Life Putting - Dan Putt

I’m back in Columbus for the week (my mom is doing much better), and trying to get back into the swing of things. Despite some pretty good progress with Call True, I’m once again back in a space where I feel stuck. It seems that most of our target customers are holding off on all decisions about their website until the 1st of the year. This is good in the sense it gives us a chance to get the “stage 1,” of our product completed. But it is bad when you’re very impatient like me. I want people to sign up with us now, and love it. I did have a fantastic meeting on Monday with Rich Langdale, a principal in the venture capital firm NCT ventures. Rich’s story was quite an impressive one. He set out to create a holographic printing distribution company back in 1986 while still in college. True to the entrepreneur inside him, he sold his Honda to raise $5,000 for the company’s startup. While he never found a market for holographic printers, he did build an international digital storage wholesaling powerhouse over the course of 15 years before selling in 2001. The whole key to his success was constant adaptation. He told me that a 5 year plan is a necessity for a startup company, but a good startup will not follow a 5 year plan through. Even google did not complete their 5 year plan (They had planned to license their search technology to companies and other search engines) I’ll admit that the planning aspect of the business is not something I’m really crazy about. It’s way too easy to seek out the activities that have more immediate impacts, such as sales and assistance with developing our program. But on the other hand I’ll do anything I have to do to keep this company rolling. It’s all in my head. I can see this company changing the way companies connect with their customers forever. By remembering that, it’s pretty cool to work out of a coffee shop for now. Everything big has a little beginning.

Despite some movement this week for my company, Call True, I’m still incredibly frustrated at the pace things are moving. If you asked me two months ago where I’d be with this company at Thanksgiving, I would’ve given you an answer along the lines of “15 customers, revenue of $10,000 a month, 4 partners.” Well, that hasn’t happened, and while I can’t complain that we have been able to build a nice client list (well people who have agreed to use, and are trying our service but no one who has paid us anything), the money has been difficult to come by. The worst part is I believe I’m starting to lose a key part of this business, my partner and head programmer, Jeff. He is very busy, and has never really set out to be a major part of this business, but it’s getting harder and harder to get his attention without money coming in. Which of course makes my job of improving the product, and optimizing it for our customers much more difficult. The goal has always been to remove him from the role he has now, and to bring in some young, hungry, talented programmers who compliment my obsession with the latest and greatest technology. I’m also somewhat stuck on really where to go next, other than to focus on making some more sales. I have pulled back slightly on the throttle on exactly who I’m contacting because our product really isn’t ready for a big time customer. What I really would love, and I’m putting out an intention here, is an experienced organizer. I am an impulsive ideas guy. I tend to go in spurts, so when I think “click to call is the best idea for dating websites,” I go after dating websites. I call and contact all the dating websites I can think of, and dream up how it should and will work for them. This is great when you’re a sales guy, or your developing a strategy, but when you’re overseeing the whole company’s development-this is a major distraction. I want someone who can work with me and do all that “organizational crap.” Someone who I can meet with and say, ok we need to get here-you build the processes and organization that gets us there. So I can continue to create an innovative, complex, yet simple product and chasing after the big guys like dating sites. And my organizer can keep us on the straight path. I’ll be honest, I don’t have really any management skills at this point other than what I was born with. I know that currently I don’t have the skills to manage a billion dollar company. But the truth is, I don’t have any interest in managing a billion dollar, or a 100 million dollar, or even a 5 million dollar company. I just want to create them.

In a natural way I intend for an experienced, excited, ideals driven, fearless, innovative organizer manager who is obsessed with creating a company that makes the world for customer’s a better place.

I’ll let you know how this works out.

It’s been a pretty draining week to say the least. My mom’s condition worsened rapidly, which meant that someone (either her Fiance, Tom or I) had to be with her at all times. She has had trouble walking, some terrible rounds of nausea, debilitating headaches, and does a lot of sleeping. It certainly has been scary and hard to deal with. But in situations like these you are constantly searching for silver linings in seemingly endless dark clouds. It turns out all of these symptoms are a result of the radiation, and not of her condition. So we know that after three weeks of radiation, these symptoms will subside and she’ll start to feel more and more like herself. The radiation, although it is helping her fight off some of the tumors in her brain, is brutal on her body and I’ll be happy when it is over. Looking deeper for a silver lining I find the other treatment she is on, treatment sent directly from the Burzynski Clinic in Houston, Texas. Burzynski is definitely a controversial figure in medical community with most Oncologists quickly dismissing his work as nonsense. I have to admit a search for Burzynski Clinic on google can definitely yield some scary results when you’re looking for hope. But I did some research of my own, and actually was able to find some independent success stories of Burzynski patients. They all had some very good things to say, and I’ve actually spoken to a few by phone who came back from some very scary places. They certainly have been sources of hope. If you know me, and the path I’ve chosen in my life (entrepreneur), you know that optimism is a very important aspect of my life. I mean what are the typical odds in creating a successful business? 5, 10%? My mom has better odds than that, so as far as I’m concerned there’s not too much to fear. Odds are only averages, not guarantees. I have no doubt I’ll develop an incredibly successful business with Call True and then go on to do it many times, and I equally have no doubt my mom will recover fully and be stronger than ever.

That is why I’ve chosen to link to the Million Dollar Experiment by Steve Pavlina. Steve has an amazing blog about personal development, and he is a firm believer in the power of intention. He has put out for the world to see his intention of generating a million extra dollars this year. Here is his intention:

In an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way, in its own perfect time, for the highest good of all, I intend $1,000,000 to come into my life and into the lives of everyone who holds this intention.

He believes that just by putting it out there, making himself and the universe aware, and without forcing it to happen but instead allowing, it will come true. It’s a powerful thought. And quite frankly, it can’t hurt. So I myself am putting out two intentions for the universe to absorb, and develop:

In a natural, low pain, high growth, care free, happy, healthy, positive way, I intend my mom to make a full recovery to a stronger, healthier, and happier body than she has ever had before in the shortest period of time necessary.

For the good of us all, in a happy, easy going, positive, healthy, effective, organic yet rapid way, I intend for Call True to reach $5 million in revenues in the next 12 months.

I’m also going to add his intention as one of my own:
In an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way, in its own perfect time, for the highest good of all, I intend $1,000,000 to come into my life and into the lives of everyone who holds this intention

Steve has already generated $800 this week towards his total! Who knows what this week will bring for my intentions. I’m going to write these down and post them on my mirror as well so I’m reminded every morning of these intentions.

My mom, my sister, and I at my sister’s wedding in June.

it’s amazing how life can change with a few words. My mom has been fighting breast cancer for over a year now. It’s a subject I haven’t talked about much because her wishes have been for everyone to remain positive and live their lives normally. And quite frankly, being out of town it’s been pretty easy to do just that. I’ve just sort of pushed it into the back of my head, feeling that she would be fine in time. I never really knew her condition, other than it wasn’t your run of the mill cancer. She’s been undergoing chemo for a year now, as well as focused on the healing of herself within. She’s a believer that life is a journey chosen by ourselves, and we’re meant to learn some key lessons throughout it. If we miss an opportunity to learn a lesson, it simply returns on a slightly more aggressive scale. So for example, problems with trust first start as issues with your friends in grade school. You’re unable to learn the lesson there, so it comes back in your teenage years as jealousy with your girlfriend. IF you miss it there, it comes back as problems with your wife. The lesson is coming because you requested it, you’re destined to learn it. My mom believes this breast cancer is an aggressive lesson coming back to be learned. She believes her body has the power to heal, to refresh itself, and she’s working to do just that.

I was shattered to my knees this morning when I heard that my mom’s cancer had spread to her brain. It took me so long to simply write that sentence above. It scares the hell out of me. My mom and I have relied on each other for so long. It was just her and I sinceI was about 10. We had some incredibly hard times, but we healed each other and learned great lessons about the world. She’s so strong, and so scared. Quite frankly, I would do anything to help her heal. She’s so strong, so smart, so loving, and the world to me. She’s in hospital now for the first time since she gave birth to me. She hates hospitals. I want to be with her, but she insists that my sister and I continue on with our lives as she works on healing. She knows this is her journey, and hers to fix. Currently she is in Houston at the Burzynski Clinic, an alternative treatment center. Traditional medicine can’t help my mom at this time, it’s time for her to heal herself (along with some help from Burzynski). I’m in one of those nightmares where everything around me seems so empty. Yesterday I was obsessing over my business, frustrated with the way things were going, with how someone didn’t respond to me or something has not been finished. Now, I could care less. Ignorance is truly bliss. I’m staying away from google…I know there are bad stories and articles about the Burzynski clinic and his treatment strategies. I’m staying away from time frames, statistics, and percentages. I’m focusing on my mom. She’s too important, too loved, and too strong to go anywhere. I believe in the power of good thoughts.

Please have a good thought, prayer, meditation, or send positive intentions my mom’s way today. And please pass this on to others who can do the same.

I read a fantastic blog post today on iwillteachyoutoberich.com

As an entrepreneur, people often assume I’m doing this for the money. They think I’m going for the quickest way to the biggest buck, oh how wrong they are. If I were pursuing this path for money, I would’ve left a long time ago. I graduated from OSU last December, but most of my friends graduated the June before that. They all have secured themselves decent jobs, that pay them decent money in a very stress free 9-5 kind of way. I on the other hand have scraped to get by on my way to starting 3 companies, one of which paid me just enough to get by, one that cost me money, and one that has yet to pay me a dime (although it’s coming). If money was the ultimate driver for entrepreneurs, I would’ve been out of here a long time ago. But as he touches on in the article above, being an entrepreneur is not about getting rich quick, it’s about creating value in something you believe in. I went after Engenius Motors ( the second company that cost me money) because I KNEW that my advanced internet understanding could be packaged and offered to everyday people as a hassle free way to sell a car for more money. Ultimately that flopped due to some major laws I came up against. When I worked on Enviar (my first company that actually made money) I knew that my love of gadgets, and openess to international commerce offered entrepreneurs abroad access to the latest, and greatest tech toys at even better prices. I’ll admit this first company was created more about the money, but as I developed more partnerships worldwide I began to see the big picture. Bottom line, being an entrepreneur is not about getting rich. I have so many friends who “will open their own businesses,” and the first thing they go to is “we can make a ton of money.” And I know right there, they are no entrepreneurs. Entrpreneurs are driven by the need to create value, by the need to make something better, by the need to share their passion. The money? That follows the passion. What are you passionate about?