Growing Seeds

Well, today was another good day. I put in an order for a hefty server. It’s a sweet custom-built machine. My needs have grown to the point where I can’t rent shared servers anymore. I need more bandwidth, more control, more services and more features. I’m dying to tell the world the specs on the machine. Ready? It’s a four-core dual-processor Intel Xenon machine. It’s got 8Gb of ram and 8 hard drives for a total of 1.5Tb of fully redundant disk space. It will run Windows Server 64-bit OS. I’ll be running my own email server, web server, SQL server as well as a few other servers.

This will knock down a couple of roadblocks to development ideas I’ve had. I couldn’t do certain things because my hosting environment restricted that type of usage. But now I’ll truly have full control. The fact is that I run a web software development company. Everything I develop requires a server to run on. So it’s really a central requirement to my biz. Plus, this server will generate monthly/yearly recurring revenue. I’ve already got 2 more clients in the pipeline waiting for me to get it online so they can host with me.

As I was saying, my current solution leaves much to be desired. Email goes down, websites go down occasionally, the processor is slow, the bandwith is inadequate and the server resides in Australia. Which means that every web page request has to be sent to the other side of the planet and back. Most of my customers are in Greenville and the south east. So this will provide a much better response time overall for every web page load. I can’t wait to see how much faster my websites are!

Well anyway, I was looking at one of the websites I use that contains templates and examples of different website layouts. One thing struck me, most of the male businessman models look like they are about 45 years old. There’s just something about a 45 year old man that just looks professional and credible. Just think, when I’m 45 I’ll have 25 years of experience in my field. I can say that my company has been in the business for a quarter century. That’s some pretty solid credibility. That’s only 16 years away. Ouch! That doesn’t seem that far away.

By that time I hope that I’ll have a well-developed network of friends and biz collegues. I’d like to have a hot wife and some kids too. Gotta get a hot girl! Girls are way more complicated than business. I wish you could just save up and buy the one you want.

Haha! Oh no my friend. They can’t be bought. At least with money. Tears, embarrassment, nervousness and many sleepless nights - that’s how you get a girl. Now, how to keep a girl? I haven’t figured that out yet. I’ve got some friends who actually married their girl. They’ve got one up on me.

Oh well. As far as guys go, I am a very free man. I can do whatever I like, whenever I like. So I’ll enjoy it while I can.

Oh yea, this post was supposed to have something to do with “growing seeds”. Yea, well that’s just about me buying servers and stuff that will help me grow my biz. Anyways.

Candy Shop

Well, I was inspired about a half an hour ago. I wanted to write about something. But I can’t remember what it was now. But I’m still typing because maybe it will come to me as I type. Hmmm. . . . What was it? Oh I don’t know. Wait . . .

Okay, so here’s something cool to talk about. Today was an interesting day. Nice and lazy. I went to the gym and practiced r-ball and worked out some.  Then it was about 9:45p when I decided to check my mobular phone for missed calls. Sure enough 3 missed calls. Long story short I spent the next 5 hours talking with one person who wants me to go into biz with him and another current client who also wants me to go into biz with him. I also increased my hourly rate and my rush rate with that client.

What can I say folks? Once you step out of the corporate arena your potential just skyrockets. My situation is even cooler than that. I’m always self-conscious about coming across as a nerd. But I’m coming to realize that people who want to do biz with me are entertaining various ideas that parlay on my technical skills but really capitalize on my business/management skills. These people see me as a business person. Not just a programmer.

Things are moving so fast now. The pace is staggering. In the corporate world you are motivated by that yearly 4% pay increase (and not getting fired or layed off before then). In the entrepreneurial world you laugh at 4%. If something only generates 4% it doesn’t even get on the radar screen.

It is so flattering when people want to not just send me business but want me to be their biz partner. They feel that my biz skills are worth enough to make me second only to them in their own business. Or in some cases, they want me to completely run the biz and only give them a small stake in it.

So now my problem is not how to make a buck. But which businesses I want to be part of and which I should turn down. Some complement what I currently do and love. Some are completely new areas of expertise. I’m like a kid in a candy shop. I’m surrounded by delicious candy. I wish I had bigger pockets!

Fortunate

I’m just feelilng pretty fortunate today. There are times when I just look around me and really feel good about my situation in life. Mostly it’s just a lot of little things that all add up to a very comfortable situation. I guess it’s important to me to feel like I’m doing above-average. To feel like I live a comfortable life-style.

I’m on my third trip back home in as many weeks. I’ve taken so much time off! It’s great! I took off a week to visit my friend R. I took over a week off for the Christmas break with my family. And I’ve been back home for 2 more weekends since then. I haven’t really worked much during the entire month of December or January so far! But it’s great because I’ve got projects stacked up. So when I get back from this little weekend I’ll be hitting the code very hard.

So let’s see. Today I went to Brookgreen Gardens with my sister mom and brother. We had fun there finding tons of chamelions. Then we came home and did nothing for a little bit till it was dinner time. Then I went out for dinner with my family at our favorite BBQ place. I went to the gun range with my father and shot my Kimber .45 and my Kel Tec .380. Shot a super-tight group with both. Even used some hollow-point with my 45. Then we came home and my dad and I cleaned our guns. Just a good father & son time. Then we opened Christmas presents with Kelly. That was fun! We spent the next hour and a half playing the card game Kelly got for Danny. It’s a pretty fun game (Apples to Apples). Now I’m sitting in my bedroom using my dad’s new broadband Internet access he just got. Since I do a ton of stuff online it’s a big bonus to have very high speed at my house as well as high speed at my parent’s house. Plus I can’t forget to mention my Verizion internal broadband card in my laptop that gives me broadband in the entire city of Greenville, MB and most other major cities.

I’ve got such a good set of friends too. Just great people to hang around. I was talking to someone recently about how I like to keep friends that I’ve got chemistry with. I don’t bother trying to befriend people who don’t really take to me. Or I don’t really take to them. Friends should be a natural fit. It’s the best when it works out that way.

Well, my family is taking a trip to Charleston, SC tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it. We always have fun there. I’ll try not to get into too much trouble )

Sweet & Sour

Okay, the cool part is in the middle. So hang in there. This has been quite the rollercoster day. Ahhh. . . . it’s now 5:03am. Why in the world am I awake? Yea. Because I never went to sleep.

Right. Okay so the best way to do this is to just start with this morning and go chonologically till now. It’s amazing how sweet and sour today was. Honey mustard is my favorite dressing, by the way. Okay. Today was crazy. It’s a Wednesday. What’s crazy about a Wednesday? That’s the point. Nothing is supposed to be. Wednesday is a day where you just continue on doing what you’ve been doing on Monday and Tuesday. You’re in your groove by Wednesday. And it’s all about just coasting till Friday by this point.

But no. You gotta remember that my little world is quite twisted up. “Twisted Up?” I’m pretty sure I enjoy my world being twisted up. That is, of course, if you compare me to the typical “work-a-day-world”. Lol! So yea, you’ll see in a minute.

So I wake up, shower and jet off to K’s office for a day of mortgage brokerage training. Conquer the world.  Be a biz builder. That’s what I enjoy, right? Well folks, Daryl is a normal human like the rest of us. So that means that life isn’t always on cloud-9 for me.

At about 5pm I start packing my stuff and tell K that I’m about to head out. But first I decide to bring up the important topic of how I’m going to get paid. Haha! Yea, just a quick topic right? Um well, acutally it was. Basically I’m going to be making about half of what I thought I was going to make. Yea, I did a bit of friendly negotiating and I may end up with a better deal when I go in tomorrow (today). K’s going to talk with his biz partner and see if he can give me a better deal. But whatever. Who know’s what’s going to come of it. Half would still be a quarter-mil. What am I complaining about, right? Ah, I don’t know.

I guess I really enjoy my freedom. If I take this I’m locked down. I’ve got to answer my cell anytime it rings. I’ve got to assume normal biz hours. I HATE THAT! So what am I going to do? I’m going to sleep on it. But then I’m probably going to drop the mortgage broker biz. Yea. I’ve never felt right about it. It just doesn’t fit me. I think my secret recipe of Stock Market, software development and Real Estate is much more to my liking. Anything that makes me a cube-dweller is just not my style.

So whatever. That’s enough about that. Here’s the cool part. I took a lunch break at Zaxby’s. After I’d eaten my meal I left and jumped back in the X. But since I didn’t need to be back to the office for about 15 minutes I sat there and started thinking. “Maybe I should call M and ask her out on a date. But it’s almost Friday. Surely this is too soon. And plus, I don’t even have a date planned out. Restaraunt? Concert? Arg! What should I do? I don’t know. Restaraunt O is definately my style. And I heard that I should request to be seated upstairs.” Man, I’m so fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants. But that’s what I always do. So I’ should just call her and asker out. However it comes out is just how it comes out. So I sat there for about 20min getting up the courage to call her.

Finally I pull up her number in my phone. My finger is on the send button. The pressure is building and building. That button will press any second. Ahhhh! Wait. Do I really want to do this? Is this the right time? Shouldn’t I just wait till next week? What the heck! Who cares? If she makes excuses then just whatever! If she’s all booked already then just who cares? There’s one million reasons why it’s not going to work. But hey, I’ll just press the send button and hear it straight from the horses mouth. “Click”

Ring. . . Ring . . . Ring . . . Ring . . . “Ola, hablo espaniol. You’ve reached Pedro’s voicemail. Pleasa leava messaga aftera da beepa.” Beeeeeeeeeeeeep.

Uh, you gotta be kidding me. I typed in her number wrong. Yea, I’m pretty sure she’s not a Mexican dude. What now? Okay, I’ll call up MK and get her number from him. I called him and just when his phone was about to switch to voicemail he answered. Whew. Long story short. I got her correct number.

So here we go again. Beep beep beep – beep beep beep beep. Ring . . . etc, “Hi, M. This is DF from the Christmas party. I’ll try back later.” ARG! I hate voicemail.

Well that was about 1pm. I called again around 7pm. Again, got her voicemail. Then I got a call from Matt about meeting at a bowling alley to bowl with a couple other friends. Cool. So I head over there and we get on a waiting list for a lane. After waiting about 20min my pocket starts to vibrate. I pull out my phone and look at the screen. Blip. Oh no! Wait! I think I saw M’s name but I cancelled the call somehow! Was it her? Was she really calling me back? I told my peeps that I had to make a call. They joked around telling me to invite “her” over too. Yea, if only they knew.

I called her back and she answered this time!!!!! Woo hoo!!!! I was trying to get out of the bowling alley because it was loud. I told her to hold on a sec because I was trying to get out of the building. Long story short she just started chattering about her day and about why she missed my calls. She talked about her house-sitting disaster over the past couple weeks. She chattered about how busy she was. And I was all ears because I just couldn’t believe that she called me back and that she was just chatting like old times over the phone to me. Ah, it’s so nice. I just love it when girls just feel like they can chatter away to me. It means that they are comfortable talking to me, right?

Well I stood out there in the cold for about 20 minutes talking to her (actually she was talking to me mostly). But I really like it when the girl drives the conversation. Anyway, I figured that I’d better get to the point. So I told her that I called because I want to take her out on a dinner date on Friday. She quickly replied that it would have to be a bit earlier because she was going out of town that evening. Haha! Woah! Gotta love that! No excuses, baby. Just basically, a straight up “yes but”. Like, “Yea, I’d like to go on a date with you but we have to do it earlier!” I was pretty stoked by this point.

So I said, “Okay, well, since I’m self-employed I guess I could work around that.” She laughed a bit. “So, what time do you need to be getting on the road?” “At about 2pm.” “Okay, well the restaraunt I had in mind isn’t open for lunch so I’ll have to come up with something else. How about I call you tomorrow and tell you what the new plan is?” She proceeded to tell me exactly what her schedule was like tomorrow and that I should call between 6p and 8p with the plan. I told her that I’d do that. We talked about bowling for a bit before I asked her to wish me luck. She gave me her confidence by saying, “I think you’ve got it covered.” I told her I’d call her tomorrow and we said goodbye.

Um, YEA!

That’s what I’m talking about! Whew, it’s on baby! Wow, she actually wants to go on a date with me. She called me back. She chatted with me at length. She’s so cool. Can I get her? I don’t know. But I guess it’ll be fun trying. Most guys don’t have any fun trying. So that’s good, at least. I just can’t wait for Friday! I’m going on a date with M!!!!!!!!!!

Man, it feels really good. I just can’t describe it. I can’t wait to tell ya how the date went. My goodness. I really enjoy her company. I love listening to her chatter. I like it when she tells me about the mini-disasters in her life. I like it when I see “M” calling me on my phone. Um, I think I’m going crazy.

Yea, I need a good slap right now. I’m too tired to finish talking about my wacky day. So maybe I’ll talk about it tomorrow if I’m in the mood. So there. You got your juicy blog entry! You should be happy with that!

Hang On For Dear Life!

Wow, I had a very relaxing holiday season this year. It was so nice to take 2 weeks off with no fear that I was burning up all of my vacation! I just really relaxed. I told my friend R at the end of our NY trip I felt like I was in vacation mode. Sometimes it seems like it takes about a week to forget about work and just enjoy relaxing. Know what I mean?

Boy, looking back on 2006 I realize that some things didn’t end up happening as quickly as I had hoped. I still don’t have my Real Estate license. I passed the class. And the form to sign up for the test is sitting in my office. But I haven’t scheduled the test yet. Arg! One of my smaller 2006 goals sort of became irrelevant as new opportunities sprung up. But I think the fact that I quit the corporate world (which wasn’t on my list of goals for 2006) more than makes up for the things that I didn’t accomplish. I hate justifying it like that. But I do think it’s true.

Sometimes better opportunities pop up and you decide to exchange persuits that are less profitable for the new ones. That’s okay. You aren’t “giving up” on the less profitable ones. You’re just replacing them with better options. You’re just making your “success portfolio” richer. That’s smart.

Over the holiday a new thought occurred to me. I think I mentioned it briefly before here. But it really sunk in over the past couple of weeks. It’s the concept that I am a biz builder. I want to have my own collection of companies that I’ve built and run. I don’t care what kind of company it is (well, you know what I mean). I’m not limited to a software development company. I can learn any skill. It’s an interesting application of my “jack of all trades” tendency. Once I master something I get bored with it. I want a new challenge.

Right now I have my hands into 3 distinct fields. Software development, stock market and mortgage lending. This year will be different than any other of the past 10 years of my life. This year I will not make the majority of my money from doing technical work. My mortgage brokering biz will eclipse software development revenues this year. At least that’s how it looks now. I’ll keep some soft dev work going on the side. It’ll be a good backup plan, so to speak. But I’m going to push hard this year.

I don’t even have a clear plan yet. Probably because I’m in this stage where I’ve blasted off but I’m not sure how fast or high my rocket can go yet. I guess a good goal would be to just Hang on for dear life!