The quote that best summarizes the goal and opportunity of blogging to me is one which I believe I read at GapingVoid sometime last year:

"The most interesting conversation wins."

It says that if you can simply think of and then articulate the best series of cogent thoughts in your chosen area of interest, that the world will beat a path to your (blog)door. Your ideas will spread, you will gain access to (and in fact become a member of) the 'A' list in that particular circle, and you can then leverage this audience in amazing ways.

There are no costs, no barriers, no limits. You against the world in a surprisingly fair fight.

Today we have another case study.

Avinash Kaushik, who has been mentioned here many times before, is leaving his position at Intuit to become an independent consultant and will become some type of ambassador for Google Analytics as his first gig.

In just over nine months on the strength of his ideas, personality, and dedication alone Avinash has risen to the highest levels of respect and visibility in his community, been able to pursue his passion in terms of a career move, and been tapped by the world's most powerful company (as least as far as we're all concerned) to add value and credibility to their product. If that's not a demonstration of the power of blogging, I don't know what is.

(It's also a fact that Avinash has earned a place as lead singer in the "THE ANALYSTS" a little known supergroup featuring Eric Peterson on electric guitar, Jim Sterne on Bass, Bryan Eisenberg on drums, and Jason Burby on keyboards - famous for their amazing late night jam sessions when the other campers have gone to bed at emetrics.)

Congratulations Avinash. We all look forward to your ongoing blogging and contributions to this marketplace.