Sabbatical

Guest Editorial

Greetings from the great state of Alabama Roll Tide Roll!!!

Sabbatical: or a sabbatical (from Latin sabbaticus, from Greek sabbatikos, from Hebrew shabbat, i.e., Sabbath, literally a “ceasing”) is a rest from work, or a break, often lasting from two months to a year. The concept of sabbatical has a source in shmita, described several places in the Bible (Leviticus 25, for example, where there is a commandment to desist from working the fields in the seventh year). In the strict sense, therefore, a sabbatical lasts a year.

The past twelve to eighteen months have been a blessing and a whirlwind of activity for your author! I have had three books published, and so many speaking engagements that I have lost count. The opportunity to reach a new generation of skip-tracers through blogging and social media has been an exciting and entertaining experience, and I can honestly say that I have learned more from each of you than you have from me! I hope that my writings have given some value to your day to day activities.

As the definition further above clearly indicates, a sabbatical is NOT permanent. Before anyone gets the wrong idea, this is not a goodbye and I do not plan on going anywhere. With the changes to the industry (some good and some bad), I want to stay on the cutting edge of what’s happening, which I am able to do as part of my role as the Executive Vice President at MasterFiles.

I also have a responsibility and a compelling desire to increase my own knowledge and further my abilities. I have about a hundred different books I want to read on Social Engineering, Human Nature, Verbal & Non-Verbal Tells, Open Source Investigations, and I want to take some classes on Psychology, Marketing and Branding. It all serves to refine the study of our prey, the human being!

With these lofty goals I find there is simply not enough time in the day, so for a little while I will be ‘going off the grid’ so to speak in order to devote myself to my studies, family and return with a new bag of tricks for all of you. For the rest of 2013 I am taking myself off the road, avoiding speaking engagements, tradeshows, etc.

The great Albert Einstein once said insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. I intend to find those different results by taking a detour towards self-improvement in order to bring new and better products and ideas to the industry, along with new techniques for each of you.

I will still be teaching my monthly webinars “Advanced MasterFiles Training” along with a new class entitled, “The Three Types of Tracing”. Look for a new schedule of dates and times to be available soon if you are not on my mailing list please send me an email and I will happily include you. The Chinese have a saying: “May You Live in Interesting Times”, and that certainly seems to define the state of our industry today.

Thank you all for following me down the path to better skip-tracing, and I give you my word, the best is yet to come! I think each of us needs to take an occasional sabbatical t regroup recharge and plan for the future.

Until Next Time…

“Victory Loves Preparation”