Take a Step Back to Evaluate 2005 Before Jumping into 2006

This time of year tends to be the time that everyone reflects on where they've been and plans where they want to go. As an entrepreneur, it's a great time to follow suit and take a step back to objectively analyze your business.

I think sometimes we tend to not want to do this because we are afraid of what we will find. We want to feel like we are doing a great job. We want to focus on what we've done well and forget about what we've done poorly. This is a huge mistake - you need to understand what your weaknesses are as much or more than you understand your strengths. No one is perfect, admitting that you have weaknesses shouldn't crush your spirits, it should do just the opposite. Admitting your weaknesses should provide motivation to improve in the coming year.

Take a day to analyze what's going on in your business. Make a list of all of your accomplishments in 2005 and a list of all of your failures in 2005. Also, identify positive and negative trends that will likely continue to impact your business in 2006. If you have a business plan, this would be a good time to update it. This will help clarify what you need to do to succeed and have a prosperous 2006.

Best wishes to all in the New Year!

Don't Spend 90% of Your Time on 10% of Your Business

I'm not sure where I first heard the phrase, who said it, or how popular it is, but it's very applicable to me and my business and probably is to you and yours. "Don't spend 90% of your time on 10% of your business." What exactly does that mean? It means don't focus all of your efforts on one part of your business, thus neglecting the rest of it.

I think that this problem infects every business owner in one way or another. In my case, I tend to spend far too much time improving the functionality of SportsLizard.com, and way too little time marketing it. I am making it my New Year's Revolution for 2006 to start spending more time marketing my business.

Part of my problem comes from me having an engineering degree and not a marketing degree. The other part comes from the fact that for the first two years of the business I NEEDED to spend most of my time programming so that I had a competitive service to offer my customers. Without that, I was doomed for failure.

However, now that the business is somewhat established, I need to fight the urge to continue to implement innovative features all the time and focus on getting more awareness for SportsLizard.com. That's not to say that I won't be implementing lots of cool new things, just that I am not going to spend all of my time doing it. I will have better balance in 2006 running my business.

Like I said, I think each and every business owner faces similar circumstances. No person is perfectly balanced, we all have strengths and weaknesses, and sometimes we tend to lean towards our strengths and forget about our weak areas. This might be OK if you have an office job, but it's not if you are an entrepreneur. As entrepreneurs we need to strike a balance between using our strengths to grow our business and working on our weaknesses so that we stay in business.

If You Think You Will Fail, You Will

"What you think, you are." A priest once told me that monks use that simple phrase to clear their minds and maintain focus. Regardless of your spiritual beliefs, this quote is extremely applicable to your personal and professional life. As a student, if you focus on failing an exam, you will likely fail. In your personal life, if you fear loneliness, you will probably be lonely. In business, If you think your business will fail, it will.

A common link among people I know that always fall short of their goals is that they focus on failing. They think and talk about what they will do if they fail. Their entire focus is on what they will do if they don't meet their goal, not on what they need to do to reach it. That's why it's never a surprise when they actually do fail. How could they succeed if they don't completely believe in themselves?

The good news is that this same mentality can be applied to work in your favor. If you think about your goals and visualize success, you will likely reach those goals. I make sure to spend time every day thinking about where I want to get my business to in three weeks, three months, and three years. As soon as I stop believing I will succeed, I will fail. Think about it - how are my customers supposed to trust me if I am not even sold on my business? As an entrepreneur, you have to be the one person that always believes.

But doing this is not easy. In fact, I think it's the biggest challenge a first time entrepreneur faces. The most likely people to take you down are your friends and family. It's not intentional, but it is real. As an entrepreneur, you will constantly be questioned by those around you. It's very unlikely that anyone you know will come right out and say that what you are doing is going to fail - that you are too young/old/poor/stupid to succeed. They will all say that they support you, but throw in little things like "if it doesn't work out, you can always go back to your job." If you start listening to and believing this, and planning what you'll do if you fail, you will fail. You need to maintain complete focus that you will succeed. Their is no other option. You will eat, sleep, and breathe success. That mentality keeps focus on the goal. And guess what? If you focus on the goal, you are probably going to achieve it.

Just as I said that everyone I know who fails thinks about failing, the same holds true for everyone I know who succeeds - they all think about success. Remember, "what you think, you are."

Oh, and Merry Christmas everyone!

I Hate Remote Desktop

As a business owner, it's not a bad idea to have a backup plan for the most important functions of your business. Things always go wrong, and for some reason they always go wrong at the most inopportune time. Case in point: my remote desktop connection.

Earlier this year I bought a low-end laptop for the sole purpose of being able to remote in to my desktop when traveling. I travel roughly once a month for work and once every few months to NY to visit friends and family so the investment made sense. It took me about a day of playing, but once I set up the remote desktop I figured I was home free.

Now when it works, it works great. The trouble is, that it rarely seems to work right. It seems like there are so many factors - the laptop and desktop connections working properly, the laptop's network allowing remote connections, the desktop's router enabling access to the necessary ports, the desktop's anti-virus software enabling access to the necessary ports- that it is anything but reliable.

Knowing this, when I leave my place in CT, I set everything up so that in case remote desktop fails me, I will still be able to somewhat run my business. Having this backup plan is nice, however, actually having to use it is not. It completely limits what I can and can't do. Essentially, I can check email using webmail provided by my hosting company and control a few other minor things remotely through the web. This sucks compared to being able to have total control of my business!

Last night I made the trip home from CT to NY for the holidays. While I am here, I still need to keep an eye on the business (after all, if I don't, who will). And today I woke up, tried the remote connection and it didn't work! So for the next week while I am here I can't get anything done other than answer a few emails. Part of me is tempted to hop back in my car, go back to my place in CT, and fix whatever is wrong (of course, since I set everything up properly, and it worked fine when I traveled two weeks ago, nothing should be wrong)!

I suppose the lesson from all of this is that you should have a backup plan for any critical function in your business. You never know when you will need it. As annoyed as I am right now, I can at least keep the businesses head above water. How bad would it be if I couldn't even answer email! Had I completely relied upon remote desktop, I WOULD be in my car heading back to CT right now. As ticked off as I am, I am equally happy that I thought of a contingency plan.

Spend Wisely When Starting an Internet Business

Starting a new internet business is certainly an exciting time. You are filled with the energy and excitement of a child entering a toy store. This passion is no doubt a wonderful thing. One can only hope to have that feeling each and every day that they run their business. However, this feeling not always accompanied by the most logical business decisions.

I have noticed that people tend to get caught up in the excitement and forget that the goal of their business is to make money! They buy anything and everything all at once - a new computer, new office furniture, rent large office spaces, etc. This careless spending can put their business in the hole for years to come.

I know it seems obvious, but not everyone is always thinking that Revenue - Expenses = Net Income. Your focus should be on getting the Net Income as high as possible. Managing expenses is just as important as making revenue. You can make all the money in the world, but if your expenses still exceed that, you are losing money. Every dollar spent is a dollar that you need to overcome to make a profit.

It helps to take a step back and think about what you really need. As an entrepreneur, you are likely strapped for cash and you need to make everything you have work to your advantage. The more money you spend on accommodating yourself, the less you will be able to spend accommodating your customers. Do you need a new computer? Or can you get by with the one you've got. Do you need new office furniture? Or can you buy used or get by with what you've already got. Do you need to get tied in to an expensive lease by renting office space? Or can you work out of your basement for a while. The more money you save, the more you will make. Not to mention, you will be able to make much wiser decisions on what you do and don't need after running the business for a while.

Enjoy the thrill of starting your new business, it's an amazing feeling. Just don't let it compromise your success before you get started. As the saying goes, a penny saved is a penny earned!

Mark Cuban is the Model Entrepreneur

Last week I heard an interview with Mark Cuban on the Jim Rome show. Cuban has always been one of my favorite entrepreneurs. His focus, passion, drive, determination, and love for what he does translates into business success and success in life. He is not only one of the most successful businessmen in the world, he is also one of the most charitable.

Like most sports fans, my first exposure to Mark Cuban was in 2000 when he purchased the Dallas Mavericks. In nearly no time he turned one of the worst franchises in sports into a playoff contender that every free agent wanted to play for. He did it by focusing improving relationships with his customers and his employees. He sat in seats with fans and encouraged them to email him personally. He attracted free agents by building luxurious locker rooms and hiring more coaches.

But that is just a taste of what he's done. Before buying the Mavericks he started and sold MicroSolutions to CompuServe. His biggest success was Broadcast.com, which was sold to Yahoo! for $5.1 Billion in 1999. Today, in addition to owning the Mavericks, Cuban plans to revolutionize TV and Movies with HDNet.

In the interview with Rome, Cuban made several great statements about business and entrepreneurism. Rome asked him how an NBA Championship would stack up with his other business success. Cuban said there is no comparison. While an NBA Championship would be nice, it wouldn't even compare to the thrill of selling Broadcast.com for $5.1 Billion. He said that "the thrill of victory in business blows away the thrill of victory in sports. Business is a sport 24x7x365." That gives you an idea of the competitiveness of Cuban. He "plays" business like his players play a basketball game. The only difference is the reward for success is often greater in business and the cost of failure is often much worse.

He also spoke about how a lot of people ask him what he does for fun. His response is always that "this is what I do for fun." He builds businesses. He competes to win. He lives for being an entrepreneur. To truly be successful in business, I believe you need to love it that much. You are going to sacrifice time, money, security, and more. If your heart and soul is not into it I don't think you will succeed. If it is, you could be the next Mark Cuban.

Write a Business Plan - Even Large Companies Get Burned by Failing to do Their Homework

It doesn't take much brain power for me to come up with things that drive me nuts about corporate America. It seems like every day I get new material without even trying. I figure pretty soon I'll be able to write a book. "Why Corporate America Sucks" would be the title. I'm sure everyone would rush to the store to get a copy...either that or the complete opposite.

My latest encounter of the shear stupidity that takes place in corporate America happened Wednesday. Now, I need to back up for a second to properly set the story up. I am an engineer for a large consumer goods company, the second largest in it's industry, but it's a distant second. We have roughly 20% of the market whereas our largest competitor has around 70%. We are also less than 1/4 of the size of them. This being the case, there are many ways that we could go about bridging the gap. The one which our management seems to have chosen (for better or for worse) is innovation - beating the competition to the market with superior products.

Starting with all of the disadvantages I just described, we need to avoid stupid mistakes that waste time and money. Instead, it seems like we continuously make those mistakes that keep us sitting in second place.

So I am sitting in a meeting on Wednesday, for one of these "innovative" products that I am working on developing, and someone says that there may be a problem. Seems as if a third company has already patented the project that we have been working on the past few months. Add in the concept/market research phase that I wasn't involved in, and the project has probably been going on for at least six months and cost the company millions of dollars. Oops. All because whomever was writing the business plan for this project neglected to evaluate the current market. They likely assumed that since our number one competitor wasn't doing it, that no one was doing it. Well, now the company has lost time and money that it can't afford to lose. Mistakes like this are absolutely killer because they could have been avoided by doing a five minute online patent search.

Companies will always make mistakes like this. As entrepreneurs, you just have to make sure that your business isn't the one making them. Writing a thorough business plan will help reduce the likelihood of making a mistake like that. A good business plan encompasses all the important areas of your business, including sizing up the current competition. You will likely be starting with all of the cards stacked against you. Writing a business plan should not be an option. Failing to do so could result in blunders like this one and put you out of business.

The Shortest Distance Between Two Points is a Straight Line

Today I was listening to one of the free audio clips offered on 12 Week Intensive (highly recommended by the way) and Mark Joyner, the "Godfather" of internet marketing, made the point that the "shortest distance between two points is a straight line".

Well duh, right? But he used it in a great motivational context - every action that you take in your business should be bringing you on a path down that straight line. If it isn't, you need to evaluate why you are doing it. He also made the point that entrepreneurs tend to stray from their purpose and focus on whatever idea just popped into their heads, regardless of it's importance.

In general, I think I do a good job of keeping my focus. In fact, I think it's one of my strong points. I started as a college kid with a dream of an "Amazon.com for sports collectibles" and I have worked from point A (coming up with the idea) towards point B (making it happen). I have a business plan that I update monthly and look at daily. In it, I have detailed goals for the company, recent achievements, and a task list of what things need to be done, when they need to be done, and for what purpose.

However, when I took a step back I realized that if I expanded the scope of the expression to include my entire life, not just my business life, I am not following a straight line. I am taking a round-a-bout path. My job takes up 45 hours of my week. Is that helping me reach point B? I could make the argument that I am learning business skills that will save me time and money in my business. While that is somewhat true, there is a much more direct path to my goal - leaving my job and working 100% on making SportsLizard.com become to sports collectibles what Amazon.com is to books. The longer I work as an engineer, the longer I stay on the round-a-bout path. The sooner I leave, the sooner I can put myself on the straight line path.

That really got me thinking...needless to say, I am certainly weighing my options.

Oh, and for any of you dorks like me, there is a mathematical proof that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Believe it or not, sad as it may be, I actually was able to follow along with it (that's what years of having Calculus and Differential Equations jammed into your head will do to you).

Irregardless is NOT a Word!

Just like anyone, I have pet peeves - those things that really shouldn't bother me but for some reason absolutely drive me nuts. Right now, number one on the top ten list of my pet peeves is the word irregardless. For some idiotic reason people use it when they mean to use the word regardless. I don't know who started it, but I am on a crusade to put an end to it.

Actually, I have a theory about who started it - athletes. That's right, athletes. I hear it used all the time on Sports Center. Now, compared to the average person, I watch way more sports and way less anything else, but I figure it has to be either athletes or musicians. Think about it, who does society, as a whole, like to imitate? The top three things that come to mind are actors, athletes, and musicians. I scratch actors from the list because they tend to be a little more polished. Their careers require them being able to speak. That leaves us with athletes and musicians. Since I have heard an abundant use of the word on Sports Center, I am going with athletes.

So the other day at work, I am sitting at my desk, minding my own business, looking up stuff on eBay when I overhear I guy (whom I respect a lot for what it's worth) utter that incomprehensible word. He started a sentence with "Irregardless of the fact..." Did you mean REGARDLESS of the fact?!?!?

Now, I am sure you can tell by reading this that I don't exactly have the vocabulary of Jim Lampley, but at least I try to use words in their proper context. There is no good reason to EVER use that word....EVER. Dictionary.com defines the word as

Regardless [Probably blend of irrespective, and regardless.]

Usage Note: Irregardless is a word that many mistakenly believe to be correct usage in formal style, when in fact it is used chiefly in nonstandard speech or casual writing. Coined in the United States in the early 20th century, it has met with a blizzard of condemnation for being an improper yoking of irrespective and regardless and for the logical absurdity of combining the negative ir- prefix and -less suffix in a single term. Although one might reasonably argue that it is no different from words with redundant affixes like debone and unravel, it has been considered a blunder for decades and will probably continue to be so.

Well, my athletes theory was just proved wrong (as were those of you who were working under the assumption that I fully think through my posts before writing).

UrbanDictionary.com has the following definition submitted by a user:

Used by people who ignorantly mean to say regardless. According to Webster, it is a word, but since the prefix "ir" and the suffx "less" both mean "not or with" they cancel each other out, so what you end up with is regard. When you use this to try to say you don't care about something, you end up saying that you do.

My whole point - if you use the word, stop using it and start using regardless.

Oh, and as far as the whole entrepreneur thing (you know, the purpose of this blog), my job is driving me nuts and I am one step closer to making the leap to running my biz full time.

I Need a Maid!

My goal is to post to this blog almost every day, or at least every other day...lets just say I'm shooting for 5 times a week for arguments sake. Well, the past few days I haven't been able to make a post at all. Why? Am I slammed at work? Not really. Have I been working a lot on my business? Unfortunately, no. What I have been doing is all those little things that everyone else does every day but I put off.

Working 45 hours a week as an engineer and then coming home and working on my business doesn't leave for a heck of a lot of free time. I am fine with that. I am able to manage my friends, family, and hobbies. I think I do a good job of doing what's important to me despite the amount of time I spend working. But what really gets me are the stupid little things like cooking, cleaning, and shopping.

So, I have decided that I need a maid. I rent out a duplex and live by myself. The place is great but it requires normal maintenance. I think for most people it's no big deal to clean a few times a week and go grocery shopping. But for me, I want to spend 100% of my time outside of work growing SportsLizard.com and anything else feels like a waste.

What I need is a super maid - one that can cook, clean, do laundry, shop, answer phones, and organize my music. Yes, I need someone to organize my music. I have collected thousands of MP3's over the years and have neglected to add those stupid ID3 tags. I have finally given in to Apple and ordered an iPod (my old MP3 player just wasn't cutting it anymore) and now I have 10GB of unorganized music in iTunes!

I suppose I will spend a day this weekend organizing it and putting in the tags. Somehow, I feel like my time is worth more. It's amazing how my job and business don't stress me out but thinking about how unorganized my music drives me off the wall.

Interestingly enough, I just remembered reading about a girl in Entrepreneur magazine who started a (very successful) company loading people's CD collections and MP3's onto their iPods. At first I wasn't really impressed with the idea (sometimes I can't believe what people will pay other people to do) - now I could actually use her help!

Business Travel Kills My Productivity

It's hard enough trying to run my business while working a full time job. Coming home at 5:30 after a stressful 9 hour day doesn't exactly put me in the perfect working mindset. That's tough, but I am beginning to discover that it's nothing compared to when I have to travel.

My job doesn't require a ton of travel, but like most corporate jobs these days I am working with people across the world and sometimes I have to work with them in person. In my first year of working out of college I have traveled about 10 times. Not a ton, but not insignificant either.

There are some good things about traveling - mainly that I get out of the office and that I can read whatever I want when I am on the plane. For whatever reason, I tend to come up with some of my best ideas when I am flying. Nonetheless, the bad things about business travel far outweighs the good.

When I travel, I generally spend all day working or eating with people from work, leaving no time at all to work on SportsLizard.com. When I do finally get back to my hotel, I am worn out. All that I have time for is checking my email. Nothing gets done except the bare minimum. And the trip totally messes up my week. The night before I leave I spend packing and the day after I am still getting adjusted to being back. Business travel completely kills my productivity.

This week took it to another level. I was supposed to return on Friday by noon and have the rest of the day off. Thanks to delays and cancellations, I didn't get home until 1 AM! Talk about wasted time. Today I hardly got anything done because I was catching up on sleep. It drives me nuts.

Working 45 hours and running a business on the side is one thing. Traveling across the country and trying to run a business on the side is another.

Don't Become a Workaholic, It's Not Worth It

When people think about entrepreneurs, they immediately think of long hours and therefore conclude that they must be workaholics. I suppose it all depends on how you define workaholic. I work 45 hours a week at work and probably another 30-40 on SportsLizard.com. Does that automatically make me a workaholic? I don't think so.

Despite my 80 hour work weeks, I still manage to do the things that are important to me and to my health. I always take time to stay in touch with friends and family, no matter how busy I am. I always make time to work out three times a week. I always eat 5-6 healthy meals a day to keep myself in top shape physically and mentally. And I always sleep 7 or 8 hours. If I stopped doing these things, THEN I would consider myself a workaholic. As long as I am keeping my priorities straight in life, I don't see anything detrimental in working so many hours. I am, after all, doing something I love. I experience some stress, but I still think I am more stress free than many friends of mine that work the "normal" 40 hours. I think that there is more to being a "workaholic" than the number of hours you work.

All of that said, today I encountered a dangerous workaholic at work. A co-worker of mine was looking a little sick so someone asked him if he was feeling OK. He responded by telling us he hadn't gone home last night. We thought he was joking. He wasn't. He worked all day yesterday, went home for dinner for two hours, worked all night, and was still there when I left today at 5! One of my co-workers pulled him aside and showed him photos of a car wreck that he had been in years ago because he fell asleep at the wheel after a similar all nighter.

I was shocked. This guy has been with the company for around 10 years, so I don't think he was trying to impress anyone. He said he had a deadline, but in our industry, deadlines are missed all the time. It's not a matter of life or death if something gets out a day or two late. The co-worker of mine has a wife and kids at home. He is risking his health and potentially the health and lives of others when he finally steps in the car to go home (for all I know, he is still at work).

And for what? To meet a deadline for work. No amount of money is worth doing what he did. Please, please, don't ever do this. Remember the things that are important to you and if you see your work-life balance slipping, it's time to take a step back and question yourself. You can be successful without risking your life.

Talk Your Business Up - You Never Know Who Will Hear You

In general, I'm a pretty quiet guy. I try to live by the whole 'actions speak louder than words' philosophy. Rarely do I talk myself or my business up without someone asking a bunch of questions. While my "humble" attitude may be seen as a good human trait, it's not necessarily a good business trait.

As a business owner, you need to find a way to constantly talk about your business without sounding cocky or condescending. I am beginning to open up and talk more - and today I saw the fruits of my labor in action.

I was standing in the lunch line at work, waiting to pay for my salad (I think we have an above average salad bar at work, especially considering that it's at a work cafeteria), when the person behind me struck up a conversation about my business.

At first I was in a little bit of shock - we are acquaintances but I was certain that I had never mentioned my business to him. He told me that "people talk, word gets around" and then proceeded to pitch an idea to me.

Now, people do this all the time. They desperately want to contribute their two cents and most of the time it's either something ridiculously simple that I already do or something ridiculously unfeasible that any sane person would never do. So I nod and smile and then change the subject (I can only imagine what someone like Dave Chappelle has to deal with when some tool comes up to him and pitches him a new skit idea every five minutes, it must drive him nuts).

But this guy had a legitimately good idea. Better than that - an amazing idea! So we chatted for about half an hour after lunch. In the end, I may have a new business partner and SportsLizard.com may be taking on something extremely new and exciting (I'll tell you more as we hammer out the details).

It just goes to show you the value of talking about your business.

Having a Network of Other Entrepreneurs is Priceless

Every entrepreneur, especially solo ones like myself, want to tackle every issue themselves. We don't want to ask for help because we know that we can do it. This mentality is one of the things that helps us succeed, but can also lead to us being in over our heads. One of the best ways that I have found to combat this is to have a network of entrepreneurs to regularly communicate with.

I am lucky because many of my good friends also have it, that thing that entrepreneurs have that is so tuff to define. I have four good friends that I grew up with that I talk to on a regular basis. My good friend Adam sells his sports collectibles on SportsLizard.com, my friend Darrell is in the process of starting his first company, and my friend Mike (who I grew up across the street from) is working with me to start a nonprofit organization. Over the past few days, I have also been in touch with an old friend George who runs Detailed Image, a car detailing company that also sells high end goods online.

George and I haven't talked much in the past few years but as soon as he found out that we both had started businesses, he picked up the phone and gave me a call. We spoke for hours about our companies. We bounced marketing ideas off of each other, discussed web design, and talked about how running a company effects our personal lives. He told me about a few ways that he uses to drive traffic to his site that I hadn't thought of. From our conversations, I picked up two or three things that I believe will significantly help SportsLizard.com in 2006. Hopefully he picked up a few things from me that will help grow his business as well.

Regardless of your industry, you will fail unless you have good people around you. If you run a business like I do, or if you are starting a business, or even thinking about starting one, make sure that you surround yourself with other entrepreneurs. You will find that those relationships that you develop are invaluable.

The Challenge of Motivation

We all know someone who says that they would like to do something that we know they have no chance of doing, be it get better grades in school, get a better job, or lose weight. Why do we know that they are full of BS as soon as they open their mouth? Because we know that they can't stay focused long enough to achieve their goals. Sure they are motivated today, but what about when their is a party the night before a test? We know that they will cave in and ultimately resort back to being who they are.

As an entrepreneur this is not an option. You need to find some way to keep yourself motivated. It may be money (although I don't think that's the case for most entrepreneurs), it may be to prove people wrong, or it may be something else. Whatever it is, it has to be something so strong inside of you that it overpowers your desire to do the things that will cause you to fail.

For me it is a combination of things - the desire to enjoy my life, to live something I am passionate about, to best use the talents that I have been given, and to a lesser extent prove other people wrong.

Notice that money is not on that list. I draw a very good salary at my job. At 23, I make more than most people twice my age. Being a young, single guy with not much responsibility, I make more than enough money to do all of the things that I need to do and want to do. If money was all that drove me, I would certainly be content where I am at and not be pushing for something more. Those other things I mentioned are what truly drives me.

In my post a few days ago, I expressed my frustration with having to spend 45 hours a week in an office doing something I don't want to. I spoke of how I felt like I was wasting my time and how I wish I was running my business and working on my non profit organization all day long. And I still sort of feel that way. But I also have noticed how driven to succeed I have been lately and can't help but conclude that their is a strong correlation between the two.

For instance, if all was well at my job - I truly enjoyed all aspects of my work, then what rush would I have to leave? I am pulling a sweet salary and have great benefits. I would probably start slacking and figure it wouldn't matter whether I quit this year or four years from now. That would definitely lead to a lack of urgency and demotivate me. I certainly wouldn't be posting to my blog on a Friday night!

But the fact that I am frustrated with my work just adds fuel to the fire. In the past month, I have had my business recognized by Microsoft and had a post from this blog syndicated in a national newsletter, but that doesn't even phase me. There is no sense of content at all. Just a never ending drive to succeed and to start doing what I love full time. And I won't take my foot off of the pedal until I get there.

At work, I generally don't talk about my business. I don't want it to distract me from getting my job done. People always have a thousand questions for me so I'd rather not deal with it. Inevitably, it always feels like they are trying to prove to themselves that they shouldn't take my business seriously because, after all, I am just a 23 year old, and I couldn't possibly know more or be more driven or more successful than they are. My boss is aware of my plans. He understands them, respects them, and will ultimately support me in whatever I decide to do. That is all I really care about.

But people like to talk. And one of their favorite questions for young people is "Where do you see yourself in the future?" It always is proceeded by the "You seem like your getting used to work, which is good, because you've got another 40 years of it." I always take it as "When I was your age, I had a dream job too - tell me what yours is, then I'll tell you mine and why someone else caused me to fail, and inevitably I'll make you feel that you will not end up doing whatever it is that you just said you wanted to do ." I can't tell you how many times I have had that conversation. I hate it, but it's hard to avoid when people start prying into your professional aspirations.

So today at work, someone started prying. So I answered the questions honestly. And I get the "I'm rooting for you, but don't you think you should also develop your engineering career here in case you change your mind?" I say no, which is followed with "You say that now, but when you meet some honey and have a little kid and want to buy a house you are going to want a steady income." Another one of my favorites. Since I am single, they love to play the "when you meet a girl everything will change" card. Listen, every girlfriend I have ever had would support me in pursuing what I love in exchange for a little financial uncertainty. And I am pretty sure that any girl I meed in the future who truly loves me would also support me. I pretty much take that as an insult - an insult to my business and an insult to my ability to develop successful relationships. I take it as "you live in fantasy land, young man, and when you get out of fantasy land and look at reality you will realize that your dreams aren't meant to become reality."

As this conversation continued, I was then thrown the "Listen to your elders, I am twice your age, and you will regret not listening to me" line. I am all for respecting your elders, but when your elders are wrong I would be stupid to listen. Would Bill Gates have started Microsoft if he listened to his elders? Michael Dell wouldn't have dropped out of school to run Dell Computers if his elders had their way. Sometimes you need to pursue you passions despite what others say.

Ok, I strayed a little, but back to my motivation. I started to realize after that conversation at work that those conversations are part of what fires me up so much, part of what keeps me going. I almost NEED people to constantly misunderstand me and insinuate that I will fail. It drives me. So, in a way, working my job for a little longer will actually be good for me. Seeing what I don't want will help me stay focused on what I do want. I think that is the best mentality for me to approach my job with for the next year or so while I work towards getting out of it.

I hope you all have an awesome Friday night and a great weekend - I am off to work on the SportsLizard.com Sports Collectibles Newsletter that goes out tomorrow.