It's been a while since I blogged. The article title comes from a Maya Angelou quote that I saw the other day at a Michael's Craft Store on a wooden imprint block. It reminded me that though I don't have my dream solution out there, I have a song and a process for synthesizing ideas from all the talks with my friends. Friends of mine lately have been talking about the idea of starting an "analytics agency of record". It's a while away but it gives me a target to focus my ideas for building "analytics centered communities".

I'm thinking of reorganizing around two main themes - Analytics and Virtual Web Internships. Web interns from virtually anywhere can help me implement the things I need to build this analytics centered communities framework. I'm focusing on the Philippines but anyone U.S. or other country college student who came to me and was a good fit would not be turned down. I've put some priority around it in that I've recently been promoted at work. I can't afford to leave work but I've got extra vacation now which I can use to spend time bring this to bear in 2010. Also, any extra dollars in raise and stock options I get can feed taking on more interns. I invested some money in my old company, GSI Commerce. I bought in at $20 it susequently went down to 12 (should have bought more) and luckily came back to $25. All in all, I have a few dollars there that could fund another 5 person Filipino summer internship.

I've asked my previous interns to advocate for me to set up an accredited internship with their school, University of Santo Tomas in Manila. I'm hopeful that this March I will have that. It means that my new batch of interns can work up to 40 hours on projects I define. Previously, my interns worked my intership as a second internship with only about 10 hours a week each to spend.

Get rid of some of these bottlenecks and things really start to move. In the new year, I hope to use these interns to help my projects for 3Touchpoints.Com,ForeignTrainedDentists.Org, and JoyAndCareGiving.Org. My mom also wants me to apply this type of training program to a technology center (essentially an extra room build in Saint Anthony's Development and Learning Center).

I've gotten great training, learning project management on the job, and executive coach at work this year and this will come in handy. I've learned to take ownership of the things I am not doing to meet my goals. Sure, I can sooth myself about all the good accomplishments but with better planning, I could have done more.

I am hopeful for making an even bigger splash in the new year and continuing to sing my song and get a little bit of a regular member glee club to metaphorically sing along with me. The songs next year are going to be tight!