Earlier this week I saw a tweet from my friend Brian. But I was traveling to Romania for my new job. So not only could I not read it right away, I couldn't write about it right away.
Then, as I got here and started working, the days went long. Right now, as I write this, it's 2 am at the end of my first week.
You know my story, right?
Nine years ago, after a decade in startups, my wife had our first child, Emily, and as I was holding my little girl, my wife asked me to leave the startup world. To step into the corporate sector so that there would be more stability.
The last eight and a half years I've been doing that. Working at an enterprise software company that delivered big systems to big customers.
And then I went and did something radical.
I quit my job.
I left the corporate world. I left a high paying job. I left the security of knowing that position would never disappear.
And I joined a company that was focused on doing enterprise engineering with WordPress – the passion of my days.
On day one, I spent the day on calls. Talking to my new staff and sharing with them all the changes I was making to their processes, roles, and supervisors.
On day two and three I spent my time on planes and airports making my way out to our office here in Romania.
And then I worked from morning until early morning on days four and five.
So that now, at 2 am, I was able to read my friend's post.
If you don't know, Brian is one of the lead developers at Range.
He's also now a manager there, as they've hired and are growing their team.
His title of the post is The Future of Post Status.
But the slug, the url, is what's important. Because he named it “radical.”
Sure, maybe some of you have read it.
But I'm betting some of you haven't.
And here's what's important about that post.
What he's asking for isn't radical.
Lots of publishers request that readers pay for content (think: journals).
Lots of publishers look for patrons or corporate sponsorships (think: papers/magazines).
Nope. He's not suggesting anything in that post that is radical.
So why is the slug radical?
It's Brian's transparency that's radical. There are no secret motives. It's all out there for you to read about.
As I've spent the last five days taking every project manager and every developer thru a massive series of changes, I know some people have been stressed. Worried. Wondering what my plans are.
And to each question, and in every setting, and in response to each email, I've chosen Brian's path.
Transparency is what builds trust.
Brian's been building it for years.
I'm at the beginning of this journey inside of Crowd Favorite. But I take courage from Brian's post and from the overwhelming responses in the comments on the post.
I've shared with you my take on WordPress.
I've tried to put it all out there. And I've spent years answering every question with as much transparency as possible.
I'm excited about a full time future in the WordPress ecosystem.
I'm excited about taking WordPress into the enterprise market in a strategic way.
I'm excited about how I think WordPress is growing at the edges.
I'm excited about both the capital and lowercase “c” community.
But mostly, I'm excited for Brian and the future of Post Status.
Photo credit: Code Poet.