Thirteen years ago, I packed my bags and left academia. In doing so, I swapped one type of institution (where I had been for almost 18 years: undergraduate, postgrad, teacher) for another: a law firm. At the end of May, I left that firm and institutional life altogether. I am now in the third stage of my career — working as a consultant helping businesses find ways to use their knowledge more productively.
It will take a little while for me to settle to the new role. There will be some changes here too. My intention is to build a set of pages for the business on top of the old ‘Enlightened Tradition’ blog. If WordPress works as described, any old links to the blog will still work as before.
I hope also that the frequency of posting will pick up too. The past few years were very busy for me, and it became harder to sustain the blog. I regret that — I have many draft posts that are now too old to be useful.
The blog is important to me because the new venture will build on the thoughts and ideas I have developed here as well as on the institutional experience I have had.
The key point there is that my thoughts and experiences have been shaped by the hundreds of people in my network — those I have worked closely with, as well as the looser connections that come through comments here and on Twitter and LinkedIn. Over the past few weeks, many of those people have also assisted and guided me through the process of parting from employment and into consultancy. There are too many people to thank individually, but I hope they each know that I am immensely grateful for all of their support. The network is indeed powerful, and beneficent.
Mark Gould... 
Congratulations, Mark! Welcome to the wonderful world of consulting. You’ll find that your accumulated experience across many institutions will stand you in good stead. Put that together with the keen insight you’ve shared with readers of your blog over the years, and you’ve got a winning formula.
I look forward to learning more about your new work as it unfolds.
Best,
Mary
Thank you Mary!
Hi Mark, arriving a bit late into this blog post, but, like Mary mentioned above, welcome to the Land of the Free! :-D You will have a blast, my friend. Mary also shared some really good tips above, but I can tell you, from my own personal meandering experience ;-), that the most inspiring component of this new life of the solopreneur, independent, freelancer, trusted advisor, coach, consultant, and whatever other term you would want to use, and that you have already hinted it above, is your network. Keep on building on it, nurture it accordingly, help us help you understand how we can work together and let the magic happen!
I look forward to working together in the not so long distant future, my friend. Congrats on the move and wish you all the very best of luck! And remember, your network is just a post around the corner, a tweet. Nothing more :-D
Thanks Luis — and what a great reminder of the proximity of networks!
You are most welcome, Mark! They may well not be rather vocal or active at times, but, believe me, they are there, they will always be there. Ready to mobilise when you are ready for the next adventure whatever that may well be :) hehe
Best of luck, Mark! Looking forward to finding out more what you will be up to!
Wishing you all the very best Mark in this new endeavour. Look forward to seeing you soon, and please do let me know if there is anything that I can assist with going forward.
Sarah
Thanks Sarah!