An excellent post over here about what it means to be a “professional” (in its vocational usage).

This is an area I have a real interest in, mainly because of my history. To explain here is a synopsis;

I left school and completed an electrical apprenticeship,
Then spent two years travelling the world,
Then returned and bought part of a manufacturing business which I have run for the past decade,
While studying for some business qualifications,
And sitting on a number of boards, trusts and committees,
And doing some freelance journalism,
And being a commentator on business in general and IT business in particular,
And building my own house,
And doing some freelance consultancy in the strategic design/change management space,
And being a father,
And being involved in some commercial property investments and developments.

So what am I? An entrepreneur? An independent director? Self-employed? A freelance journalist? Or all of the above?

I honestly don’t know, in keeping with the original post, while I might think of myself as a professional, I don’t have the professional qualifications to do so (or at least not in the eyes of the law society or chartered accountants society).

It’s (in my mind) a great problem to have – modern society has a number of problems but its biggest benefit is that it allows us to chop and change and have eclectic and interesting career combinations.

So what do you do?????

Post script – My business card says Ben Kepes, Director/Business Consultant/Investor” but then again thats one of the three business cards I use for my different roles!

Ben Kepes

Ben Kepes is a technology evangelist, an investor, a commentator and a business adviser. Ben covers the convergence of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users.

4 Comments

Leave a Reply to rob@surf.co.nzCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.