John's "Take" (...On a Couple Bloggers He Follows/Followed)

I don't read too many blogs religiously (for the reasons that I mentioned in the first entry). For me to really follow someone's blog, I have to be thoroughly interested in them, captivated by them, and more importantly, have a lot of qualities that I either have, or am striving to have.

One blog that I really loved when it was around was that of Gilbert Arenas (the point guard for the Washington Wizards). From what I remembered of his blog, a lot of his entries were LONG, since he posted once every few days or weeks. But, he was such a captivating and quirky personality, that you can actually see it in his blog, and I usually ended up spending a lot of time reading most of what he wrote down. Some of it was stuff was controversial, and some of his stuff was slightly insightful and gave a nice perspective on how it was like to be one of the top point-guards in the NBA. That's what made his blog great. In fact, if I remembered correctly, Michael Wilbon once said in an episode of "Pardon the Interruption" that Gilbert's blog is the only blog he read. Too bad it's not around anymore though.

Another blog that I enjoy that really comes to mind (that I'll discuss more in detail) is that of Ted Leonsis. He was a former executive of AOL, and is now the owner of the Washington Capitals NHL franchise. If you haven't had a chance to check out his blog "Ted's Take", I encourage you to do so.

In my opinion, despite his success, he really comes out as one of the most genuine owners, and people out there, and in my opinion, he is a gold standard of what people should strive to be. When he was younger, he got into a near fatal accident, and since then, he has compiled a 101-things to do "bucket list", and has done many great things, like start businesses, make millions of dollars, buy the Washington Capitals (and turn them around), while also doing his part to better the world through philantrophy. He has already completed more than 70 items out of 101 in his impressive list, which is pretty impressive. Not only that, he is probably one of the few owners in sports who would take the time to actually interact with his fans, whether it's going to the streets to shake his hand, or allowing fans to send him e-mail. (I actually had a "back-and-forth" with him on Facebook in a few occasions).

In his blog, he covers a lot of stuff, from his day-to-day "involvement" with the Caps, as well as some news and opinions on his many other projects and (like his work in "filmantrophy" in SnagFilms). And, when he gives his opinions, you can tell he really watches how he carries himself, while at the same time, stays absolutely genuine while doing it. When the Caps played the Penguins in the NHL playoffs this past year, I'm sure he may have had opinions on how the series was handled, but he showed class by giving the Penguins nothing but the utmost respect and credit after they won the close series, and later the Stanley Cup. And after reading his blog, you can really sense that winning the Cup is something that he really wants and that he feels that his team is extremely close to getting it done. A lot of owners in sports can actually learn from Ted's humility and class (*cough*Dan Snyder*cough*Mark Cuban*cough*).

As a speaker, and as someone who once worked for a huge media conglomerate at one point, I have been blessed to meet and interact with a good amount of "successful" people (rich, famous, or both). Although I haven't met Ted in the flesh as of yet (which is something that I plan to eventually do at some point), he easily tops that list. Plus, despite how successful and busy he probably is, he still finds a way to connect with everyone, and even finds a way to blog (at times, several times a day).

I said to myself at one point, that if I ever got back into blogging, I'll try to follow the same example of "Ted's Take". I want to connect with my readers as much as I can, go on record with my opinions, while staying humble, genuine, and grounded and not appearing too "important" (that last part, I feel is a quality that I feel a lot of "successful" people lack). Hell, even the title "Obe's Dose" is somewhat of an homage to Ted, since it's two words short, and it's sort of a clever, alliterative title with my name on it.

I never believe in "idolizing" people, but if you can see the great and heroic qualities in them, and simply just strive to have those qualities, in my opinion, you should be in a good spot. In this entry, I'm not idolizing Ted, but just simply recognizing some of the qualities that makes his a great person. Like I said, in my opinion, he is probably the gold standard of the personality that people should strive to be. And if I can do just some of the things he does (blogging like he does would a small example), I can probably go real far.

D4P...PD!!!
John