I have not had too much time to blog or teach lately.  I have made three business trips in the last three weeks.  First, I went to Atlanta, Georgia to take a 3-day class on the SAP Web Application Server Infrastructure.  I enjoyed the class and I learned a lot.  However, it took about 10 hours of free time out of my week because it took about five hours to drive from home to Atlanta and another five hours to return home when class was over.

The next week, I returned to Atlanta to take a 5-day class on SAP Netweaver eXchange Infrastructure.  Again, I enjoyed the class but it took about 10 hours out of my week just in travel time.

This week, I had to take a 2-night trip to the Seattle, Washington area.  I flew this time but it still took about eight hours of travel time in each direction.  Please note how inefficient this is.  I traveled 16 hours for less than 8 hours of meetings!  I'm glad I do not have to do this every week.

If you have not heard the English language idiom "road warrior" before let me explain.  A road warrior is a person who travels extensively and ususally this means business travel.  I believe I met the definition of a road warrior in 2007.  I made six trips to China; probably 16 or more trips to Raleigh, North Carolina; 2 trips to California; two trips to Atlanta; and one trip to Seattle.

Being a road warrior has its positive and negative aspects.  On the positive side, just being one usually implies that your employer has a lot of trust in your abilities.  This usually translates into more responsibility and higher compensation.  Hotels, car rental companies, and airlines all treat you as their favorite customer.  It is common to get an upgrade to a better room, a nicer car, or a better seat.  You often get to meet a lot of very intelligent and very interesting people.  It is possible to grow your expertise and skills quickly.  On the negative side, it is a stressful lifestyle.  The greater responsibility at work ususally means greater scrutiny by your boss.  If you commute by airline, you have to worry about flight delays and cancellations.  Constantly changing timezones can play havoc with your sleeping schedule also.  The worst thing of all is the separation from family and friends.

So if you are considering becoming a road warrior, go into it with you eyes open.  It can be exciting, rewarding, and invigorating.  You'll not be bored.  It will also be lonely at times and you'll need to be able to deal with the stress.

Any other road warriors on 100e? 

I am trying to renew my podcasting efforts.  Please check out my podcast links in the lower right hand corner