I’ve Always Been That Guy

I’ve wanted to become a voice in the SQL Server community more times than I can count. I’ve thought about blogging, teaching, and putting my name on work that other DBAs might find useful. Then I’ve let the idea sit.

So yes, this is another attempt. I’m aware of that. The difference is that this time I’m focusing on the part I can actually do: write the posts, share what I’ve learned, and keep doing it.

Part of what held me back was the people I looked up to. When I think about the SQL Server community, I think about people like Brent Ozar and Grant Fritchey. They’ve spent years answering questions, teaching, writing, and building a body of work. It’s easy to look at all of that and feel like there’s no room for me unless I can show up with the same depth, reach, and confidence on day one.

That’s an absurd standard, but it’s one I kept measuring myself against.

Then I started attending Splunk events and talking with people in the Splunk community, including members of the Splunk Trust. I respected what they knew, but meeting them also made something click: they were people sharing their expertise and showing up for their community. I could see how the work they did every day connected to the things they taught and discussed publicly.

I came home thinking, wait, I can do this.

I don’t mean that I’ve done the work they’ve done, or that publishing a few posts will put me in the same position. I mean I finally stopped treating community contribution as something reserved for a different kind of person.

Inside my organization, I’ve been the person people come to with SQL Server questions for years. I’ve had to work through problems, explain tradeoffs, challenge an approach when it doesn’t fit the environment, and help other people understand why a decision matters. That work counts even though most people outside the organization have never seen it.

And that’s the part I want to change. Someone outside my workplace can’t learn from an explanation I gave in a meeting they weren’t in. If I’ve found a useful way to think through an availability problem, a security requirement, or the realities of running SQL Server in an enterprise environment, I can write it down. Someone else might be facing the same decision.

I’d be lying if I said becoming a SQL Server MVP someday wouldn’t mean something to me. It would. But an MVP award isn’t permission to start contributing. It’s recognition of contribution. I can write a useful post about high availability without those letters next to my name. Whether the post helps someone depends on the quality and honesty of the work.

What I want is for somebody to say, “Did you read Scott’s latest post? That helped me understand what I need to do.” I don’t need a title for that to matter.

My goal is two posts a week: 104 posts over a year. I know a number alone won’t make every post good, and I’ll learn things along the way that change my mind. But it gives me a reason to sit down, turn an observation into something useful, and publish it instead of waiting until I feel ready.

This isn’t the first time I’ve wanted to have a voice in the community. It is the first time I’m committing to use it often enough for anyone outside my organization to hear it.

I don’t need to be the next Brent Ozar or Grant Fritchey. I can be Scott Drummond. Now I need to keep showing up as him.