Each year I have a habit of looking back at the year and reflecting on the major accomplishments and failures. However, 2019 was an exceptional year, and I am sure I ‘m not the only one who is glad to see it go.
Not much went as planned for those of us that work in agriculture. Let’s be honest, there weren’t that many wins in 2019 and since we are at the end of a decade, I thought I’d put together a list of my personal and professional accomplishments and failures for the past 10 years.
In no particular order, they are:
Built 3 new houses
Moved 5 times
Increased our family size by 25%
Managed the build of a really bad website
Learned how to build WordPress websites
Built 3 more websites
Started 3 businesses, closed one
Developed a consumer line of fertilizers
Developed branding for a new ag fertilizer brand
Lead the rebranding of a fertilizer company
Wrote close to 1000 blog articles
Produced over a dozen videos
Hired 8 people, inherited 4 more
Had 3 people quit
Had to let go of 3 people
Taught one child to ride his bike, the other refuses to learn
Developed many new friendships
Sold a company
Bought a farm (follow my progress at https://www.instagram.com/craigmdick/ )
Took my only consecutive 2-week vacation
Ended a 750,000-mile driving stretch with an epic car wreck
That is my truck in the side (nobody was hurt)
Got two full-time jobs and a bunch of contract work through my network/social media
Got fired for the first time
Resigned from a company
Help launch an award-winning agriculture app (check it out at www.cropstream.com)
Got a dog 
This is Scout the day we got her
Grew my personal social following to almost 5000 contacts
Founding member of a trade association
Board member on a couple of industry associations
Lost two grandparents
Became a Cub Scout leader
Rebuilt a shed
Hired an ad agency
Fired an ad agency
Told I was bad at marketing (many times)
Told I was great at marketing (many times)
Told I was bad at sales (many times)
Told I was great at sales (many times)
Moved a company’s server and data to the cloud
Personally only use the cloud
Rode in RAGBRI
Lead and completed an ERP install
Finished two basements
Created an agricultural email marketing list of over 4000 people
Developed a web promotion that went viral and in 24 hours had a 10,000 person email marketing list (consumer products)
Spent approximately 1/3 of the past 10 years in a hotel
Was asked by my oldest, “How come you only live here on the weekends”
Lost 30 lbs
Gained 30 lbs.
Had the most helpful boss
Had the least helpful boss
Went 100% digital
Went back to reading paper books and taking paper notes
Coached youth baseball and soccer
I am sure I am forgetting many, many more failures and few wins. Looking back at the past decade, as a whole, though, there were many more ups than downs. As tough as 2019 was, I have to say the past decade was really amazing and I am looking forward to the next one.
Thank you to everyone that was a part of the wins and the loses. Hit me up on Twitter or LinkedIn and let me know what your 3 biggest accomplishments of the past decade were.
Oh, and Happy New Year!!
The post Reflecting On The Past Decade first appeared on CraigMDick.com
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