A New Year A New Business

First of all, I'm sorry it's been so long since the last post.  My computer literally broke back in November, and getting enough time on another computer to be able to blog has been a challenge.  My laptop didn't crash, the hinge physically broke.  Then came the holidays, which is a time of year I always dread.  I'm really glad they're over.  Way too much drama on any holiday in my house.  It is kind of funny, though, that this year I got a candy cane for Christmas.  Seriously.  A single candy cane.  It's so ridiculous, it's funny.  OK, my sister and her kids came over two days later, and I got a gift card from them.  But on Christmas day itself, I got a single candy cane. 

So... I'm guessing this year will be better.  As I've mentioned before, it's become apparent that I'm not going to be able to find a good paying job here in North Carolina.  With the last 12 years of my work history being filled with taxi driving and gaps in employment, I'm pretty much out of consideration for most any job paying a living wage.  That's OK, though.  Years working as a taxi driver turned me into more of a business man than an employee.  So, starting with literally no money, my artwork seemed to be the place to start.  So I stepped it up a little, I've sold a few drawings, and I'm getting good feedback on the other drawings I've put on Facebook.  All in all, that's good.

But here's my reality.  I'm a middle aged man who's been living with my mom since my dad died 3 1/2 years ago.  Lame.  We argue a lot.  Lame.  I've had some crazy health issues that have kept me from making money during that time, among other things.  Really lame.  So now I'm doing better on the health front, I'm motivated like I haven't been in a loooong time, and I'm doing something I really enjoy.  That overcomes much of the lameness in my everyday life.

But still, I'm starting a small business.  That has certain demands.  First, I need ideas and motivation.  Got that.  I also need SOME money.  Yes, there are lots of ways to creatively get around many expenses, but some money is needed for basic supplies.  I've got that covered for the moment.  But then some more money is needed for the everyday needs of the business.  If I sell a drawing to someone out of state, I need to be able to ship it.  I need to get my laptop refurbished.  I need gas money to get around town to do the various things that need to be done.  Here's where it gets frustrating.  Most people start a business by either using savings, or borrowing money from someone.  There are many, many ways to do this.  The basic idea is:  an entrepreneur uses saved/borrowed money to get the business off the ground, to get sales happening, and then they re-invest much of the money back in the business in its infancy.  I don't have that luxury.  I need this little business to start paying my bills immediately.  And that's difficult since I'm starting on a shoestring.  Shoestring, hell, I'm starting on a thread of a shoestring. 

Another issue is that, as an artist, I need to make a name for myself to be able to sell some of my work.  The same thing goes for my writing.  The cool thing these days is that the internet, mobile technology, and all of our connectivity today gives me hundreds, if not thousands, of ways to do that for very little money.  The down side of that is that I have to stand out from the millions of other people in the world doing their own creative thing.  Even with Facebook, blogs, Twitter, Instagram, the internet, and all the other things available, it still takes good old fashioned hard work to build a following, and ultimately, a business.  The downside of that is that this type of work doesn't look like work to a lot of other people.  While I may spend my time publishing a blog, and writing something other people actually read, to someone who spends their time online trolling Facebook, it looks like I'm just goofing around.  You may have noticed, but the high paying factory jobs are mostly gone, and the people making good money today earn it with intelligence and creativity.  Physical labor dosn't pay these days.  Mental labor does.

So these are the things that are frustrating me as I head into this new year of 2016.  I take heart in one of the great sayings of Mark Twain:  "The person with a new idea is considered a crank... until the idea works."  Happy New Year everyone, and keep plugging away at whatever it is that makes your life worthwhile. 





But still

I Forgot Im a Blogger

Yeah, I know, I got to whining in that last post.  After I wrote that post, a few things came to mind.  First, the nature of my life right now, having no "real" job, gives me time to consume a lot more news and books than most people with busier lives can.  I went off in that post about how I don't have anyone to talk to who reads similar books or listens to all the You Tube speeches and talks that I do.  After writing that post, I realized, "Oh yeah... I'm a blogger,  part of my role is to find out stuff that other people haven't heard of, and let them know about it."  If you all read the same books I do, and consumed all the other info I do, then there wouldn't be much point in me blogging. 

Another point I ranted about ( a little) is that many people in North Carolina, especially civic leaders, are way behind the times, and are looking for Industrial Age answers to Information Age problems.  Again, most people don't consume the same info that I do, and part of my role is to find new info and share it.  At the same time, most people I know have smart phones, and I don't.  So I'm behind the times in that way.  So I'll try to stop whining and get back to trying to bring all of you a variety of information that will interest you, inform you, and hopefully help you to use a greater part of your potential as a human being.

When A Man Or A Woman Really Is An Island

A quick Google search told me that it was John Donne who first wrote the line, "No man is an island."  Others have undoubtedly used that line over the centuries.  The meaning is fairly straight forward, none of us is a world unto ourselves.  Each of us is part of a larger whole.  We all understand that.

But I want to argue that point, for a moment.  There is a time when a man or woman really feels like an island.  There's a point where a person has an idea.  Maybe it's an idea for a book, maybe it's an idea for a business or something else.  Whatever it is, there is a point where everything we see around us was once a thought in somebody's head.  At that point, when you're the one with the idea, it often feels like you're all alone.  At that point, not a single person on Earth has been brought aboard the idea, and it seems every single person on the planet thinks it's a bad idea.  That's when a person can feel like an island.  When you first express this idea, nobody agrees.  There are two reasons for this.  1) It really is a bad idea and everyone can see that.  Or 2) it is a good idea, and no one else has the foresight to see just how good it can be.  A lot of ideas, both bad and good, are tossed aside at this point, because the person with the idea loses faith. 

This is the point I'm at in my life right now.  I have an idea of what I want to do to earn a living, and absolutely no one thinks it's a good idea... yet.  For quite a while now, I've been struggling with a variety of issues, medical and otherwise, and trying to find a way to earn a living in the small town of Kernersville, North Carolina.  I'll admit, I look terrible on paper.  My last ten years is a series of taxi driving jobs in both California and North Carolina, not one of which has the records to prove I actually worked for them.  In addition, there are big gaps in my employment.  On top of that, people tend to think that taxi drivers can only drive, and they tend to simply go on to the next resume' when I apply for a "normal" job.  For years now, I've been trying to dumb myself down just to get an entry level job... ANY job.  At that same time, I was blogging and self-educating myself about the internet and the world of "new media."  There are VERY few businesses around here who use new media channels very well.  Businesses have websites and Facebook pages, and maybe even a Twitter stream, but they don't use these channels to their full potential.  So with everything I've learned over the last several years, it became clear that my best chance of making a living would be to create my own job, not get one that already exists.  Of course, to everyone else, and I mean ABSOLUTELY everyone I know right now, it just looks like I'm lazy.

On a church trip the other day, one of the old guys I know brought up a new restaurant being built in town, it's called Dairy-O.  It's going to be something like a Dairy Queen or maybe even a Sonic.  It's being built on a major road right next to a Wendy's.  The man went on to say that Dairy-O will take a lot of business from that Wendy's, because it takes FOREVER to get waited on at that particular Wendy's.  He's right.  Everyone listening to the conversation agreed.  The man said he talked to the manager of that Wendy's about why it takes so long to get served, and the manager said that he can't find good employees.  When he hires a young person to work there, they simply don't want to work hard.  I chimed in at that point.  I told him that that particular Wendy's was the only place in town that actually called me for an interview.  The assistant manager who interviewed me seemed interested in hiring me, in part because I had three years of restaurant experience earlier in my life.  But she had reservations about my weight, which she hinted at.  She seemed to think that I wouldn't be able to stand for a whole shift.  When I called back a week later, as she told me to, she said they had hired someone else and didn't need me.  The Wendy's that says it "can't find good people," wouldn't hire me.  I was a really good employee at every restaurant I worked at.  Maybe, just maybe, the management of that particular Wendy's doesn't know good people when they see them.

In any case, after a long time of trying to dumb myself down to find an entry level job here, I've decided to do just the opposite.  I'm going to stretch myself and my particular talents by giving workshops to people who want to find their passion in life.  Yes, that sounds crazy.  But I've given these workshops 25 years ago for friends and family members, and they were helpful to everyone who went through the workshop.  So here I am, dusting off an old idea, and running with it.  And every single person I know thinks I'm crazy right now.  My mom just walked by and asked if I was blogging as I typed that last sentence.  When I said, "Yes," she replied, "it's nice you have nothing to do."  I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.  In today's world, blogging can be work.  This IS my job.  This is the 21st Century, most of the factories have closed down and moved to other countries.  As marketing expert has put it, "the time when people get paid above average wages for average work is over."  Many other jobs have been taken over by robots doing the work humans once did.  Creating and working with ideas and knowledge IS the work these days.  Giving thoughts and ideas away through blogging or Facebook or Twitter or You Tube IS part of the work in today's world.  It isn't work for everyone, but it is for a lot of people.  No one I know around here understands this.  But then, no one I know reads the books I read, listens to all the talks online that I listen to, or delves into the "new media channels" that are changing the way we communicate and how business gets done these days.  No one else sees the opportunities I see right now.  I'm an island at the moment.  But that's OK.  Unlike most people, I've been in this position before.

In the early 1980's, I started racing and then doing tricks on a little bike in Boise, Idaho.  Everyone I knew thought I was crazy.  Two years later I was working at the top BMX magazines in the country.  A year later I was working at a video company producing the first alternative sports TV shows.  A few years after that I was working on the stage crew of American Gladiators, one of the highest rated TV shows at that time.  The BMX thing worked out pretty well for me and for a lot of other people I know.  What I'm doing now might work out, too.

Failure

You'll will very likely recognize Barbara Corcoran from Shark Tank in the clip above.  This clip is a Ted Talk she gave about her experience with failure.

"I looked up one day and saw that it was up to me.  You can only be a victim if you admit defeat." 

 -The Descendents

By all "normal" standards, I'm a complete failure.  I've been unemployed for 3 years and I have no income whatsoever at the moment.  I live in a small apartment with my mom in a small town in North Carolina.  My last attempt at job hunting landed me one interview... at Wendy's.  The manager turned me down when she saw how fat I am.  I last worked as a taxi driver, but can't do that job anymore because of health reasons.  Taxi driving doesn't pay around here anyhow.  I have very few clothes.  I don't even have a phone, let alone a smart phone.  I spent the last couple years on medication that turned me into a zombie.  I could go on and on.

But I'm still here.  I survived a couple years as a furniture mover, six and a half years driving a taxi in Southern California, and I survived a year living on the streets when the taxi business tanked.  I survived being hit by a Jeep while riding my mountain bike.  I survived a near head-on collision in the taxi when a guy was driving the wrong way in my lane.  I survived four bouts of cellulitis/MRSA, a bacterial infection that kills more people than AIDS.  I'm still here.  Am I a failure?  Yeah, compared to my successful friends in the BMX and skateboard world.  I'm a failure compared to the much more normal people I know here in North Carolina.  I don't have a house, a wife, children, two cars, a dog and a cat.

What I do have is lots of stories.  I started blogging about some of my BMX stories a few years ago and wound up with the top two old school BMX blogs in the world at the time.  Then I started a blog about panhandling and homelessness as a joke.  That became the top panhandling blog in the world.  I didn't make any money off of those blogs, but it opened me up to new opportunities.  I started learning about blogging and how people make money with blogs.  There may be as many as 200 million blogs in the world, but very few actually make money.  But I learned that blogging can lead to other opportunities.  That led to me study internet marketing and how technology and "new  media" are changing both society and business.  We are at a time in the world where there are all kinds of opportunities in business.  Everything I've learned has led me to dust off a business idea that I started thinking about 25 years ago.  I'm gearing up to get that idea going soon.  This blog is part of that process.  I realized that I'm one of millions of people who have to reinvent themselves in the 21st century.  That insight gave me lots of new ideas to blog about.

Am I really a failure?  That's what people called me when I started doing tricks on a BMX bike 30-some years ago.  Riding that bike took me places and led to adventures that I couldn't have imagined at the time.  Everyone thought I was crazy... until I had some success and started working in the BMX and skateboard industries.  That led to working on TV shows including four years on the crew of American Gladiators and producing BMX videos.

While I get frustrated a lot, I try not to wallow in my apparent failure.  The biggest thing I learned from BMX and skateboarding is to get back up after I fall and try again.  That's how I look at my life now.  It feels a lot like those early days in BMX when everyone kept asking me, "What the hell are you doing with your life?"  I stuck to my guns and kept plugging along and eventually found success in writing and video work.  Like Barbara Corcoran in the clip above, success in my life seems to follow bouts of failure.  Time will tell how this works out.