Mind of Jacka: 900 Posts: Now What?

I was talking to a friend about writing 900 blog posts and he said that, while he would be interested in writing such posts, he couldn’t imagine doing 900 of them. Trust me, when this all started, I couldn’t have imagined it myself. But it’s like the question, “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer? “One bite at a time.”

Actually, I’ll offer a better analogy: Back when laptops were still a marvel, I started writing a very complicated program to be used in our internal audit department. How complicated? I was using Lotus 1-2-3 to write database programs. (And, if you don’t know what that is, ask your grandparents.) I had no idea how complicated it would be; I just started working on it. When it was done, I realized that if I had known how much was going to be involved, I probably wouldn’t have gotten started. But there I was with a complete, working program.

Or maybe an even better analogy: The comedian Paula Poundstone has 14 cats. She was asked, “How do you wind up with 14 cats?” She answered, “You start with 13…”

How did I write 900 blog posts? Well, I had written 899…

All a great topic for a future post, but keep reading.

Here’s the real reason it works for me. First, it seems I always have something to say about just about anything. (Ask my friends — they will be more than happy to let you know that even if I have nothing to say, I say it.) I read something, I hear something, I watch something, and I will have something to say about it. But the second thing is that I like to find connections between what I read/hear/watch and things going on in my life, including internal audit. And that’s the way many of the 900 posts came to fruition. Now that doesn’t mean that every rewatching of Seinfeld’s “The Soup Nazi” (where I recently learned that Schmoopie is played by Ali Wentworth) will lead to internal audit brilliance. But, well, you never know. (A deep Simpson’s cut last time; a deep Seinfeld this time. And did anyone catch the Jimmy Buffet reference at the top?)

Thoughts fall around us all. And maybe it isn’t natural to make connections between these thoughts and our jobs/our profession/our lives. But it should be. It takes practice, but it can be done. I’m not going to say I was very good at this back in 2008 when it all started. But, over time, I practiced. (I had a blog to write.) And, whether you have your own blog or not, it is something you should practice. Take that next thing you read, watch, or hear and — no matter how obscure — determine how it connects to something about you.

And this is about where most of these blog posts would come to an end. But I’ve got a little more to say. You may have guessed this already from certain tones in the preceding. Not only is this my 900^th post, but it is also my last.

It’s been a great run and a lot of fun. And, yeah, a part of me would like to have made it to 1,000. But that is a lot of posts and a lot of years in the future. And I think it’s better to use this milestone to bring it to a close.

Again, it has been a fantastic run. And a lot… a WHOLE lot… has happened to internal audit and the world (and to myself; did I mention I recently became a grandfather?) in that time. I could probably fill up an untold number of posts just talking about all that. But I’m done… for now.

Now, The IIA and the gang at Internal Auditor magazine have been nice enough to let me know that, in the event I have more to say (imagine that) they’re keeping “Mind of Jacka” open. So, yeah, there might be something more. But it won’t be regular, it won’t be planned, and, for all we know, this might be it.

So, you may see an article or two from me in the future. And, while I’ve pretty much stopped the presentation gigs, that doesn’t mean I can’t be called out of retirement for the right situation. And I’ve already been called in to be part of a few podcasts. And who knows what other venues I might try out. I’ve got some short stories I want to write, and some songs I need to write, and a podcast I’ve been wanting to do on the 600+ quintessential songs from the past everyone should know, and, well, who knows.

I want to thank everyone who has read any of these posts and gotten even a modicum of useful something. And I want to thank The IIA for letting me go off in any direction I felt like going. In general, I was allowed to talk about whatever I wanted. In those 900 posts there were probably two where serious content editing was required and only one instance where I had a post pulled. But, considering the freedom I was given, I think that ain’t half bad.

I also want to thank all those people on staff that really hung with me. Anne Millage, David Salierno, Shannon Steffee, and Tim McCollum have been there from the start. And, most recently, Christine Janesko and Trinity Spearman were the ones who had to put up with my shenanigans. It was a strange idea when it all started. And I think it wound up being strange all the way through. And that’s a good thing.

Thanks for your support.

And, just, thank you.