My name is Mark Carrington. I have made a video introducing myself to Steem.
60 years is a lot of story to cover in an introduce yourself video/post. So I thought I would do something a little
bit different - the video shows some of my profiles and some of the things I do and some of my passions.
What I'm all about is and passionate about is sharing ways to live a healthier, richer and happier life principally because I've been able to do that much for myself. Who would have thought that at age 60 I can look back at the last 15 years of not having to work for someone else? So I'll start off with my Facebook profile. It has a bicycle and an open road and a picture of the book - so it shows I am a published author.
In fact I have two books published. First is a book called The Banking Revolution: Salvation or Slaughter, which is a technical book about the role of technology as applied to British Banking. I was one of the co-authors with two other gentleman by the name of Thomas Steiner and Philip Langguth.
The other book which comes from two years ago is called The Inspiration Bible and it's a it's a book of stories to inspire people and my story is on page 360 and it is called Inspired to Ride. It's all about my journey as a long distance and endurance cyclist
Now for little bit about my background: I grew up in South Africa. I studied business and law and accounting and I worked as a management consultant (I did that for 24 years). I moved to the UK nearly 30 years ago and lived in the UK and worked all across Europe for 13 years. Now I live in Australia - been here since 2000.
The main part of that European story is that in the second half of my time in Europe I started with a bunch of mates a management consulting business (Mitchell Madison Group) to compete at the top end of the management consulting world and in six years we built a very successful business with offices in 16 locations across the world and 750 consultants. We sold the business in 1999. For me, it meant that at age 45 I was pretty well able to retire. That is my story as an entrepreneur - I know what can be and what can be done and what it takes to win - focus and hard work.
My real passion though is cycling. I'm always heading out on my bicycle. This is how I stay fit and it is where I do my thinking and it is where I find my peace. I have cycled across Australia 7 times . I have cycled Europe and New Zealand and South Africa. I have crewed the Race Across America twice. The pinnacle of my endurance cycling was qualifying for and participating in Paris Brest Paris (a 1200 km non-stop endurance ride) in 2007.
I also have a strong interest in technology - so a book on banking and technology is no surprise. I managed 3 different teams in the late 1990's that built the first Internet Shopping search engines in UK and South Africa - about the time that Amazon was only a bookstore. The world of Internet gets me excited.
Now in my "retirement years", I focus on two things
Internet marketing and blogging and eCommerce and those sorts of areas. Quite frankly I just have to say
that I'm a frustrated blogger. Frustrated because I have so many interests and have not really been that focused. Frustrated because I'm not seeing strong ways to get rewards for the effort that I put inI also manage all my own portfolios. I have become a seasoned investor and a trader in foreign exchange , in stocks, in options, in interest rates, in commodities and more recently in Bitcoin and in other cryptocurrencies.
Steem fits in really well for me as it brings both worlds together - blogging and cyptocurrency. I blog on a
regular basis about Bitcoin and I have a Youtube channel which covers Bitcoin markets and Bitcoin trading. I do these videos when there is market action to talk about - about once a week or ten days.
I am an active Twitter user and have a number of profiles which cover different parts of my story. [Check the video for the verification for some of my profiles - or follow me]
For example,
- https://twitter.com/MarkSCarrington (34k followers) I cover lifestyle topics like health and fitness and cycling.
- https://twitter.com/Stratocharge (67k followers) talks about ways to build income streams through things like affiliate marketing and investing and Bitcoin mining
- https://twitter.com/Go4Forexprofits (73k folowers) is my forex trading profile where I talk markets and trading psychology.
I have a number of blogs covering a wide range of topics. In the video you can check some of them out. Topics are varied and include Bodyweight Training; Cooking; Coffee; Yoga; Forex; Bitcoin; Depression; Drones and Quadcopters (I love photography - taking to the skies now)
Coming back to my real passion - cycling across Australia. I have cycled seven times across Australia in every direction (except the East Coast). More recently I have used cycling as a platform for charity fund raising. Every big ride i do I set it up as charity event and have generated significant contributions to charity through a mix of email and social media marketing. The main causes are children's cancer and helping disabled
children get bicycles that they can ride safely
So that's an introduction to 60 years of life.
What i'm really looking for out of STEEM is a community to share these passions and a way to generate an income
based on the quality of content. I do believe that I have large experience base to draw on to deliver great value. It will also create a discipline for me to blog more and succeed more
I appreciate your time