SQLCommunity | "You are the CEO of your destiny"

Time is a constant. Anything and everything requires time it seems, and with that said I received a reminder today that three years have passed since I first started this adventure called blogging.

With this blog you will not find perfection, instead you will find a Data Professional who has grown more over the last three years of his career than he did the first ten. Is it by sheer circumstance? No, I don’t believe so. Don’t get me wrong; learning my first ten years was ongoing; I just wasn’t prepared for what the last three years had in store for me. Looking back I see phenomenal people who took a chance on me both from my career standpoint and from a community standpoint. People who pushed me never to give up when things didn’t necessarily go the way I would have liked for them to; or the countless hours of advice I would seek out from people who graciously pointed me in the right direction.

Attending PASS Summit 2011 was the career changer for me. Inspiration and collaboration ensued when I arrived back home and it has been an enjoyable ride. The blog has morphed from infancy (The SQL Corner) to what it is today (The SQL Professor). With steady growth over the past three years I’m pleased with the reception it has gotten and look forward to the future and what it holds.

I used to get discouraged at the quantity I was producing; I quickly realized that it isn’t quantity it is quality and that content is key and cannot be substituted. One of my favorite blog posts wasn’t even a technical post; no it was one of influential people that have helped me in my career and more so in the past three years. Investing time in others, writing, and continual learning will be my focus this upcoming year; focusing a lot more on the quality of content.

It’s an honor and privilege to blog about my SQL adventures as a Data Professional. I won’t always be perfect, but as with anything you’ll get a Data Professional who will give a 110% and try to provide solutions to everyday issues that are incurred in work life situations. I recently re-read an article by Grant Fritchey (Blog|Twitter) – Leadership Through Service; this is something that has resonated with me and is a thought that is a good basis for a strong foundation. I want to view this upcoming year as such “Leadership Through Service”

I would be amiss if I didn’t thank Chris Shaw (Blog|Twitter) and John Sansom (Blog|Twitter) for investing time in me and pushing me to continue to grow and get better. I could easily throw an additional 10-12 people in there but the two I mentioned have stood by me. They’ve seen me grow, stumble, fall, picked me up, and encouraged me along my journey. Is that not what our Community is about? If we continue to reach one person and that person reaches one person the SQL Community will continue to grow and thrive.

Time is a constant. Time is passing by. What will you make of your time?

Have you ever stopped and looked at the SQL Community as a whole entity and all it has accomplished? Better yet, have you ever stopped and thought about a problem you’ve researched and found that someone else has already been experiencing it and has provided a solution? If you are doing any blogging or social media and present a solution in a manner that it is your own, is that right? Answer to the last question is no.

The Community

I have never been associated with a community like the SQL Community where everyone is eager to share their knowledge or advice in trying to achieve an answer or solution to an issue. More times than not solutions are provided on a blog similar to this one, a news letter, or twitter; it is very easy to take the research that was found and utilize it and pass it off as being completed by oneself – I’ve seen some do it and not think twice about it.

The Cost

The SQL Community has a plethora of great minds, some of which you will find over to the right in the DBA Blog section. Think about the countless work everyone puts in figuring solutions to issues and then sharing. If someone’s work is taken and used for their own gain time and time again eventually the well might dry up.

The Call to Give Credit Where Credit Is Due

The solution is basic and simple, if you use something that someone else has written give credit to them by referencing it. Below are some ways to do this:

Script – think of the countless scripts that have been provided over the years, some that come to my mind off hand are Brent Ozar’s sp_Blitz, Adam Machanic’s sp_whoisactive, Kendra Little’s sp_BlitzIndex, and Glenn Berry’s awesome diagnostic queries. It doesn’t have to be the ones I’ve mentioned here it can be scripts that someone has provided however big and small they maybe. The point is reference their work; because they are the ones who provided it.
Blog Information – A vast majority of my DBA colleagues have blogs they use daily, weekly, or monthly with a ton of information on them. If you are passing or using this information along just note where you got it from.
Email the Author – email the author and ask them if it is okay to use there work on a site for example if you reference their name. A couple reasons I mention this – 1.) it is a display of respect and 2.) it also shows the author that there is appreciation for their efforts in sharing their knowledge

The Awareness

Not everyone is perfect, I understand that, but over the course of the last few months I have seen many occurrences where situations could have been avoided and hard working data professionals have been bitten by their work being taken and utilized for someone else’s personal gain. Think about this question – we are data professionals in some form or fashion; where does utilizing someone else’s work without referencing it sound professional? Let’s keep our community strong and thriving.

Closing with the Thanks

A big thanks to all the community for the relentless time and effort along with the countless hours in making solutions for us who seek them for every day issues. If we make a mistake along the way because we are human may we own up to it, learn from it, and move on with integrity and character.