Live Like 2012 Really Is the End of the World

By On · 4 Comments · In My Life

The other day I saw this exact sentence scrawled on the wall of a mansion some startup guys were launching their new incubator from. The walls of the massive rooms were covered in Idea Paint and covered with thousands of great concepts. This idea though struck a particularly deep cord, so much so I haven’t been able to shake the words for days now.

What would your life be like if you thought this year may be your last?

I’m not saying you have an absolute guarantee that it would be your last – if that was the case you may drop out of the workforce, live on a beach and spend your days writing letters to your loved ones. More the feeling you’d get if every day you knew you had a 50/50 chance of dying. You may still live within the rules somewhat, but you’d also take a lot of chances that could produce amazing results – because in reality, what the flip would you have to lose?

Imagine that feeling – living like 2012 is the last year you get to live your life the way you’ve always wanted.

That freedom, that amazing, tantalizing fearlessness comes only from having nothing to lose. This is why people can go from complete anonymity to extreme fame in only a few short years (think Lady GaGa). If you have nothing to lose – and everything to gain – you can take risks that the rest of the World would never fathom. Read Full Article →

Transforming into Your Ideal Self for 2012

By On · 9 Comments · In Transformation

transform ideal selfIn some caterpillar’s lives there is a moment when they go from stodgy, slow and land-locked to beautiful, delicate and airborne. Not all caterpillars enjoy this fate. Many stay on the ground and live a life of leaf-eating. Caterpillars (from p.o.v.’s of the one’s I consulted for this post) are relatively clueless, unenlightened creatures – rarely contemplating the meaning of their existence and more consumed with basics, like day-to-day survival… but still some of them transform into glorious creatures, almost overnight.

Human beings, though being far more enlightened, often fall into the same fate of living life day-to-day and never contemplating what a different existence could be like. The beauty of the human mind is our ability to imagine, it’s great shame is our proclivity to forget by becoming distracted by the day-to-dayness of life.

We have the distinct capability to envision the person we want to becoe, the life we want to lead and the things we want to do – without having experienced them directly. You may never have so much sunk your toes into a sandy beach, but you can know from reading and television that you one day want to visit Bermuda. An ugly duckling child may wear ratty clothes and grow up poor, but still know that one day she wants to be a super model and enjoy the finer things in life. Read Full Article →

My Epic Website Platform: A PageLines Review

By On · 3 Comments · In Blogging
PageLines Andrew Powers

Andrew, PageLines' founder and myself at their pre-launch in LA this October.

I am a notorious technophobe, which is odd since I’m the CEO of a web company and an avid writer on this little thing. But for years I couldn’t so much as tweak the sidebar of my beloved blog because I didn’t know how to code and couldn’t figure out most WordPress themes.

That all changed one afternoon when fate smiled upon me and I ran smack-dab into PageLines‘ founder Andrew Powers. That day I learned about PageLines and their fabulous drag-and-drop framework which quite literally allows me to change my site on a whim by pulling my cursor across the back-end of this blog. I quickly switched over to PageLines and was amazed by the ease of use and attractive simplicity it’s design offered.

The reason I’m sharing this with my Escaping audience now is because PageLines is launching their 2.0 version and the PageLines store at LeWeb in Paris right now (I know I’m green with envy too). Here’s why I redesigned my site on PageLines and why you should too… Read Full Article →

John Wayne (Almost) Ruined My Life: A Cautionary Tale

By On · 3 Comments · In My Life
John Wayne

Damn you John Wayne, you handsome devil

First of all, let me preface this by saying… this is an incredibly hard post for me to write.

I have a problem, and it’s one that has festered in me for years all the while growing increasingly difficult to face. It’s part addiction, part pride and part deep-seeded insecurity (ha, classic “problem”).

I hate to ask people for things. I think it comes from never wanting to be looked at as a “charity case” and always wanting to be able to hold my own. Values I’m assuming I absorbed from watching one too many John Wayne films as a child. I also grew up strongly disliking braggarts – usually because these people got shot in the aforementioned movies, often right after they won a game of poker. Regardless, because of these long held beliefs I shy away from talking at length about my life or business in front of most people.

Looking back the major problem with this attitude has been that it’s crippling effect when it comes to selling one’s business and can make you awkwardly aloof when it comes to personal relationships. In an attempt to “not need nuthin’ from no one” I’m realizing that I’ve done a disservice to both myself and our team at Zirtual (I’m sorry guys, gals and hundo – our sweet little money tree).

If I was in therapy (which I would be if I wasn’t ruthlessly bootstrapping) I’m sure my shrink would give me some sort of exposure-therapy homework. But, since I can’t afford the finer things in life at present (like an overpriced MD) I get to “pretend” and not only be the patient, but also the doctor. Which is both fun and awkward, especially when my roommates walk in on me lying on a coach, talking to myself in a soothing voice, saying things like “how did that make you feel” and “tell me more about your childhood”. Read Full Article →

25 Quirky Things to be Thankful for

By On · 5 Comments · In My Life

things to be thankful for I’m writing this from a hotel room in downtown Charleston, West Virginia. My brother mentioned, as we were walking back from a sumptuous dinner at Le Chili’s, that center of this city reminded him of a post-zombie-apocalypse movie – hello Appalachia.

I’ve had a hell of a time getting here. 10 hours, four airports SFO > DEN > IAD > CRW, lost tickets, misplaced bags- it would be oh so easy to bitch. But instead I’m going to be thankful. I’m surrounded by family I haven’t seen for ages and have a chance to reflect on this last year and all the things I have to smile about.

Being thankful, or grateful, is hands down the best way to live. You’ll live longer, be happier and enchant others with your positive outlook versus boring them to death with your whining. So in honor of Thanksgiving I wanted to jot down 25 things that I’m truly thankful for and maybe you can be too. Read Full Article →

Lessons Learned: 5 Traits Needed for Success

By On · 21 Comments · In Startup Lessons

lessons learned

When I came to San Francisco, almost a year ago today, I thought I had a decent understanding of starting a business in the internet space. I had been “working online” since I was 19, doing everything from selling jewelry on eBay to social media consulting, I look back now and blush over my deep, unsettling ignorance.

In the last year I have learned more about starting up in the real world than I thought was possible – the crazy part is I probably haven’t even scratched the surface. When people say “it isn’t easy” they aren’t lying, they’re being generous. If I did a slideshow of what I’ve gone through in the last year to get Zirtual from non-existent to what it is today – you wouldn’t believe me.

I have lived in hostels, I have taken advantage of complimentary breakfasts at places I’m not staying, I have cried late at night prostrated on my desk, I have worked out of Starbucks, I have walked 3 miles in the rain to a meeting and arrived soaking wet because I didn’t want to spend the money on a cab, I have hustled, I have begged, I have borrowed, I have done everything but steal – unless you count aforementioned free-breakfast noshing stealing – then I’ve even done that.

I say this, to scare you, and in reality I’m being modest because you can’t understand what a year of non-stop hustling feels like from reading one blog post. Why do I want to scare you off? Because the few people who are true entrepreneurs out there and have what it takes to chase their dreams won’t be scared.

They’ll read this and focus on the I’m-almost-out-of-the-woods part, not the year in exile… and you my dears are the type of people who must chase your dreams. You must become entrepreneurs and you must follow your visions – because you are a rare breed and 99% of your cohort will never be able to do what you do. Because of this you probably possess… Read Full Article →

Life Isn’t Fair: So Why Play by the Rules?

By On · 24 Comments · In My Life

Life isn't fairI remember this refrain being seared in my consciousness from early on in my childhood. It’s a bitter-sweet memory because I can still taste the knot of staunch injustice that gathered in the back of my throat when my mother would dish it out; but at the same time I’m grateful that the inequality of life was shown to me at a young age because I learned a valuable lesson that seems to be lost on the rest of my peers.

Life isn’t freaking fair, deal with it. You can bitch and moan or you can make the best of the cards you are dealt… or you can strive to become the dealer. Your situation may be truly, honestly, righteously unfair – but the chances that dwelling on it will move your life one iota in a better direction is dismal, at best.

Instead, embrace the fact that life isn’t fair. When you do you’ll begin to see a world of possibilities. A world that the rest of the population misses whilst their eyes tear up over spilled milk.

Life isn’t fair, so why play by the rules?

You don’t bring a knife to a gun fight and you don’t expect to win at a table where the dealer’s cheating. The “fairness” that people so often talk about is the idea that if you go to school and make decent grades you should be able to graduate, get a good job and earn fair wages. It’s the idea that if you worked 15 years for a company they should keep you around for the next 15 years – and by golly I love that notion, but it’s not a reality anymore. Read Full Article →

Read, Write, Evolve.

By On · 11 Comments · In My Life

read, writeThis blog has changed my life. I came to this realization while wandering the sunny streets of San Francisco’s Mission district with Ev, a fellow blogger & friend.

I can’t trace it back to one point in time, but I do know that when I first put finger to keyboard my world was thrust into a trajectory that would forever change my life.

Though school did very little for me over the years – except breed in me a contempt for the privileged – I did learn my two most cherished skills there: how to read and how to write. Arguably the most life-changing, yet hopelessly under-utilized skills any person can possess.

Read.

I’ve been reading for as long as I can remember. I’ve always been devouring books, listening to someone read to me or enjoying an audiobook while I drove. When people ask me “what’s the one thing you’d tell an aspiring entrepreneur” I tell them to read.

I used to read behind smoky bars, flipping through the pages of business books with a highlighter in one hand and a cigarette in the other. My patrons would be sucking down stiff drinks, feeding bills into machines that didn’t care whether or not they were sinking their kids’ college tuition into their mechanical abyss, all the while I read – highlighted – read some more – made notes – and served shots… Read Full Article →

How to be Special: Believe & Persist

By On · 12 Comments · In Startup Lessons

Brainstorming session at Zirtual HQ held in the kiddy-corner of our shared office space.

When I was a child my family spent some idyllic years in Mountain View, CA. We left in ’92, mere years before the internet boom began.

Little did I know as I watched our driveway disappear from the back seat of my parent’s Volkswagon Rabbit that 18 years later I’d be back, for another boom – except this time I’d be intimately involved.

We moved around a lot when I was a kid, so my mother ended up homeschooling us for some time before we ended up in Las Vegas, where I spent the majority of my formative years.

Planting the belief seed

The thing that sticks out in my mind about our homeschooling years was the refrain my mother told me and my brother constantly, almost like a prayer. She’d say, “always remember, you can do anything you set your mind to … your very special and because of that, you can do anything in the world”.

The irony of her constant praise was that as a student, both in school and college, I was mediocre at best. I was extremely dyslexic – something I didn’t get diagnosed until this year – which made my schooling experience a painful lesson in frustration and humiliation. Facts fell out of my brains like water and the only thing I could focus on through those difficult years were the “great things” I was going to do one day – because, my mother had always told me I was special.

I believed her. And I still do, but for different reasons. Read Full Article →

The Snowball Effect

By On · 3 Comments · In Biz Dev

the snowball effectI’ve been on the lam as of late. People keep emailing me asking if I’ve stopped blogging or if I’ve met my untimely demise at the hands of one of the many bipolar cab drivers in this city. In reality I’ve just been laboring over the fruits of a snowball I started packing about a year ago.

Rolling the (snow)ball

Note: my knowledge of “snowmen” and “snowballs” is limited to a purely intellectual understanding. Growing up in Las Vegas and hot-as-hell Dalls, Texas before that I have had few experiences with “snow” and still distrust it’s freezing, stickiness in general.

I was thrust into the world of snow and snowmen when I went to university in Reno. My first experience with a snowman was in the courtyard of my freshman dorms where a bunch of frat boys were building a snow phallus instead of the traditional man – shocker. Was it traumatizing? Mildly. Does it have something to do with why I avoid snow to this day? Possibly.

Regardless of my tawdry experiences with snow in the past, it’s still an awesome metaphor for building a business.

The snowman

Building a business is much like building a snowman. Both start with an idea, and both grow in direct correlation with how long, hard and creatively their builder wants to work. Both also get easier and larger the longer you roll with them. Also, when you find steep hills (or business shortcuts) you can exponentially increase your growth rate while minimizing your workload. Read Full Article →

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