#thatisall

I made a really bad mistake.  I decided to take a less expensive option on a graphical design project, and it cost me big time.  Not only did I take the cheaper way out, I went against my gut feeling.

What really hurt was I doubted my inner guidance, and through out the whole process of working with “this mistake”, I had a constant nagging from my sub conscious saying “it is just not gonna work”.

With all that being said, I have learned my lesson, and I apologize to all the people involoved and for the unwise use of time and resources.  From now on I will commit to stick to my core values and principles and most importantly listen to that place inside that actually knows best.

I personally believe that as an entrepreneurial community we are not even close to fulfilling peoples need to be part of a group, and what goes along with that is an inherent opportunity to be transparent, to tell the truth, to be clear, direct and honest with the customers we serve.

I think it is so easy as entrepreneurs for us to fall back on excuses or a this time only kind of model.  In fact I truly believe this; few of us are willing to be up front or to say “I sell that” but my competitor does it even better, here’s their website, give them a visit.  Now that is an extreme case, but that mindset of telling the truth and really connecting with people has not really been exploited yet and we have not taken complete advantage of this so far.  When thinking like this starts to happen what we find out is that it works. The reason it works is because we are not taking advantage of our customers, we are actually building a community.

This is where I believe creating amazing software can make a difference.  We can work together to wrap technology beautifully around business needs, so there is a purpose and it economically empowers everyone that is involved.  We can do this in a way where we are gaining trust and building a community around our products and services, which in turn adds enormous value for our customers, which equals unlimited income for us.

Ahhhhh, 2012 is over and I am embarking on another entrepreneurial journey this year.   I always like to reflect over the past year to see what I have learned, what I missed, and what I need to learn.  And the overwhelming theme that keeps coming up is that you cannot do it by yourself.  I have attempted at many times to tackle the big project and convince myself that I can do it, but I fail miserably.  There have also been times that I take on small projects and think hey I can do these by myself also, even though I have a million other things to do, and once again I fail miserably.  But then there are those few remarkable times that I collaborate and commune with like minded individuals who are all striving for the same goal and and we, yes we, win joyfully.  So as I step wholeheartedly into 2013, I really look forward to collaborating with new friends, old friends, business associates, and everyone else on exciting new projects, start up ventures and just plain ol’ having a great time.  2012 brought a new awareness for me, I create and work a lot better when I am a part of a great team, because in my book Teams Win!!!!

Who are you?  I have been hearing that a lot lately when it comes to talking about start ups and entrepreneurs.  The premise is that if your concept, idea, or venture somehow reflects something unique about yourself and can be easily identified in your start up, that will inevitably help you tremendously in your attempt to create a successful business.  And I completely understand, to survive the jungles of start up land, one has to really understand who they are and where they are trying to go.  That understanding alone will move you leaps and bounds out of the entrepreneurial wilderness and on the road to success.

The most dramatic life changing action I have ever took is when I started to become aware of my thinking. I gradually became consciously aware of my thoughts, and with that revelation, I now had the ability to change my thought if needed to be. Our brain is kind of like this magnificently designed software program and how we code it is how it works. Once I understood this I realized I had the choice to improve my life significantly.

In life you have ups, downs, curve balls, perceived bad luck, bad days, emotional roller coasters, and the always appropriate sh*t just happens.  In entrepreneurship you have the exact same things.  In life there is extreme uncertainty and as Eric Ries says entrepreneurship is all about extreme uncertainty.  But life also has these incredibly wonderful moments that makes it all worth it.  And I had one of those moments today in my entrepreneurial pursuits.  And those moments are what makes it all so worth it.  I wouldn’t trade either for nothing in the world.

I like to build things.  When I was younger I really liked my erector set, building model cars, and taking apart things and attempting to put them back together.  I would not consider myself a techie, and I think I have some geek tendencies, but what I am really passionate about is building things.  Software development has allowed me to fulfill what I consider my purpose, which is to create.  I get excited about taking a concept or a vision and creating a tangible product from that.  The idea that I or we can take an idea that has no physical characteristics and turn that into something you can touch, feel or experience is what I enjoy doing.  So I code because I like to build things, I like to take an idea from the universe and figure out how can I use technology (i.e. my programming language of choice at that time) to create a tangible object that will be of value to someone, will make someone’s life better for that moment, or just put a smile on your face.  Welcome to my world.

I was born to create, not to compete for what is already created.