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Hi. My name is Adam. I am the co-founder of Pure Adapt, Inc in Albany, NY. We own Detailed Image, LockerPulse, and a bunch of other websites. I write about our company, entrepreneurship in general, work-life balance, and whatever else interests me.
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Category Archives: Life Balance
There’s Always a Trade-Off
In the most recent Inc. Magazine, Norm Brodsky used his Street Smarts column to answer a few reader questions. One in particular caught my interest: Dear Norm: I am 17 years old and recently sold a website for $100,000. It took me and my partners eight months to build, and we had to overcome many obstacles. And yet, when we finally sold it, I didn’t feel excited or elated. Rather, I’ve been really depressed. I went to a dance with a date last Friday and had a horrible time. It reminded me how out of touch I’ve been. As I … Continue reading
The Entrepreneur’s Social Divide
Most of the people I know work a job they don’t really like. They do it because it enables them to live the rest of their life the way they want it. They work Monday through Friday from 9 – 5 for ~50 weeks of the year so that they can do whatever they want on the nights and weekends. It’s an understandable trade-off. That work provides for you financially. It enables you to buy a house and a car, take nice vacations, and save for retirement. But they only live for the nights and weekends. They are content at … Continue reading
Misc Entrepreneurship Ramblings
I always jot down notes when I get the idea for a new post. This week I’ve had quite a few ideas, none of which are enough for a full post really. Too big for Twitter. Too tiny for a full blog post. — Two final thoughts on funding your first business and generating your first cash flow. I just got my Inc. Magazine in the mail the other day. The cover story is titled “How to Build Your Dream Company: Here’s how 10 savvy entrepreneurs got their dream companies up and running – and how you can do the … Continue reading
Business Lifestyle Design
In January I was a little hard on myself when evaluating my ’08 progress and my ’09 goals. I try to somewhat separate myself from the business because they’re not necessarily correlated, and because I’m evaluating more than just the company. It’s easy to get caught up in always trying to do whatever it takes to make more money, but I want to make sure that I’m not doing that at the expense of things that are more important to me. Finding time for my friends and family, making sure I get to the gym, making sure I get enough … Continue reading
Eliminating Clutter [Flow Chart]
I’m making the move to a (much nicer) new apartment next week and am in the process of going through all of my belongings. By my count, this is 8 moves in 8 years. I’m getting pretty good at getting rid of all of the clutter each time so I don’t need to lug stuff around that I don’t use. Even if you don’t move as frequently as I do, going through your belongings once a year can be a very beneficial exercise. Not only do you free up some space and minimize clutter, but you can also make some … Continue reading
Just Having Fun
Kind of a random quick spontaneous post here. This past week has been the most fun I’ve ever had running a business. Part of it is seeing the positive results of what we’ve done. We’ve accomplished everything as a team, and accomplishments are always better when you have people to share them with…especially when you all went through the ups and downs together. Even more so though, I think it’s the infinite potential that I see now, both for DI and other upcoming projects. It’s just so much fun waking up every day. I find myself still working long hours, … Continue reading
Celebrating Our Success
In this day and age, where nothing is easy, we’ve accomplished a great deal as a business over the past few years. Last month we hit several milestones sooner than we had anticipated. One of the things I love about our company is that whenever we’re at a meeting and we’re discussing something big that we’ve done, there’s always talk of how and when we’re going to celebrate. Last night we went to dinner at a “trendy” wine bar in Albany. It was possibly the best meal I’ve ever had in my life. The whole thing took almost four hours. … Continue reading
Caring More About Your Business than Yourself
This is sort of an addendum to the last post from a little while ago. Running a business also teaches you a selflessness that translates great to other aspects of life. Not paying yourself so that you can expand. Taking less pay so that you can hire an employee. Living with your parents or in a crappy apartment to save money. Donating your tax return back to the company instead of spending it on yourself. Taking care of a customer because it’s the right thing to do, even if the expense comes out of your pocket. Covering for a partner … Continue reading
Entrepreneurship is a Life Question
Jim Collins, author of one of my favorite business books, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t, was interviewed in the 30th Anniversary Issue of Inc. Magazine last month. The entire article is a good read, but one question in particular stood out to me: How do you define entrepreneurship? I take a broad view of it. The traditional definition — founding an entity designed to make money — is too narrow for me. I see entrepreneurship as more of a life concept. We all make choices about how we live our lives. You can … Continue reading
Consistency = Success = Happiness?
This past week I noticed that the gym was noticeably emptier. In fact, it’s been getting less and less crowded every week for the past month or so. This is perfectly normal, because it’s March, and March is just about when everyone who made a New Year’s Resolution to get in shape is starting to give up. Especially the people who go early in the morning like I do. They slip back into their bad old habits and find ways to justify doing other things with their time (or more likely, sleeping an extra hour…which isn’t bad, but you could … Continue reading