Ah Yea, Baby!

Okay, so I’ve talked to several people over the past few days who have, without realizing it, let me know that they’ve told other people about my blog. Yes, this very blog. And since I’m feelin’ so good this early Tuesday morning I figured that I’d share my thoughts about the purpose of this blog.

Ya ready? Honestly, I don’t have any grand purpose whatsoever. It started by me wanting to have a place post entries and pictures about my trip to Hawaii. “Trip to Hawaii?” you say? Yea, I’ve cancelled it for biz reasons. But since then I’ve enjoyed jumping on late at night to tell my tiny audience vartious random things I’ve been thinking lately. It started with just my family knowing about it. Now a few more people have discovered it. It even pops up in the top Google listings for various search terms. Want a laugh? Do a Google search for “lostwithme daryl” and see what comes up! The helpful little GoogleBot picked a wonderful little sentance from a random post that has to do with “hotties” and “rubbing”. That’s all I’m gonna say!!!!

So now that I’ve gotten off to a serious note with this entry I figured I’d share why I picked the title “Lost With Me”. First of all, it’s because I don’t want ANYBODY to take this blog seriously. If I’m practically admitting up front that I get lost all the time, that should clue you in that it may be hazardous to your health to follow any advice you find here. So I’m hoping when you read my posts you’re just relaxing and want a good laugh more than anything. I’m a peculiar guy with a different outlook on life. And I hope it’s entertaining. If you ever get offended or feel like your feathers have been ruffled by a post just take a deap breath. I promise I didn’t mean to offend you. Maybe I’m just blowing off steam or something. I get in moods sometimes. I promise you, if I ever met you we’d probably have a swell time.

Also, and this is a big one, I don’t have any single person in mind when I’m writing. So if you read something and thought to yourself, “I bet this is about me. ” You can bet your boots that I was not thinking about you. Sometimes I just come up with these broad generalizations and decide to tell the world how it ought to be.  Hey, here’s a tip . . . there’s this little red “X” at the top right of your browser window (if you’re a Mac person I have no clue what shiny little button is up there on your browser). Just click that button. If it makes you feel better you can even pretend that it instantly sends me an email that says, “Somebody was majorly ticked off with your insensitive post.” I promise I won’t do it again. [fingers crossed]. Hey, there are about 6 people in the whole world that have known me long enough to know that I’ll slip up and just run my mouth about some seemingly insensitive opinion of mine without realizing that if I was talking to anybody else they would probably take offense. They humor me when I do that. And I really appreciate it. Because they know I’m about as harmless as a BB-gun. It stings from time to time. But you gotta love the guts of somebody who’ll at least take a shot like that. Rest assured, after about 15 minutes I’ll realize what I said and maybe I won’t take the extra effort to qualify what I said, but nonetheless I do feel bad about it.

I really do. When I was in highschool (a christian highschool) I rarely felt bad about anything I said. After all, I had scripture to back it up, right? Of course! And my interpretation was ALWAYS correct! But since then I think I’ve mellowed a bit. I realize that anybody can think their interpretation is correct. Hey, whatever. You know, I think everything’s better when we both just realize that either of us could be right. Sure, we’ll find out someday who’s right. But let’s just be friends in the meantime. Hey, you could even be a tree-hugging Green Party member. Yo, it’s cool. We can be friends. I’ll laugh and nod my head agreeably when you talk about saving some wildlife by voting against some oil rig or someting. I just ask that you just be agreeable when I talk about how tax cuts are good for everybody too.

Maybe this blog ends up containing more than a few insightful entries, but always keep in mind: I’d probably like you if I met you. In fact, many times, I enjoy meeting somebody who’s belief’s are totally opposite of mine. It gives me a chance to ask questions and see if I have good answers to any of their responses. I may not voice them. But, to tell you the truth, I am very convinced about my convictions. And it’s wonderful! If you make a great arguement against something I believe in strongly, I really cheer you on! Wow! The way you voiced your opinion was very effective! On the other hand, if you make a strong stance for your opinion, occasionally I get special satisfaction from the knowledge that, even though I may not say anything, I know I’ve got all the ammo I need to blow you off the face of the universe.

So now that I’ve said that, I am 100% aware of what this blog could do. This blog could be the sole reason that people, 10 years from now, laugh and say something like, “I knew this really opinionated guy one time and you know what absurd statement he made about this topic?” I know. I know. That’s the downside about putting your thoughts out there for the public to have their way with. But you know what? That risk briefly flutters past my mind with every post I make. And each time I decide that it’s worth it to go ahead and leave whatever I say posted.

I fully realize that in 15 years I might look back on some of my entries and feel a little weird about them. I’ll think to myself, “Boy should I delete that post? I don’t really think like that anymore.” But I know I won’t delete it. Why? Because I hate censorship. I don’t like it when somebody changes their opinion and tries to convince everybody, “What , No. I never said that!!!” Yea right. Believe it or not every one of us has different beliefs than we did 15 years ago. Not every belief is different. Maybe even 90% of them are the same. But we will have lived a little since then and are willing to admit that we were a bit narrow-minded back then.

Ahh, anyways. I’m done talking about that. I think one word comes to mind now about the previous topic. What’s that word? “Exhausted.” Right. On to another topic now.

Yea, so when I’m writing a blog entry what are my surroundings like? Well there are several requirements, like having my trusty laptop nearby. But I almost always have some delecacy present. Yep, like right now, it’s my “Extra Sharp Cheedar Cheese”. I love that cheese. I’m not gonna lie, it’s Cracker Barrel brand. Right, you can find it in most grocery stores these days. I wish it was some gormet brand of cheese. But, alas, it’s all the goodness I need right now. Just nibbling and typing. Ahhhhh! It’s quite heavenly. The only item to add to my blog ambiance is some choice tunes. Nope, I’m not gonna tell you what’s playing over my reference studio-quality speakers right now. I’ll leave that up to your immagination. (Hint: No, it’s not rap.) Hahaha! That leaves a LOT of genre’s to guess from though!

Yea, Daryl’s world is a lot of fun. I really do enjoy my single life quite a bit. Why, you ask? Mostly because I’m in that male stage where I don’t feel like I deserve a girl yet. After all, I’m not making millions yet! What respecitable girl would feel at home with me if she couldn’t afford the best? So, I probably won’t feel good about dating till I’m making a boatload on the stock market and own at least 2 serious businesses. Like I was talking about with a friend tonight, “I’m not going to marry no ugly chick.” I’ve had several pretty x-girlfrieds. But unfortunately, I didn’t feel comfortable about my situation in life at the time I was dating them. So I’m still looking for a gorgeous girl. Are you a gorgeous girl? Are you single? Hey, wait, woah, woah. When I say gorgeous I don’t mean average. I mean drop-dead. I mean you have to use all of your feminine tactics every day to keep the guys off you. Like, you have had to change your cell number at least 2 times because you kept getting calls from guys you now put in the “stalker” category? Lol! Well, truthfully, I really like “cute” girls. I’m probably about 5′9″. So if you’re in the 5′0″ – 5′4″ range that is just perfect! Perfect for what, you ask? If you have to ask you’re obviously not a girl. Or you’re just a curious one ) What’s with girl’s always getting away with calling themselves “curious”? When guys do the same thing it’s called “nosy”. Grrr!

Boy, this post is quite the ramble, isn’t it? I always end up taking things to their limit. Ahh, sorry. Since I’m on the topic . . . Um. . . Second though  . . . Okay, well I’ll save that for another post. So nevermind. (sorry) Yea, well, I think I’ve run out of things to talk about.

So are you now convinced that you should just be in a lighthearted and fun mood when you read my blog? I hope so. See, I practically typed this whole entry in a single breath (figuratively speeking). It just flowed out. Boom, done!

The Tough Years & The Timeline

I guess it’s just part of starting anything. There’s a lot of work up front. I’ve been a bit dissapointed lately knowing that I’ll be missing out on Thanksgiving with my family. I was supposed to have the most felxible schedule of all when I went into biz for myself. After all, if I want to take a month off for Thanksgiving why can’t I?

Well I found out why. You have to work up to it. You can’t just quit the corporate world and never work again. You quit the corp world put in several grueling years on your own biz(s) and then your the president with your employees running the show. Then you can take large amounts of time off with relatively small consequences.

The whole point isn’t to be able to take off anytime you want. The point is to be able to not work but nonetheless the money still flows in. Every bum across America takes every week off. The problem is that when he doesn’t work, he doesn’t eat either. When I get to where I need to be I can take a two month vacation and the flow of money doesn’t vacate for 2 months.

The real point of vacations for me will probably to focus on a new opportunity. I’d go crazy if I just sat on a beach for 2 months. I just cancelled a trip to Hawaii because I knew I’d be going crazy over there thinking about all the opportunities I’d be missing out on back here.

I’ve got a 3 year plan in the works right now. At the close of that 3 years I should be feeling much more free. But right now I’m fighting to get to that ultra-stable point. The fact is that as long as I am in ambitious mode I will be giving up things that I enjoy to achieve a goal. But that’s a choice I’m willingly making.

So now’s my chance to set a clear goal. I’ve been talking about the 3 year plan. But I’ve been talking about it for 2 months now. Most people talk about a 3 year plan for 3 years. In three years you talk to them and they are still working on the 3 year plan. Wait? Weren’t you talking about reaching your goal in 3 years 3 years ago? Yea.

I chuckle to myself when I talk to a particular casual friend of mine. He’s always talking about how life will be good in 5 years. Except that he’s been saying that for the past 2 years. So I guess he’s really on a 7 year plan. At least till next year. Then it’ll be an 8 year plan.

Here’s an overview of the timeline of my plan:

Year 1 (Oct 1 2006 – Oct 1 2007): This is when I’m fumbling around considering different biz opportunities and figuring out what I want to settle down and do for the next several years. At the end of this semi-awkward period I will have a clear list of biz goals and priorities that I’ll be honing in on and perfecting. I’ll finally have the car on the right road, so to speak.

Year 2 (Oct 2 2007 – Oct 1 2008): This year is when I buckle down and get many of my business process in place. This is when I get things set up to be scalable. I’d like to have more than one location and at least a copule of employees by this point.

Year 3 (Oct 2 2008 – Oct 1 2009): This is the year that I take all of the work that I did in year 2 and really put the petal to the metal. This is where I get my employees set up to handle things. By the end of Year 3 I should be able to either start another biz, continue growing my current bizs or step back. This is the point where I’d like to have a trustworthy person trained to do what I usually do.

So there you have it. The first 3 years shouldn’t change too much. But the next three could be a bit different from what I wrote above.

The cool thing is that this stuff is materializing. I’m not dreaming about things that I haven’t even started on yet. Everything that’s part of the plan is stuff I currently have in the works. I’ve already taken at least a few steps toward the goal. So this isn’t me hoping things come together. This is me knowing that things have already come together. I just need to push these opportunities.

Turrets Galore!

Yea Baby! I’ve added a much need piece to my office setup. A 20″ rotatable 1600×1200 resolution flat panel monitor. Check out the pics here (there’s even a sneak peak of my QTurret software). This is truely a huge improvement over the way I’ve been programming lately. I’ve got my new monitor rotated vertically and it gives me probably 4X the code viewing space!

It’s incredible. Surfing the web is even much better. Much less scroling. I was about to settle down to several hours of coding today and I just realized that I really need a bigger monitor to code from. So I went out to about 4 computer stores and finally picked out this monitor. My main priority was to get one that rotates for my coding. This monitor is VERY bright also. I’ve actually got it on a setting that dimms it a bit.

I guess I’m set for the time being. I’ve got an awesome trading turret that doubles as a sick-nasty programming turret too! And I can’t leave out my sweet new QTurret.com site. Yep. I did my news plays tonight with my new monitor and my new QTurret.com and it was like being in some sort of programmer/stock trader heaven.

Oh well, I can’t wait to crank out some DB scripts on this new monitor. If you ever get a rotatable monitor you will agree with me that this is the way computers were meant to be used!

My Recipe

I started writing this entry probably over a month ago. I was driving home from somewhere (I don’t even remember). I was so excited to get home and blog about My Recipe and such. I got home and started writing this. Then an email popped up and I got distracted. But I’m back to my ”My Recipe” entry now! I guess I’m just in a blogging mood. Lol! 

Okey dokey, I’m gonna take this opportunity to share with the world a valuable insight to the way my brain works and the way I communicate with my own self (which is what this blog is about). The way I motivate myself. I suppose that this entry will be quite lengthy. But don’t nestle in for a nice long read because you probably will get fed up with this entry before I’m done. This post can be summed up by one word: “opinionated and abrasive”. So if anything, you might want to get the Rolaids.

All right people. This entry really amounts to nothing. Know why? Because I’m not trying to start a religion with my blog. My blog is for me. My thoughts are for me. I made this thing public because I enjoy knowing that people can find out what I really think if they care to know. What does that do for me? It makes sure that I don’t go around acting like somebody I’m not. As I develop relationships with people I could put on an act. But I’ll be a bit more genuine if I know people can find out the “real” me when they hear about my blog from somebody.

So what does that have to do with “My Recipe?” Nothing it was basically a disclaimer. And, no, nobody said anything about my blog or about being offended by it or anything like that at all. I’m just writing this because I want to get it down in bits and bytes for the record.

So here’s My Recipe. My own personal recipe for navigating this world from birth to death. Note that I said that this is “MY” Recipe. I realize that this recipe suites my tastes. It probably doesn’t suit yours. Has anybody ever told you that it is wrong to not like the taste of some food? No. Think about it, “It’s a sin to not like chocolate.” How absurd. The thoughts in my blog are My Recipe. I don’t expect you to like my recipe. Nor do I think you are somehow stupid or dumb or making a mistake if you don’t follow My Recipe. My Recipe is for me.

So where am I getting the ingredients for My Recipe? I figure that if I want to be successful I need to learn from people who have been successful. So I’m seeking out people that are good at what I’m trying to do.

What am I trying to do? I’m not going to lie or cover it up at all. I’m trying to make millions and millions and millions. I’m talking about hundreds of millions of dollars. Some day I will hear about a CEO of some company getting a rediculous salary of $5 million and I’ll just smile to myself because that’s how much I made in the last month. Who in the world has dreams this big? Me. Why? Because people do it. Yes, it’s rare. But there’s no reason I can’t do this.

I’ve already taken some necessary steps to make sure I am on a path that can lead me to my goal. I quit my corporate job. That was the most important thing I’ve done since I graduated from highschool. I’ve taken two crucial courses (at my own expense) in the last couple of months. A Real Estate course and a Stock Market investing course. Who are the 3 most notable richest people alive today? Let’s see, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Donald Trump. What are their fields of expertse? Software, Stock Market Invsting and Real Estate.

And what are the 3 things I’m focusing on now? Software, Stock Market Invsting and Real Estate. You got it! Every wonder why I picked them? Because there are a lot of people who make millions in each. There aren’t really other fields where a true mint is being made these days. I want in on the millions. “The journey of a million miles starts with the first step.” Well my motto right now can be summed up by a similar statement. That statement is:

“The journey of a hundred million dollars begins with the first step.”

I am in training right now. I am learning what is out there. I may decide that Real Estate is not for me. Or that Software isn’t for me either. Or I may find a unique way to combine all 3 to form something powerful. Who knows how it will all pan out. But you’ve got to start somewhere.

I am also building a mentality. A rich person’s mentality. Why? Because I have to know what to do with money once I have it. The funny thing is that I am really working off of something I’ve had since I was a kid. My dad always used to say, “You’ve got wine taste and a beer budget.” And he was right. Someone recently also said, “Your way of looking at life is out of sync with your surroundings.” He’s totally right also.

Right now I think like somebody to whom money is no object. Yet my surroundings indicate that I am not made of money. In fact, I am not rich right now. But I totally understand that. I know that I’m “In launch mode” like a freind recently told me. I’m not in orbit yet. But at least I’m not sitting on the launch pad simply thinking about outer space. Or like other people who haven’t even built their rocket or even thought that they could even make it to outer space. No folks, I’m in my rocket, the flames are propelling me upwards.

Each of the past few months since I left the corporate world has taken me to a whole new level. It’s amazing. My goal is for that effect not to just to continue, but to compound. Each month gets it’s power added to the past months. Every month I can do more and make more $$$ than I could last month. I want to have record breaking months every month till I’m making a hundred million a year. Then I’ll put my rocket on auto-pilot.

So all of that is out of the way now. Here are the details of My Recipe. It’s actually quite simple.

The highest priority is learning to be a successful Stock Trader. This is the most important simply because it is “scalable”. When I learn the ropes I can do the same trade with $1,000 or with $10,000,000 and the technique is the same. Eventually this technique will become second-nature to me. In addition, I can trade stocks from anywhere in the world. There’s also the beauty of it being a simple one-man operation. Software and Real Estate both require cooperation with other people to make money.  The final and most compelling one is that I can make money in bear as well as bull markets. Secure, comfortable and exciting are some words that sum up what it’s like to be an expert in this field. Learning to be a successful trader is the foundation for my other pillars of success.

So that being said, my next priority is Real Estate. This is because I want to have the inside track on the most beautiful/valuable property that I can invest in. Investing in Real Estate is a great instrument for storing your wealth. There’s also another reason. Based on research I’ve done, the USA is headed toward a 20 year or so depression. It won’t be sudden like in 1929. It will be gradual, starting around the 2016 timeframe. During this time Real Estate will become very cheap. I want to “know the ropes” so I can be right on top of these great investment opportunities when they become common. Most people will be flat broke and struggling just to keep their head above water during this time. The people with the money will be able to have almost anything they want at a realtively inexpensive price. I want to be in position to be on the good side of that.

The third ingredient of My Recipe is Software Development. The main reason is simple. It’s how I am currently making good money. It is a field that I have become an expert in. I’m specialized in this field. If the stock market disappears and the USA turns into a Communist country where the government owns all property I’ll still be able to make good money with my software skills. Software is also a good way to lock in recurring income. If I’m able to capture a niche market or two with an e-commerce website of some sort that is money that keeps rolling in without me having to do much. I just hire some employees to maintain the biz and everything keeps running.

 _____________________

Okay, by now any normal christian person is thinking something along these lines, “Well . . . he sure thinks he’s invincible, doesn’t he? We’ll see what happens when the Lord decides he needs some humility and sends something his way that he doesn’t exepct. Then he’ll be in the same boat as all the rest of us. You know, there’s a reason that most people don’t think like that. It’s because it’s arrogant and unrealistic. You should have faith instead. Just trust the Lord. Let the Lord bless you. Don’t try to do everything your way. Like Cain in Genesis. He’s trying to use ‘the arm of the flesh’ to get what he wants. I won’t be a bit surprised if the Lord knocks him back on his butt at some point.”

Ahhhh, yep. I’ve dealt with this for years now. I don’t believe that the Lord is evil and is only looking for reasons to punish his children. “Look at that flat broke christian family with every sort of problem you can think of. The Lord must love them because he’s putting them through all those trials.” WHAT!!!! The first blessing he gave every human is also the most important one. YOUR BRAIN!!!

And I think he wants us to use it. The answer to most of the problems we encounter in life can be solved by simply taking a second or two to use OUR OWN BRAIN. There’s nothing “arm of the flesh” about that. God gave our brain to us to help us. After all we wouldn’t be able to read our Bible without it. We make dumb mistakes when we don’t use it. We end up in trials when we don’t use it. We never get out of our ruts when we become content to continue not using our brain. Some christians think it’s more virtuous to be a spiritual-vegitable. They are always playing the faith card. They talk about life in such impotent, helpless and pitiful terms. “Having faith” and plain laziness look very much alike these days. It’s too bad. God’s already given them the solution to their problems right between their ears. But they just want help the easy way. They want a blessing to be provided just because they had faith. That’s what I call looking for a holy handout. Or maybe we can call it the Wednesday Night Welfare program.

So I’m taking this brain God’s given me and am trying to use it to the fullest. I’m taking this body of mine and am going to work it hard and get the most out of it.

______________________________

Here’s the reason I’m doing all of this. The reason I want to be highly successful. The reason I want security, a comfortable lifestyle, and riches.

It all started in around 9th grade in High School. I realized that I had the same desire that Soloman had. I wanted wisdom more than anything else in the world. No, I didn’t make a promise to God that I’d try to want it. I just wanted it. I liked observing everything I could. I loved asking “why?” I was always trying to figure everything out.

At about this same time I realized that what I wanted was to be the world’s best father. I realized that this is the primary goal of every Christian man. Some guys think that they have to put their ”religion” above their family. I think that is flat wrong and a sin. It’s God, Family then Church. These guys that can barely feed their families but have a big library of theology books absolutely disgust me. They drive around in embarrasing cars. Their kids get made fun of because of their Goodwill clothes. Their wives can’t even afford decent makeup. They spend their time perfecting the art of thinning out powdered milk instead of just figuring out how to make more money. It’s quite absurd if you think about. The effort people go to to make due with what little they have. I’d rather use that same energy to just figure out how to make more money.

Anyway, I want my wife and kids to know that their father/husband takes care of them. That they do not lack for anything because “Daddy” is successful. They don’t have to understand anything about what I do. I just want to know that I take care of my family. This also includes my parents. I hope to be able to take care of them in grand style someday.

These religion-first types (notice I didn’t say God first) that put acting and looking religious before even their family end up dying broke. They saw their parents put in a nursing home with nothing they could do about it. When asked if they could help they always recited the laundry list of problems in their life that left them with no time, energy or money to help. This is NOT what the Lord wants.

I want to be like Abraham. If any of Abraham’s friends or family needed anything they could count on him to help. He always had the means. He was a hard worker. He didn’t just sit in a cave and pray. He used his brain and body that the Lord gave him to literally fight for what he wanted.

And that’s what I’m doing.

Stock Market Priority

Well I’m pretty happy today because the first aspect of my QTurret.com website has been finished and the goal has totally been acomplished!!! The problem is that one facet of my daily stock routine has been literally a major pain for me to do. This part is the 6 news practice plays that I have to do. It takes about 2+ sheets of paper to do. And since 2nd grade I’ve hated writing by hand because my hand gets real sore. So I wrote a website instead. My 2 goals were to make it much easier than doing it by hand and to organize it in a more useful way than paper could ever do.

Well it took some thoughtful planning to accomplish this. But now it is done. I estimate that it used to take me at least an hour to do just the prediction part (not the analysis part). After I finished the software today and uploaded it to the WWW. It took me less than 20 minutes to do my 6 news plays! And no sore hands!

The reason I picked the News Plays to write software for first is because that took the bulk of my stock time each day. Plus it is the most stratight-forward to write. Actually the very first thing I did is write a handy dynamic important reminders calendar that always stays in the top banner of the site. This has the current market time (continually ticking second by second), the current options month plus months 1-5 away from today’s option month. It also tells you how many days away “drop dead Friday” is and how far away “Expiration Friday” is. It’s a very handy reference that should help me to never purchase to little or too much time (till expiration).

But with this site just started I’m already anxious for December. I don’t have a whole lot going on in December. I’m hoping to write at least one more facet of the site during Dec. It’s hard to decide which one though. They are all really cool/helpful but have different difficulty levels. Also, as always, I don’t want to start developing a feature till I feel comfortable with my design. Usually a design concept will pop out and hit me in the head. Then I’ll totally be psyched about writing it because it’s so cool and helpful.

The other cool thing is that I built the site with my AS3 “Foundation” technology. Which means that the site already supports multiple users, db-driven settings and a sweet role-based security system. So sorry, nobody but me has a login at this point. But after a couple years people will probably want to know how I do what I do (in the stock market). So I’ll have a website that encapsulates my personal trading system. I can let them be a member of the website and teach them my routine. Here are the features that I hope to develop sooner rather than later:

• Dynamic Market Calendar (with global items and personal-only items)
• Research Organizer (to organize research by stock symbol)
• Market Diary (daily market observations)
• Trade Tracker (track practice and real trades)(hopefully will track several details of real trades)

Here are some main goals in writing this web. One of them is so I don’t have to lug around 3-ring binders everywhere. Even if I didn’t mind lugging around 3-ring binders I would only be carrying around 1 years worth. With my website I can access all my data without having to carry anything but my laptop (which I always take with me anyways). The other reason is to help me trade smarter. If my info is better organized and faster to access I will be able to make decisions quicker based on better information. This will help the learning process as well as the money-making process. The only drawback is that I have to take time to write it. Hopefully I won’t be sacrificing stock-learning time with QTurret-writing time. 

Oh well, I’ve blabbed long enough. I’m gonna heat up some lasagna and call a friend. Ttyl!

Real Estate & Pretty Girls

Ugh. I’m back in school again. I forgot how nice it was to be done with school. Aparently I sort of lucked out because the Reality school I picked happens to be very highly acclaimed. And the teacher is the best one at this school. So that’s cool. I can tell she’s good too. She’s a natural teacher. She’s got all of these “hooks”, as she likes to call them, that help you remember different things. She’s been doing real estate for over 25 years. So I guess she started when I was 3. That sure puts it in perspective.

So anyways, there are TONS of hotties in this class. It’s so nice to have eye-candy to look at when the lecture gets boring. Or when it’s not boring. That’s the cool thing about girls. They are usually more interesting than just about anything that’s going on. You know, because they’re all so smart. Because they’re all really intellegent and always have interesting things to talk about. Right.

 Anyways, there are probably about 6 – 8 well above average girls and 3 total knockouts. But I feel like I’m back in
Charlotte because most people in the class smoke. Goodness! Why do the hotties always have to smoke? But I guess it doesn’t matter cause would I really ask them out anyways?

The funny thing is that this class is the class you have to take before you get your first license. So you pretty much know that most people in the class are 1) unhappy with their current job or 2) in a bind and think they can make better money in Real Estate. A few of the people I’ve talked to don’t even have a company that they are going to work for when they get their license. I don’t know. I usually like to have more of a plan than that when I go into something. But everybody’s got their own style.

I’m suprised at all of the law you have to know to be an agent. There’s tons of stuff to learn. I can see some of the mistakes that a lot of people make when they go to buy a house just because they aren’t aware of how they can get screwed by an agent. I’m glad I’m getting this license simply because it exposes me to things that will definately be helpful in the future.

Well, tomorrow is supposed to be the most difficult day of the whole course. So that’s why I’m up at 1am writing a blog entry. No, actually I went to bed at 7pm and woke up at 11:30p thinking it was probably about 3am. So now I’ve got to go back to sleep somehow.

Oh, I forgot to talk about the hottie at a particular nameless eating establishment (not Zaxby’s, and no not Hooters either, sheesh)! Well this girl is the cutest thing I’ve seen. And the awesome part is that today was Halloween. So guess what!!! Costumes baby!!!!! Yea, she was wearing this pretty checkered blue frilly dress thing. It was really cute. Maybe like a french maid or something, but just basic, not done up that much. So as soon as I realized she was hot I checked out her ring finger. Nope. Nothing. Woot! So then I asked her out. Uh, yea right. Doh! No I waited for my order to come up. I stood sorta out of the way. And the usually busy restaraunt had a 3 minute break in customers. So she was standing behind the register about 7 feet from me and I was just standing there. Not saying anything. Not doing anything. Just being a coward.

By this time in the day I was pretty frustrated too because I realized one of the prettiest girls in my real estate class had a fat rock on her finger. This totally bummed me out. Because I was going to ask her on a date. I really was. So I now I’m just in this mood where if I see a pretty chick with no ring on her finger I’m just going to have to scoop her up. Because she won’t stay single for long.

So I’m standing there not saying anything and I glance over at her only to notice that she was looking at me too. No big deal. People look at people, right? Well, yea. But then I remembered that the last time I went to that restaraunt probably 6 months ago or something the same thing happened. I caught her looking at me. So I started thinking. “How in the world is this girl still single.” The reason is that this restaraunt’s main clientelle is policemen and firemen. Seriously. There’s always 5 police cruisers and a few firetrucks in the parking lot. She’s surrounded by all of these manly men, many of whom would love to date a hottie like her. So what’s she doing? Is she turning them down? Is she accepting dates but then doesn’t like the guys? Or maybe she has a steady boyfriend. Or maybe she’s got a kid. Maybe she smokes. Who knows. Who in the world knows.

Then I thought, “Maybe she’s not into the policeman type. Maybe she’s looking for a successful businessman type. The type that has ambition. Not the type that gets his kicks from pulling over harmless citizens who didn’t notice the reduced speed limit sign. Sheesh.” Yea, she deserves MUCH better than that. She’s so pretty she should get a rich guy like me. Heck I’d spend lots of money on her. Pretty girls like her deserve that. And if I lost about 30lbs and worked out I’d be handsom too. Shut up! I would be. Don’t hate.

But I wanna ask her out. I’m just to this point where I’ve got to ask a girl out just to convince myself that I’ve got the balls too. I’m totally expecting her to say no. But I don’t care. I’m going to ask her just to take the shot and put my neck out there. I would be cool if she said yes though. What the heck I would do after that, I have no clue. I’d like to take her out to a nice restaraunt. Maybe do some Reedy River type thing. That’s about all there is to do in Greenville.

Oh well, I’m going to read real estate stuff and then go to sleep. Wish me luck!!!

Nothing to say

Yes, I clicked “New Post” but I really have nothing to say. So your next 3 minutes of reading will be a complete waste of time. Hey, at least I warned you.

Well, I got my bright orange box from Vonage yesterday. Now I officially have 4 phone numbers. Yep. One for ProNetLabs, one for my Fax line, one for DTF Capital (my mortgate broker LLC) and my Cell Phone number.

Anyways, that reminds me that it might be cool to describe how I want to set up my companies. Okay, so I got this book on tape titled “Own Your Own Corporation” by Robert Kemotherapi. My goal was to figure out a few of things. 1) How to isolate all of my companies from each other so that if one gets sued the others can’t be touched and 2) how to have all of my profits and losses from each company flow through to my main parent company (a heirarchy of sorts) so that if one of my companies gets sued there isn’t even any money in that company (it’s all in the parent company). 3) I also wanted to have some measure of anonymity so that people can’t figure out how much I’m worth or what companies I own. After listening to the book about 4 or 5 times and doing other research (including visiting a CPA) I will probably take the following approach.

 My parent corporation will be a C-Corporation. Yes, a big, hairy, expensive, double-taxed c-corp. My 2 “child” companies will be LLCs that have s-corp elections. Why not just S-Corps, you ask? Well because s-corps can’t be owned by a corporation. The beauty of an LLC with an s-corp election is that all the profits and losses can “flow thru” to the owner (my c-corp). This whole setup allows me to have the wide range of deductions that you can take advantage of with a c-corp while enjoying the simplicity of the LLCs for each biz. With my C-corp I can write off things like my health insurance. I can sell my car to my c-corp and then write off the insurance (since it definately is a company car). I can set up a special protected ERISA retirement fund that not even a lawsuit can touch. I can do a cafeteria plan for my family members over 15. There’s just a seemingly infinite number of cool things you can do with a c-corp. One cool thing is the low tax rate of 15% on your profits (which I hopefully won’t have much of after my deductions).

People harp on the double-taxation of the c-corp. But the thing is, only the income that you pay to yourself is double-taxed. If you leave it in the corporation then it’s only single taxed (and Nevada has no income tax for c-corps). Why would you want to pull any significant amount out anyways? It just exposes that money to personal lawsuits. I’m only going to pull out a small amount to pay myself every month. Just enough to cover my personal monthly bills. Many of my monthly bills are biz-related. Most things I buy are for biz purposes. So I don’t pull out the personal debit card for that, I pull out one of my company debit cards. Even most meals can be written off (even though you can only deduct 50% of the price of those meals).

Okay then on top of that I want to make my c-corp a “Nevada Corporation”. This just means that I’m incorporated in Nevada, not SC. Nevada is the only state that doesn’t share info with the IRS. And Nevada offers maximum privacy. This reduces the likleyhood that I’ll ever get audited and it keeps my name off the public record as the owner of my c-corp.  I plan to obey all laws, mind you. But who wants to be audited? It’s a pain in the neck! Please spare me.

Some decisions I still need to make are as follows: 1)Whether I want all of my corporations set up in Nevada or just the C-Corp. 2)I could possibly set up my C-Corp as an LLC with a C-Corp election. 3) If I go for all three corps as Nevada corps, can they all share the same address?

I’d really like to have this all set up by the beginning of the year. It may take longer for the paperwork to all get processed and finalized too. I’ll need to not only set up these 3 corporations but I’ll also need to do national trademark name searches to make sure my company names are unique and so that somebody can’t take my trademarks in the future. It’s just all a part of setting things up correctly the first time to avoid headaches later.

I feel like it’s like re-wiring a circuit board. It’s a pain in the butt to get all of my bills hooked up to the right biz and get my accounting system set up. But at the end of the day I’ll be able to relax knowing that I’m hardly paying any taxes and each of my businesses and wealth is totally protected from each other and from idiots that might want to sue me.

So here’s where I’ll run my different legs of my current biz plan. Pro Net Labs is run under the Pro Net Labs LLC. Any Real Estate-related or mortgage-related business will be run from the DTF Capital LLC. I will do my stock market trading/investing from my DTF Enterprises C-Corp.

Ah yea! Then I’ll finally have the motivation to write my company websites. I can’t wait because I’ll have a site-within-site concept. Each biz will read “Pro Net Labs a DTF Enterprises company“. The website will be organized much like this website. Where all of my companies are across the top of the page. This site will be a good way to communicate how my plan all fits together. Plus it will give each biz a much larger and more professional feel.

Well there. I guess I found something to talk about anyways. Try to relax a little today, k!

Time to upgrade CC

Yea, sorry people. Another biz post.

It’s time to upgrade CC to support “The Network”. I was in the middle of typing this email to send to some BJU admins about thinking of ways to open up UYS to non-BJU people. After I got it all typed up I just sat there and stared at it. Wondering what would happen to it after I hit the Send button.

You know what would happen to it? I’ll give you one guess. Okay time’s up. Right, nothing would happen. Months would go buy and nobody would really care too much. So then I started thinking about some ideas I had about basically letting users of my different ConvenientClassifieds websites “share” their listings with the The Network. This would let any CC user searching on any CC website see listings on the other CC websites if they want to.

So guess what. CC 2.0 is coming your way sooner than anybody expected. Yea baby. That’s my style. By the time I go to Hawaii I’ll 1) be a certified Real Estate agent 2) I’ll be a certified mortgage broker 3) I’ll have The Network built into CC. Snap Homie!!!!!!!

 You gotta keep movin’ forward. If a day passes where it gets to be 3am and you’re sitting there wondering what you got done and nothing comes to mind. Guess what? Everybody else took a step and you didn’t. What does that mean? Yep you’re one step behind. To get ahead you have to work so hard you’re taking daddy steps while everybody else is taking baby steps.

I need employees!!!!

Yea. I’m coming to realize that no matter how hard I try at a biz idea one of 2 things will happen. 1) I’ll run myself ragged trying to do it all myself 2) or I’ll get beat by somebody who has more shear manpower than my one little self.

So what do I do now? Hire somebody. Yea, but I don’t have that much work yet. I’m in a situation where I could have more work that I can handle by myself but not enough to hire a full-time employee. What I need are a few large clients who pay for some service on a regular basis. The obvious answere here is that I become some sort of host with a datacenter. I need servers. I need routers. I need a T1. All of this amounts to bundles of $$$$.

Where am I going to get this money? I could sell UYS to Mr. W. for a chunk of cash. Or I could not sell UYS and hook up e-commerce to it AND spread it to several large campuses. That would take years before it was making me serious dough though. How can I get about $25k quickly? I don’t really want to take out a loan either.

$25k $25k $25k $25k $25k $25k $25k , arg! I’ve always shyed away from hosting business. I need to change that mindset. I want hosting customers. I want customers who need servers. I want servers. Servers are my friends. They want to serve me. I want employees too. Employees are my servents who carry out my grand plans. Employees will enable me to persue new ventures while keeping current ones going at the same time. With a staff of employees I can be writing big new features of a web idea and keep my datacenter running at the same time. All while I’m in Hawaii. Employees will answer my phone for me. Employees will man the phones and datacenter at 9am while I’m still sleeping.

The tradeoff is OVERHEAD! I hate overhead. But there’s no big biz that doesn’t have overhead. I just need to get to the point where I’m making mad dough. Then I can afford employees, servers and other overhead. Bill Gates has huge overhead. Larry Ellison has gigantic overhead. A solid biz will have some overhead.

Right now I have zero overhead. That’s nice in some ways. However I have no scalabiliby options. If somebody comes to me with a website that takes 3 people to write in 6 months, guess what? I have to turn it down. If 3 people want my services during the same month, guess what? I have to turn 2 of them down. I won’t grow that way.

Growth. That’s what I need. I need to expand. I need more clients which give me more money which lets me pay employees and afford overhead.

Almost an ordinary day

Well when I started writing this post my day was pretty ordinary. I was just blabbing about the mundane things that I did or was thinking about doing. BUT, things just got real fun!

I was talking about a potentially interesting development regarding UYS with my bud Ben P. We decided that we really need to promote user loyalty. Then this whole idea about promoting UYS on WBJU for White Glove started to develop. I’m considering having a big givaway where I giving away a couple hundred dollars cash. Yea. I remember when I was a student they were giving away cheesy stuffy like a free Chic Fil A sandwich or something like that. We’ll see where all of this goes. Maybe I’ll see if I can get some publicity at the Turkey bowl. That’d be fun!!!