tyrohne: blog 
red meat for the carnivores
sittin on the fence (will give you splinters)
Published Nov. 6, 2009Views: 364
I am a habitual, serial entrepreneur. I can't help it. In fourth grade I would move through our neighborhood off Reilly Road in Fayettenam on Halloween at least three or four times (once with the spaceman mask on, once with the cowboy mask, rinse, repeat) and collect as much as I could and starting around the middle of November, sell it for a nickle a pc at Ben Martin Elementary. I never ate the candy. I delivered the Paraglide once I was fourteen and could get the papers dropped in my driveway. I would wake every morning at 4 (rain or shine) to ride with my neighbor, Jack Alexander who was the Fayetteville distributor for the new USA Today paper from the time I was 15 til I graduated. I worked through college at the Dining Hell for breakfast and at nights and weekends I painted and cleaned dorm rooms as a subcontractor with three or four guys working for me.
I come from a family where my dad, thanks to Uncle Sam and a pissed off judge who made him join the army when he was 18 and I was 1 and go to Vietnam, was the only college graduate prior to me. And my children will probably be the next graduates...
I'm not afraid of risks. I just had a birthday which finally put me in the 4 and 0 plus column and I've been spending the last 10 months or so (after selling my last company) trying to figure out what to do next...
Do I (gulp) retire and move to the beach and fly and play the PS3 and 360 and golf and watch the kids grow up? Initially, that's what I was thinking I would do. Just say forget it and hang up the rollerboard suitcase... But I'm realizing I can't do that. I'll end up bored out of my head.
Do I take a "real" job? Ack! Ostensibly, I'd be in an office somewhere wearing my cornflower blue tie on Tuesdays. The problem with that is "I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that." (for anyone else) Of course, I am too old for kickboxing as a career.
So now the question for the ages; what do I do? I can't stay Galt. Consulting, which I have been doing for a while, is wholly unsatisfying. I like the checks but, not to sound smug, the money basically means nothing and as a consultant I'm only creating wealth for others.
I want to do something that doesn't involve employees. In fact, some of the businesses that most intrigue me now are businesses that result in directly cutting employees (route optimization and scheduling - eliminate dispatchers, decrease fuel expenditures or automated proof of delivery for small/medium businesses which eliminate paper processors and paper handling/data processing), etc.
I'm glad we sold when we did. I'm sad we had to let people go and know there are a few of them (over half) still unable to get a gig. We were a profitable company and I see our IP being used by the new company and it excites me.
The birthday has made me a little reflective lately. I need to get off the fence.
Filed under: Crime
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Buy some land and
Grow truffles.
Grow ginseng.
Grow pot.
Lots of exciting things to do.
GOLO member since September 19, 2008
November 6, 2009 12:38 p.m.
GOLO member since March 5, 2009
November 6, 2009 11:14 a.m.
GOLO member since August 16, 2007
November 6, 2009 11:06 a.m.
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Cool. We need good schools run by competent entrepreneurial types. What kind of school?
We also need the general assembly to lift that nasty cap on charter schools, but that's another story.
Hope that works out for you. Oh to have money and time all at the same time. You're making me envious ;-)
GOLO member since April 24, 2008
November 6, 2009 11:02 a.m.
I see your dillema. It's like if you're going to do something, make it something worthwhile or enjoy. How bout this. Why don't you just take time off. Something will come to you...just be patient.
GOLO member since September 7, 2007
November 6, 2009 11:01 a.m.
GOLO member since July 16, 2008
November 6, 2009 10:52 a.m.
GOLO member since November 20, 2007
November 6, 2009 10:35 a.m.
GOLO member since July 3, 2007
November 6, 2009 10:28 a.m.
Yes. And I'm heavily involved with getting it going but I'm one of several and it's far from a full time gig. It's a school. We're looking for land and/or space as we speak.
GOLO member since November 12, 2007
November 6, 2009 10:27 a.m.
I like stuff. I would really like some more cool stuff. I don't like fancy cell phones, however. Give me a cheap one that can make calls and text and I'm good.
GOLO member since November 20, 2007
November 6, 2009 10:23 a.m.
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