An Interlude

It's been a month since my last update, and I have to say I've been neglecting Brunn. I have been busy though, so let's talk about what I've been up to. In the past weeks I've finished a revision of a paper for my dissertation, and I was in Chicago for 'The National' Sports Card Convention.

Still Going on the PhD?

It's a little hard to believe it's been over four months since the official end of my trajectory, but then, with the speed that the last month has passed, perhaps I shouldn't be so surprised. I am still learning what it means to finish a PhD (hopefully one day soon I will know), and I find it remarkable how my view of the feat has changed over time.

To begin with, green and naïve, I equated knowing what the end looked like, with being at the end. When you have the ability to pass a test/exam, you enter the room, sit down for the allowed time, and if indeed you had the ability to pass (and you didn't make a complete mess), then you will have passed.

This was the framework I had in mind when it came to my PhD. I certainly didn't have the ability to finish the PhD when I began, but one of the beauties of a four-year PhD trajectory is how much time you have to learn, and how much time incredibly gifted individuals spend, one-on-one, sharing their expertise.

Looking back through my emails, it was around the 3-3.5 year mark where I had the skeleton of a 'finished plan' for a complete PhD dissertation, and probably the necessary skills to complete it as well. In my mind, this was the place I had been trying to reach, and having this 'finished vision' was quite a relief. But, really, there is at least 12-18 months of pure focus between 'the vision' and being finished. For me at least. And travelling, getting married, and starting newsletters doesn't count as 'focus'.

As I have just added another 20-30% to one of my articles, and turn now to the preregistration of my final article, my appreciation is growing daily of how large the gulf is between having the ability to finish a PhD, and having finished a PhD. Through my meticulous time-tracking efforts, I will be able to check how much more efficient I have become as I have moved from project to project, but there is still the undeniable magnitude and heft of a PhD dissertation.

Without going into too much detail, I will finish this interlude by explaining once more how my reality diverged from expectation. A modern European PhD can most briefly be summarised as three publishable articles (+ an introduction and conclusion). Picking that apart, word by word, from easiest to hardest: three is just a number - one, two, three (although for some, four articles are required). Article, refers to an established format of communicating information, specifically, an academic article. Publishable means that the article is of sufficient quality to be published in an academic journal. Simple right?

To reiterate - my promotors do not assess if I have the ability to produce three publishable articles, but if I have produced three publishable articles.

But what really is publishable? Another of my miscalculations: not only do your promotors have to be comfortable that your work is of sufficient quality to be published (when they might be happy hitting 'submit' themselves), but critically, a jury of their peers has to agree that the work is of publishable quality. So you have to push past just you and your promotors being happy, to a point where a peer probably hopefully really won't object (cause that would be awkward, and we don't want that).

Or, you submit 1-2 of your articles to journals 2-2.5 years into your trajectory (publishing takes 6-18+ months) so they are already published by the time you are compiling your dissertation - now that is really the way to go.

So for me, some more negotiating and tweaking ahead - and I hope the data gods are kind to me for my last paper.

The National

So now that I have just espoused the importance of focus and concentration for finishing a PhD trajectory, how about I tell you about my recent trip to Chicago?

Business or pleasure?

No doubt about it, we were there for business. The show had 600+ exhibitors spread over more than 60,000 m², and we were among the 125,000+ guests over five days for the show - huge. I did not personally catch the sports card/memorabilia bug, but it was abundantly clear that Josh was not alone in his enthusiasm. We spoke for hours with a whole mix of people. I focussed more on the corporate/business-to-business side of things, learning as much as I could, and Josh was covering a heap of ground, making sure he caught a glimpse of every card, in every case, in case he could snag a deal for a client.

So what was I doing there - sports cards don't quite fit with the vision I set out for Brunn, and what did we learn?

Profitability is at the core of what I envisage for Brunn. Once there is a financial incentive for something, the fight for its continuation becomes much easier. I've started businesses in the past, but they were either tiny (think childhood golf ball re-retailer) or fizzled out due to a lack of interest. I'm hoping we can crack something real, substantial, and profitable this time.

Josh has been enthusiastic about sports cards for many years now, and we (almost) always have a great time putting our heads together, solving problems, and travelling. Banksia Collectibles (website a work in progress) creates a long-term, collaborative project for us, that lets me plan and implement a business, gives Josh an outlet for his enthusiasm for sports and collectibles (and maybe someday, inshallah, a full-time job), and lets us both have a pretty good time in the process.

Going back to school to study business is sooo not appealing at the moment. Did I mention I'm still finishing a PhD? Realistically, at this stage, my greatest business deficiency is probably practice and experience, not knowledge. In terms of building my business acumen for everything that I hope Brunn will become, Banksia seems a nice place to start.

The show provided us with useful information for improving our business model - and we did our first deal! Our target market has shrunk, as we learned more about who our future customers will be. And our range of services has grown, as we realised we have more value to offer than just acting as 'buyers agents'. So all-in-all, a successful first outing. Next stop, lots of hours refining and preparing before the next show in October - Macau!

Next newsletter will be back to regularly-scheduled programming - I need to send those emails I mentioned last time, otherwise UWV won't give me my last unemployment cheque.