Today, once again, I received the magical mail from Microsoft saying “We’re once again pleased to present you with the 2018-2019 Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award in recognition of your exceptional technical community leadership”.
Today, I am awarded Microsoft MVP for the third time. Every time I feel like this is my first award and you know what, I get the same level of excitement for past 3 years while seeing the magical mail from Microsoft.
Firstly, I would like to thank the Almighty and my parents for always blessing me and taking me in the right direction. I would like to thank our India MVP Lead Deepak Rajendran and the entire Microsoft team for honoring me for the third time.
I would also like to thank my son Afraz, my daughter Afreen, my wife, and my family for always being supportive in my work as well as in my passion of contributing to the community.
I would also like to thank Ed Price and entire Microsoft TechNet Wiki family for supporting and encouraging me. Along with this, I would like to thank the C# Corner family and Code Project for supporting and encouraging me.
A very special thanks to all my article readers and friends for believing in me, always encouraging me, and motivating me to do more.
The MVP award is given to the people who passionately share their knowledge with the community. Here, I have mentioned the word passion because I believe if you don’t have the passion for contribution, then you can’t achieve this award.
Why we need to contribute to the community
Some people contribute for awards, some people contribute to get more networks and develop their business and only a few people contribute by their passion. I’m in the third category as I love to contribute to the community. I started my contribution in mid-2013. When I started contributing to the community I was not aware of what an MVP is, and I was even not aware of what a Microsoft MVP is. In mid-2013, I published my first article explaining a real-time user control for Windows applications. I got very good feedback and a lot of views. That made me more confident, and since that time I started my journey to contribute to the community, I always focus on developing something new and unique, and always wants to present my article with real-world examples. I believe in quality over quantity. So far, I have contributed 102 Articles for the past 5 years and I believe each of my articles will focus on new technology with innovative real-world examples.
One important fact I would like to convey here is, I do not mix my contribution, job, and family. I manage my time to spend equally on these three as all are very important to me. The family is important and I do spend a good time always with my family; my job is very important as well to earn and save for my life and family. Contributing to the community is my passion as I love to do that. Here, the important point to be discussed is that contributing to the community does not lead to getting a better job or augment my job. Also, my contribution does not bring more happiness to my family but it always gives me more pleasure. If my article reaches 1000 views, and 10 people benefit from that, and 2 people leave a comment as it helped them to solve their problems, I feel that is the best reward in my life. Sometimes, I get negative feedback and that always boosts me to present more good quality and better articles to the community.
Contributing to the community is my passion and I will love to do that until I get bored. Even if I am not rewarded as an MVP, surely, I won’t quit contributing as I don’t contribute for awards but for my self-satisfaction and helping the people.
Why I’m telling you this is because this year, I was blessed to be awarded as Microsoft MVP. Yes, there were many emails and Facebook posts from previous MVPs before July 1 that they were not renewed as MVP. I would like to tell all the MVPs that it doesn't matter if you are rewarded an MVP or not; as long as you are contributing, you are an MVP. I don’t know if I will be an MVP the next year, but I if not, then also I won’t quit contributing unless I am bored.
Please don’t lose hope and keep contributing to the community as all your contributions can help people for years and years. For instance, a 1998 Visual Basic forum support answer may still be useful to someone in this world and even today, they will be using it. Today, we can contribute on ASP.NET Core but after 20 years who knows in what technology we will be working but there can be a case even after 20 years when someone needs samples in ASP.NET Core. At that time, our contribution will help them and even after 20 years people will come to know about us. Let’s always be thinking about history and not the mystery behind the awards.
Last but not least for the new contributors - dreaming of being a Microsoft MVP is not bad but if you don’t get the award don’t lose hope and don't stop contributing. If you leave a gap, it's hard to reach the same level again. So, always keep contributing. Even though I got awarded Microsoft MVP after being nominated twice, I didn’t stop contributing after my first rejection in 2015.
Work harder and harder until you achieve what you desire. After you achieve your goal, don’t stop your community activities. Continue, Continue and Continue until you're bored and retired :)