How do I design my business? I’ve never designed one before.

I once heard that when something doesn’t work out, or in other words, you ‘fail’… It’s just the universe telling you that you may be going in the wrong direction. I like that and I think I’ll buy into it.

After all, this is like a game and skills increase the more you practice.

A REALLY bad characteristic I have is that my slate needs to be clean before I can start something new. I don’t know if this is a sign of OCD. I think it may be. In my home, if I have to fix up a room, I would rather have nothing but the studs showing. That means a complete wipe of what is there. Demolition to the extreme.

I love a clean slate or a perfect avenue to work in. Everything has to be perfect for me to feel comfortable to work. As it turns out, this is not a good thing when it comes to starting a business.

Mobile Marketing

I have chosen mobile marketing as my business venture. It is perfect for me. I have always wanted to help local businesses. Since I first learned about the internet back in the early 90’s I knew that there was something in me that could help businesses out with their online presence. Here is my chance to combine a few things that I know very well with something I have always dreamed of doing and turning it into something I can do for a long time to come.

Here’s my plan.

Start out with introducing local businesses how mobile marketing can get their customers talking positive about them. This would be done by using gps based localized marketing. Foursquare, Yelp, Facebook, Places etc.

Once a business see’s the benefits, I introduce a mobile website and than move on to a full blown mobile marketing campaign complete with text marketing, social media, and local SEO tactics.

My next step is to design a few different options for the local business owner with different prices for my consulting services. I can breath because this is starting on a clean slate.

I’m psyched!

I must warn you. This is going to be a negative post. This will be a venting of pressure and an avenue to get some garbage off my chest.

The truth is, lately, the battle has been tougher than ever and I’ve lost my footing. It also feels like as soon as I get my footing, here comes another wave to knock me down. Punching the inside of my cube isn’t going to do much except hurt my hand. Although, it’s exactly what I want to do right now.

Let me tell you about my job. I work as a technician in the wireless telecommunications industry. I was one of the first members of an elite team that literally banged out a wireless network for one of the big 4 carriers in a very populated area in the country. A feat that I am proud of.

During the hay-day of my career, I worked with some of the brightest technical minds in the industry. We worked together and jump started something great. Naturally, as the industrial age, our parents, education system and superiors have taught us, we assumed that our day of climbing the ladder would come. We just saw the light and figured we would grow our salaries and eventually be able to retire with a good 401K.

It hasn’t turned out that way. 11 years later, I am still doing the same thing only in a much more hostile environment. The hay-day is long gone. Most of the brilliant minds have moved on to other companies. Our spirits and hopes and dreams have vanished in the cinders and ashes of what used to be a brilliant and glorious display.

As the days and weeks and months go by, my future looks dimmer and dimmer. I am managed by management that doesn’t know me or my strengths. I am working for a company that has no idea I exist. It’s painful because I really did pour my hear and soul into this career.

As I walk backwards in this tunnel and the light at the other end gets smaller and smaller, I often find myself in this level of panic. It creates this sense of urgency that I can’t ignore. I need to make choices that will protect and secure my family. I know wholeheartedly that this career is not the way.

Yet, I battle myself instead of just running forward in leaps and bounds. I find it difficult to break some of my habits. I know I need to find my strengths, passion, resources and opportunity and run with a new set of ambition.

I hope I can find myself out of this holding pattern very soon.

Cheer me on will ya?

I haven’t been here for a while now.

I have been wrapping my brain around, through and between and finally starting with full intent to finish.
And it feels good.

I picked up the term ‘starting’ from Seth Godin’s new book, Poke the Box.
A book he was going to name “Go Go Go” and talks about understanding failure in a way that I have never heard.

While listening to the book on audio for the last few days, it’s been eating me up that I have not posted here at my blog for a while. I feel as though I have let down my ‘non existent’ audience. Along the way, I remembered that I love this free, no borders, no rules avenue I have to let out some of my thoughts for the world to read. At least perhaps someday.

The good news is that I have seen, heard, read, found some really cool stuff! There are a couple people in this world whom I feel very attracted to. People I can relate to. Teachers that have appeared because of my due diligence is seeking.

I’m even willing to bet you’ve heard of a couple of em. I’ll lay out my list anyways with links to their sites in case you wanna check em out for yourself.

Pam Slim – Escape From Cubicle Nation

Chris Guillebeau – The Art of Non-Conformity

Leo Babauta – Zen Habits

All three of the above all preach one common theme. They just do it in their artistic way. They all teach that if you want to change the world, your world, all you have to do is Go! Go! Go!

One of my favorite memories brings back this event that I believe each one of us goes through. In some way. Let me paint a picture for you and let us see if you can relate.

It’s a warm summer day and you’re out with your friends swimming in a back yard pool. One of your buds decides that he’s going to climb up on the roof of the garage that’s close enough to the deep end to use as a high dive. That is of course you have enough peer pressure to drive you up to the hot roof and actually make the plunge.

You daringly go up and wait for the kid who’s house it is to show everyone how it’s done. You watch and make sure he lands in the water safely and comes out of it alive. That gives you at least a bit of courage. You look around and walk up to the edge of the roof, glaring down at the cool water below. As you figure out just how much of a jump it’s going to take to clear the ground and land in the water, your heart is practically jumping out of your chest.

Showing invincibility, yet scared out of your freakin’ mind, you tell yourself, you’ll jump on 3 NO MATTER WHAT. You hand over any free will to the number 3 and tell yourself that the second you ‘hear’ it, you are going to jump.

Did you jump? Did you take the plunge when you were a kid? Or did you ‘chicken out’?

Some kids did. Some kids sat up there for what seemed like eternity while his friends cheered him on. No matter though… Some kids never made the jump.

Do you remember that feeling? The one when you were looking over the edge convincing yourself that you would be okay? I think going through something like this is enough to make a life long lasting impression on who we are. In that moment, we tested out what we were made of and began to understand what it would take to make these decisions throughout our lives.

I forgot how to jump. I lost that edge at some point. I stopped counting to 3. Did I just ‘mature’ or did I conform?

What’s amazing though is I have realized it isn’t too late to start. It isn’t too late to juice up on that fear of uncertainty and just jump. The world wants us too. The world needs us too. If we can, than we must.

I have personally taken it upon myself to make that leap. If I fail… well, then I fail. In this case though, failure is a huge victory. Because it means that I jumped. I will jump again and again and never stop jumping. The failures will show up. Hopefully tons of them… but the second I jump again, they are erased. Forgotten. Wiped away. That’s the beauty of this game. The trick is actually playing it.

The greatest tragedy is not how short life is but rather how long it takes to start living it.

Go! Go! Go!