Letter From a Reader

Late Friday evening I received a wonderful e-mails from one of my readers and I thought it would be a good way to start the week by responding to this message:

Dr. Dr. Rost,
Thanks for ending the week with a smile! I’m so glad to see that you’re thundering forward and beyond the HuffPuff! I do enjoy reading the comments left by eloquent posters. I also wanted to let you know that I never expect personal email responses from you; but your attention to your readers is commendable.

I have been wondering if the world of blogging is taking the place of your former job. Is this a new fascination or hobby? Where do you think you might go from here? Do you perhaps see this as a new way to find out about yourself or maybe a new road to explore? Do you think you are at a crossroad in your life? Will you make some tough decisions or are you just going with the flow? Thanks for sharing your journey!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTVz-X4hSbI&mode=related&search=%22Toni%20Braxton%2C%20Let%20it%20Flow%22

(Sorry, I don’t know how to insert the video!)

Have a terrific weekend with your family. I applaud your wife for insisting on family time! See you on Monday!

Dear Writer:

Thanks for understanding that it has become a bit hard to keep up with personal responses, but your letter raised so many good questions that I thought I'd make it my first post here on Monday morning.

In a way I guess blogging has taken the place of my former job. Just wish it paid for groceries, as well. To be able to interact with you and others is simply wonderful. I didn't really plan on doing this, until I was invited to blog for the Huffington Post. They liked my whistleblower background, until I blew the whistle over there. What an irony.

Oh well, at least I can go on writing here. And I do look at this as both a hobby and a fascination. I don't know where this will lead, but it does keep me from losing my mind.

I see blogging as a new road to explore, something that will eventually change the media landscape.

And I am most certainly also at a crossroad in my life, even though I don't think I'm learning so much new about myself; however, it has become clear to me that people around me certainly have learned a lot.

They didn't expect a vice president for a $600 million business franchise to start writing about so many hot topics and to have fun with the whole thing. Shows that we're all human, I hope.

I am going with the flow to a certain extent, but I also have a plan. It's a very simple plan.

Survival.

Only a fool would keep doing the same thing and expect different results. I learned very rapidly, back in 2003, when my first challenge to the pharma industry took place, and the first article in the New York Times was written, that doors rapidly closed to new job opportunites.

Perhaps blogging will lead to something new . . . I don't really have anything to lose.

It's not like it makes any difference to future employers in the pharma industry. They made up their mind about me back in 2003.

This is how companies subvert the law--you challenge one of them, you may be right and you may win--but you'll never work again. Just look at Sherron Watkins from Enron, who can't get another corporate job.

I do believe, however, that as long as you keep fighting, you haven't lost. You've never lost until you give up and lie down. So to keep blogging, in a way, is also to continue to fight, to stay alive.

So that's what I'm going to do.

Fight, survive and write.