Tag: Cuba

I finally reached Greenland! Now things get harder.

When I first started this blog back in 2015 I was a writer with no readers. But I wrote anyway. I shared personal and professional lessons I was learning so that other people could learn them faster than I did. It was my way of paying it forward, even when I was getting things backward.

I slowly started accumulating readers. I would check my WordPress stats every day to see how many people read my posts. But I became even more fascinated with where the readers were. I soon noticed that this little publishing platform I wrote my posts on could deliver my thoughts all over the world. Like Santa.

I kept writing, and my WordPress world map began turning pink as I reached readers in more and more countries. I couldn’t believe how far the interwebs could fling my writings. I found that so much of my map had turned pink that I started focusing on the countries I hadn’t reached. I realize that I had a map-half-empty perspective. But those were my growth opportunities. Like you hear about in your performance reviews.

Greenland

For years, the biggest emptiest space on my readership map was Greenland. Cartographically speaking, Greenland looks more important than it is. It appears on most maps to be the size of South America or Africa. It looks much bigger than the United States. Which is why being rejected from Greenland was so hurtful. And because it is centrally located between North America and Europe on most of the maps we use in the US, an obviously empty Greenland on my map was like a big zit on the middle of my forehead. Pass the blog post Proactiv.

Look at Greenland now looking all like Pinkland on my readership map.

But 2023 was a milestone year for me. I finally did it. Like Erik The Red, I made it to Greenland! Not once, but twice. It felt like a major mapial accomplishment. Now my readership map looks much more impressive. But it took a lot of work. By the end of 2023, I had published 944 blog post malones.

In 2023 I also added Cuba. And not the Goodling Jr version. The real, cigar making, Elián Gonzálezy, Castro-y Cuba. While Cuba is not nearly as big as Greenland, it is just 90 miles from the United States. Since I felt as if I could kayak there with a printed copy of my blog posts, not reaching Cuba by internet felt like my Bay of Pigs moment.

What’s Next

Now I set new, harder goals. Next, I need to reach Iran and North Korea. Yikes… I also have yet to reach Haiti. Which I hatey. In Africa, I still have to crack Western Sahara and the croissant-looking area that includes Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Central African Republic, Congo and Equatorial Guinea. Then there is Eritrea, which sounds like a medication they advertise on TV.

I also need to add The Fualkan Islands (What the Fualk guys?) Plus, the ever-unpopular Tajikistan. Svalbard remains the white dandruff on the top of my map. It’s part of Norway. (Come on, Svalbard, I’m 25% Norwegian.) I also have yet to reach the Soloman Islands and New Caledonia, just east and northeast of Australia. So let’s make that happen in 2024 too.

Key Takeaway

Think big. But start small. Then just keep taking small steps. You accomplish your goals little by little. By plugging away every day it is amazing how much you can accomplish over time.

Some Greenland Perspective

While Greenland looks huge on most of our common maps, it is a maptical illusion. The United States is actually 4.5 times larger than Greenland. The total population of G-Land is 56,000 people. For a Green comparison, Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers, has a capacity of 81,000.

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+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

How to share your best ideas all over the world.

In the fall of 2015, I decided to create a new blog. I had tried writing blogs several times before. Most of them didn’t go anywhere. I hoped that this new blog would be different. Like Nuprin. Or Zima.

Starting At Zero

I started at zero. Zero posts. Zero readers. Zero subscribers. Zero requests for me to write anything. It was just me and my computer, creating new blog posts out of cursors and keystrokes, the way Doogie Howzer used to do it before he met your mother.

I write to help readers learn a little, laugh a little and lift a little.

Adding Value

I just started writing lessons and learnings I found valuable and that I thought would be valuable to others. I shared what I was learning about entrepreneurship as I launched the advertising and ideas agency The Weaponry in 2016. I wrote about marketing and creativity. I wrote about positive thinking and self-improvement. And I wrote a story about a woman who tried to save me from salmonella poisoning and plane crashes at a Piggly Wiggly.

Developing The Habit

I felt like the Time-To-Make-The Donuts Guy from the Dunkin Donuts commercials of my youth. That guy got up every day, without fail, and would make donuts, day after day, because the world needed donuts. He had created a donut-making habit. I created a similar habit at 6 am every day. Only I was writing, not baking, glazing, sprinkling, and holing.

The Compounding Effect

The compounding effect of a habit repeated over time is remarkable. It often sneaks up on you, like the way you catch a unique rabbit. At the start of 2023, I looked at the statistics page on this little blog project and I noticed 3 things that surprised me.

Adam Albrecht Blog Surprises

  1. I have now been writing the Adam Albrecht Blog for 8 years. I determined this through rigorous data analytics where I took the current year (2023) and subtracted the original year of publication (2015).
  2. I have published 828 blog posts.
  3. I saw the world map of where my blog has been read.

Here’s the map.

By writing day after day for years the blog has been read around the world. In fact, it has been read in 170 Countries or territories. According to Google and The United Nations (of Benneton), there are 195 sovereign nations. (And one seven-nation army.) One of my favorite statistics is that there are 38 countries that have at least triple-digit reads.

Notable countries that are boycotting this boy’s blog:

  1. Iran (So far away)
  2. Cuba (Gooding Jr.)
  3. North Korea (De Janeiro)

I get that those countries don’t allow people like me to just wi-fi into their countries, spreading positivity and pop culture references. So I am not hurt.

But then there is Greenland. That large landmass in the north apparently wants nothing to do with me. This has been a source of frustration for me for years. I just can’t seem to crack the Greenland market.

French Guiana is the only other area in the Americas that is not down with the AAB (Adam Albrect Blog). I don’t know if it is their Frenchness or their Guiananess that is to blame.

The Lesson

I started this blog at zero. I have never done any paid promotion of this blog. Yet, the ideas I have shared here have been read by people all over the world, thanks to the power of the internet and the WordPress platform.

By writing at least 5 days each week for years I also developed habits, ideas, and stories that enabled me to write my first book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? In the book, I shared 80 of the best life lessons I have learned. But it never would have happened if I hadn’t first started this blog.

I have now published 2 books, thanks to the writing and publishing habit I developed through this blog.

Key Takeaway

The key to long-term success is to get started. First comes the action. Then comes the accumulation. Studying doesn’t get you success. Planning doesn’t. Goals don’t. Actions do. Habits do. Simply not stopping does. So get started today. And just keep going.

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