3/19/2010 Wisdom of the Road
Ah so last night I was talking about lessons learned with RideSearch. I told myself I would sell it after all the house fiasco happened so now I am going to concentrate on that. I would only sell it if I got something fair for it. Probably for $150,000 or more. I put alot of time and money into it and that is actually a steal for anyone interested. I accomplished alot and I tended to dwell upon my accomplishments to keep me going. Like the national press exposure and getting people in the country to actually use the site to carpool with. I never knew anyone who was able to do what I had done. Get on national newspapers, syndicated television and actually go all out into an idea. Right now because gas prices are rising it is getting around 15 people signing up a day. RideSearch.com is now up to 11,500 members. I am not even doing anything to maintain the site and it keeps on growing. I am just sitting here and people are signing up. I am sure there is a profit model within it. I just never developed it all the way because I had lost my initial dedication.
The lessons I learned were really internal lessons about myself. I suppose real wisdom is gained through experience. For instance I learned that it is okay to take big risks, but you need to be very critical of what you are doing before you jump into something. You need to really answer the unanswered questions and not just assume everything is going to work out. I learned that passion can be used to keep a person going through tough times, but when you lose hope in your idea, you lose your passion for it and then nothing can save it. I learned owning a business is a lot like having a child. You have to first decide if you want to bring something into this world. Is it worth it to affect your entire life and will it help you and the world? The decision to start a business means automatically you have to sacrifice. You have to sacrifice your time, money and sometimes rather foolishly, your relationships.
I learned to be critical. I learned to not take people at face value. I learned to be critical of myself as well. I came to a point where I had to be honest with who I really was. I was not a CEO. I was a software engineer trying to be a CEO. I've now got the CEO skills but I don't want to use them in a business role. I'd rather use them in a technology role. But during this time I did gain insight into another world. I realized the decisions executives make can affect everyone who look up to them. This other world though, is full of liars. It is sad to say but money is the bottom line, not people. Eventually I got a board of advisors and I realized what kept them going was their personal goals and usually they were selfish. And if anything got in the way of a personal or business goal a real businessman will take action. I learned that selling is lying to people to make them feel good about a product or service. See, my service was free. I had nothing to lie about. During my travels to various shows people always wanted to know what the catch was. There was no catch. But we are so used to being lied to, we now expect it. As for myself I can now see the forest and the trees. I can see peoples motives and am critical of everyone and everything. Sure I am trying to sell RideSearch for $150,000, but to be honest it is only worth it if the person buying it has a passion for business and people and that is a hard combination to have. It probably won't sell, but everything I do to get it to sell will have a purpose, something I missed having along the way.
The lessons I learned were really internal lessons about myself. I suppose real wisdom is gained through experience. For instance I learned that it is okay to take big risks, but you need to be very critical of what you are doing before you jump into something. You need to really answer the unanswered questions and not just assume everything is going to work out. I learned that passion can be used to keep a person going through tough times, but when you lose hope in your idea, you lose your passion for it and then nothing can save it. I learned owning a business is a lot like having a child. You have to first decide if you want to bring something into this world. Is it worth it to affect your entire life and will it help you and the world? The decision to start a business means automatically you have to sacrifice. You have to sacrifice your time, money and sometimes rather foolishly, your relationships.
I learned to be critical. I learned to not take people at face value. I learned to be critical of myself as well. I came to a point where I had to be honest with who I really was. I was not a CEO. I was a software engineer trying to be a CEO. I've now got the CEO skills but I don't want to use them in a business role. I'd rather use them in a technology role. But during this time I did gain insight into another world. I realized the decisions executives make can affect everyone who look up to them. This other world though, is full of liars. It is sad to say but money is the bottom line, not people. Eventually I got a board of advisors and I realized what kept them going was their personal goals and usually they were selfish. And if anything got in the way of a personal or business goal a real businessman will take action. I learned that selling is lying to people to make them feel good about a product or service. See, my service was free. I had nothing to lie about. During my travels to various shows people always wanted to know what the catch was. There was no catch. But we are so used to being lied to, we now expect it. As for myself I can now see the forest and the trees. I can see peoples motives and am critical of everyone and everything. Sure I am trying to sell RideSearch for $150,000, but to be honest it is only worth it if the person buying it has a passion for business and people and that is a hard combination to have. It probably won't sell, but everything I do to get it to sell will have a purpose, something I missed having along the way.
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3/19/2010 SLEEEEEP
Well Brennon loves his sleep. As a mom I am amazed at how much sleep this little guy requires (or just plain wants) for a 6 month old. He has me on his schedule of 9am, 12pm, 3 pm and to bed by 7 or 7:30. Some of his naps are even 2 hours long....no wonder he is a happy kid. At this rate he should be growing exponentially, which is actually true. He now fits in 1 year old clothing and is a fairly long 29 inches. It really is fun to get to spend time with him each day on my time off, and now that I have to go back to work soon, I look forward to the summer. There is a rhythm of the day when you are a stay at home mom, and a routine that becomes ingrained in both mother and child. However, I say all of this calmly and at ease since Brennon is an only child. If I had more than one I could be frazzled to the core. But I don't, so I'll enjoy the gift that has been given to me right now-the peaceful serenity of a little boy sleeping 3-4 times a day.