This is my 800th Frost Advisory. It really is a lot of trouble, you know. I hope you feel sorry for me.

I’ve written this blog diligently every week for fifteen years and four months. I did the math. That’s longer than I’ve held any one job. That’s longer than I’ve lived in one city, minus one.

Frost Advisory #1 was prompted by my programming mentor Alan Mason saying bluntly to me, “You should write.”

I didn’t feel up to his challenge (mainly because I had read his stuff and he used a lot of big words, diphthongs, and parenthetic phrases), but after 800 Frost Advisories I can honestly say he was right.

“I don’t write because I have something to say, I have something to say because I write.”

Seth Godin

I’ve written on airplanes, in hotels, and restaurants. I’ve written in ballparks and boat docks and during hurricanes. I’ve even written a few on mission trips in a third world country. (Insert sound effect of logging on to AOL).

“I never know what I think about something until I read what I’ve written on it.”

William Faulkner

Blogging every week has given me the opportunity to turn the difficult challenge of one station from a frustrating experience for me into a learning experience for another. It has forced me to search for the 35,000 foot view of a situation instead of getting bogged down in the minutia, egos and agendas.

Interestingly, some of the biggest successes for some of my stations have resulted from some of their biggest challenges, a pervasive theme among these 800 Frost Advisories.

“At any given time, we are becoming the average of the five people with whom we are most closely associated. Don’t ever underestimate the importance of whom you choose to be with. And remember, when you have the opportunity to learn from someone who is exceptionally smart or successful, capture the gems they send your way.”

Ken Blanchard and Don Hutson from “One Minute Entreprenuer”

Another lesson I’ve learned through these 800 Frost Advisories is that when you have the opportunity to teach… do it. When you have the chance to mentor another, do it. And if no one is willing pay you for it, do it anyway. After all, we are all standing on the shoulders of those who came before us.

Perspective is a great teacher. Looking back on my 800 Frost Advisories I realize that I am the one who has learned the most. I suspect any good teacher could say the same.

“To teach is to learn twice.”

Joseph Joubert