That’s what I have been doing for the past 3 weeks. I have willingly chosen to drop off the radar. Sometimes it’s nice to be off of a radar. Sometimes it’s quite pleasant to not have people know what you did, when you did and who you did it for. Sometimes it’s nice not to be in touch and updating all the time.

When I was 18 I openly stated that I would never live in the area that I grew up in (lived there for over 20 years with my family). I also swore that I would never drive the same road to work that I had driven countless times to school.

I eat my words writing this post. As of today I live in the area that I grew up in (one street down from the exact house). And I work within walking distance of my school.

Life is a strange and worthy adversary.

On my first day working with Matt and Vince I was thrown in to the deep end and tasked with setting up Sports Leader. At that point I didn’t know my arse from my elbow let alone how to call up top sports personalities, intellectuals and commentators and ask them to join a platform that hadn’t even launched yet. It was tough. I got bat. The success rate is very low on cold calling the sporting elite let me tell you.

I made many phone calls and sent out many emails. Eventually it started to pay off. I managed to get hold of some fantastic sports people and through the help of Mr Trapido we have some fantastic rugby names on the site. There are more to come, many of whom you will know, recognise and want to hear from but more on that in another post. We have tried to be as diverse as possible when it comes to the sports that are represented on Sports Leader, the big ones obviously being Soccer (Football), Rugby and Cricket. However we are proud to say that we have many alternative and extreme sports appearing on Sports Leader.

Within two weeks (or just under) we managed to sign up close on 30 sporting personalities and fans.

Speaking of fans I feel I need to mention that there are some fans contributing to Sports Leader. This was a very calculated move on our behalf. No one owns sports, not even the sports people and no one can ever claim to. The people who have the strongest opinions and often suffer and celebrate more than their teams are the fans. How can you have a sporting platform without having the fans on board? You can’t and we don’t. What we have done is create an interesting juxtaposition of fanatical opinion from armchair commentators and practical insight from industry players and professionals, an important balance when it comes to sport.

So with this blog post I mark the completion of my first project at Mail & Guardian Online.

Today is my last day working at Financial Mail and I can now announce that I am starting a new job at M&G Online on the 19th of May.

My official job title is business manager: mobile and recruitment. But I am sure that more regarding my actual day to day activities will come out as soon as I move in and get involved in the team.

Working with Matt and Vince is definitely going to be one of the great things about my new position. The job is innovative and in a market that is about to burst and is still fairly unconquered in the media sphere.

Obviously moving in to a new market and media house is a big leap for me and one that I am cautiously approaching (with some level of excitement). There are some nerves which should be expected but overall I can’t wait to sink my teeth in to the challenge.

Financial Mail was a phenomenal place to work and to gain some extremely valuable knowledge and experience. The people were sterling and I learned more than I thought I could in a year. But for my career, my brand and the moves I’m trying to make in the industry this is definitely the right move for me at the perfect time.

Things are hotting up in SA, the market is about to explode and I am itching to bury myself in it.

Career limiting moves are, basically, moves that could put you in a very awkward position at work. These Career Limiting Moves (CLM) could mean the end of your job, a dead-end in your job, a stagnation of growth, embarrassment with colleagues or senior management among many other potential problems.

Online makes it all the more simple to incur a CLM. Before you’d need to go to a club, do something stupid and risky, have someone from work see you with their own eyes, have that person bring it up at work and then on top of all of that, have your boss actually take their word over yours.

Today it’s much simpler to look like a fool and limit your career.

Here are ten potential CLMs that you might be making right now.

1. Updating your status

Facebook should actually be given more than one point. Facebook videos, photos, friends, walls, tagging, status updates and much, much more can all affect your colleagues opinion of you. Going out, getting drunk, partying, bunking work and recording all of this on Facebook is silly.

Updating your status telling the world that you are having coffee away from work when you told work that you were sick is a mistake. Don’t make it.

2. Secret office romances

Some companies don’t necessarily condone office relationships. So don’t go and put that sort of information on your Facebook page, blog or pictures on any other online profile that you have. Think about it, choose love, job or privacy. Simply put be discreet.

3. Recording your life one shot at a time

Photos are amazing but keep in mind they can be proof. The next time you add photos to your Flickr account remember that you’re not the only one who can see them, everyone else can. That is, unless you set the photo’s status to private. I suggest you do that with photos that might appear to be questionable. You know your company. Are they liberal, conservative, party animals or free thinkers? If they are extreme-conservatives take down that photo of you dressed up like Marilyn Monroe.

4. Speak your mind but be smart

Everyone who reads this blog knows that I have a big mouth and firm opinions but I know that I can blog about them because my company is fairly liberal. Some might not be. So think through your blog posts. Don’t simply blog the first thing that comes to mind. Think about the effects of your posts, I definitely consider most of the ramifications of every post that I write these days. I’ve learned my lesson, lawsuits and getting fired are not fun no matter what you might think.

5. Bad mouthing people

Being opinionated and being arrogant and foolish are very different approaches that have different outcomes.

Opinionated people tend to not to be frowned upon. They tend to be taken notice of and you could benefit from this greatly. If you are nervous at the office and have strong opinions on your blog about people, politicians and situations it might pay dividends for you at work. However if you are arrogant and aimlessly, recklessly target individuals on your blog or another platform prepare for a firefight.

6. Bad Spelling

I kan like to make for sure that spalling is okai somtimes.

But let’s be honest this blog isn’t perfect when it comes to grammar and spelling. I am well aware of this and I’ve been lucky that my dearest readers often check up on me and point out the errs of my ways!

You need to be very careful because some people are very picky about language. It’s an integral part of many, many jobs. Remember, ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’…or something like that.

photo credit: massdistraction

But things are coming right, work doesn’t suck, people are settling down and becoming easier to work with at the moment, which is great. People are gathering focus. Blogging is going well (not on here) in general although if I thought that running two blogs was tough work, three is incomprehensible. I work late, really late, blog every night and on weekends and am constantly looking for now content on three different levels.

But however you look at it, I have little to bitch about, so I wont bitch.

No, wait, I lie, I can’t not bitch. I’m tired. Was at work today before 7am. That is really early for me. Maybe not for everyone, but for me it. I feel like it’s early for me because I am always working lately.

Initially I really loved blogging – I still do – but now it has become work, a job, a mechanism to express opinion, earn revenue and generate hype. This is work in a nutshell. So I work a full-time job (roughly 10 hours a day) and then go home and work more. Managing three blogs is tough work, but at least I love it!

Take it from me, if you are thinking about filling your empty plate, think twice before you over fill it.

Things go on and time gets made use of in the end.

1. I am not indispensable – so take more time for myself.

7. Giving your employees more responsibility:
I left work and my colleague was lumped with a load of my work. I did work from home but he was pushed to work on things that were outside of his job description. This has seemingly provided him with some insight in to my job and me with some insight in to his. He now works ten times harder and takes pride in knowing that he can do my job if he needs to and know that I can rely on him to do more important things for me.

8. Listen to your mates, sometimes they have a pearl of wisdom even if they are swines.

I really think that the things I have listed above are important if you take note of them. If you don’t think about them it might seem that they are irrelevant and don’t apply to you, but I suggest you pick one and try it. Some are easier to implement than others so maybe start with something that is less taxing on your time.

Maybe try blogging a bit more. Take Saturdays and Sundays and write 5 blog post over these two days. Then set their timestamps and post them one a day throughout the week. This way if you want to blog more as topical issues come up you will be showing a minimum of one post a day and a maximum of however many posts you can manage in the week.

This feeling keeps me going, it keeps me driven and alive and I am insistent that no one can do what I do they way that I do it. But then you get ill (as I am) and you are forced to lie down at home with your email from work as your only tool. It is in this state of incapacitated illness that I have realised that no one is indispensable. Absolutely no one. There are many people who can do my job even though they might be unhappy at the prospect of doing my job, they still do it.

My point is this: Take time off when you want to because life is not about becoming indispensable.

Becoming indispensable is impossible and that is reality. Everyone is replaceable in any job even the president, hell, especially the president should be, can be and is replaceable. I also think that it is necessary for companies to occasionally remind their employees that they need to perform consistently well because if they don’t there is someone else who can do the same job for less pay.