ve made connections with people all over the world, people that we will visit in their home countries and who will become a bigger part of my network when I return.
The learning and new perspectives will go into overdrive. We’ll gladly trade the newest coolest web site, application, conference or idea for a global perspective of people, places and historical events.
So, yes, it may be the worst time to leave for what I’m doing right now. But, I’ve never really been that concerned with "right now". I’m *much* more concerned with what’s *next* and this trip fits perfectly into that perspective.