Standing Up For The Idea

In the November print issue of Entrepreneur magazine The Editor In Chief Amy C.Cosper writes a lovely editor's note titled: The Idea Machine. I really like this editorial note Ms Cosper has written, as so often I seem to run into people who like to slam your "idea" as worthless, just because it's "only an idea" and after all ideas are worthless without execution. Everyone has idea's, who cares about your crazy idea? Ms Cosper and I do.

I find Ms Cospers short little piece to be ever inspiring and to take a stand for ideas. I myself get aggravated at people who like to toss others into the street because they don't care about your idea's. They go around spewing out judgemental speak about your billion dollar idea. All businesses started with an idea. As Ms Cosper points out that companies have to constantly use ideas To "take your company in a new direction:product lines, marketing-whatever." 

A Cardboard Cutout. My Brothers Idea To Help Our
Blind Mother Find The Buttons On
Her Kindle. 

Even a man I hire to help me with wordpress told me "You're not getting into Y Combinator, because you have, just an idea" as if ideas are worthless to accelerators. If my team had no idea we certainly would not get in. I would think because we do have an idea, and we are executing it, we possible could get in. 

Ideas are everything to me, I have them everyday. It's a normal thought process for me to constantly think of ideas. When I come across a person who shares an idea with me, I do something other than toss them into the street. I encourage them to pursue it. Or I give feedback to help them shape it. For me every idea has worth. It's the starting place of change. 

Here is an idea that I had years ago called PenTags. The idea was that instead

of tapeing fake flowers to pens, people could attach a PenTag, and get some advertising all the while keeping the pen around longer. I actually auditioned for the T.V. show American Inventor, which only aired for one season I believe. The producer liked my idea. 

Keep building your startups and coming up with ideas! 

The entire November 2014 issue of Entrepreneur Print magazine is devoted to Ideas, looking forward to reading it! 

Making Your Idea Understandable

Ahhh, working like a crazy woman on fire with an iv line hooked to a gas pump, building my new startup Passdown.

The biggest frustration is getting the idea out of my head and making that idea understandable to others. One of my handicaps is my poor level of grammar skills. The other handicap is what most entrepreneurs struggle with.

In the brain the idea makes perfect sense. It plays over and over again on the fantasy setting cranked on high. Yet, I've spent hours trying to get it out of my head and when I have others check my work, they can't see the fantasy as I do. : - /

This is majorly frustrating. I will not stop until I get it.

On a fun note here is 2090 Man, in his animated form. The great work of Sultan from Egypt! It is such an honor to work with him.

I get so much joy out of 2090 man! He makes me smile everytime I see him.
Hope he makes you smile too!

Building Multiple Startups At The Same Time

The gift my father gave me is something that may be slipping from our culture. I don't think I've ever mentioned the idea to my own children, and I'm not sure it was or is learned in school each generation like they do a playground song or game "ring around the rosy" "Simon says".

It's the belief in "The American Dream". The idea of you can do anything and be anything you want in America. The dream is filled with hope, and the thoughts of success are here for everyone, and anyone. Yeah, my dad, he loved "the American dream, " he was filled with it, overflowed with it, but he never chased it. 

He was a sightseer of the American Dream. Every time he saw someone inventing some great idea he would point it out to me. "Can you believe someone made a million dollars from that?" he would say to me. I remember growing up in school, the American dream was there too. Us kids always dreaming about how it would be ours one day. It was one of the greatest fantasy's of childhood.

Now I'm Building Multiple Startups At The Same Time

Yep, I can't help it, my dad's gift to me became an infection in my soul that spread into my brain. For some reason or another I'm producing a bit of a surplus. Darn it! It's getting a little bit hard. 

I can't not chase them. I can't just write down some notes on one and say, oh when I'm done pushing DigiThin, to someplace better, then I will work on the next one. No, it doesn't work like that in my brain. If the brain wants them out, I have to do something about them now. 

EavesdropApp has been bugging my head for a few months. It's getting mad at me because I haven't gotten too far with it. Ugh, okay, I'm working on it!

My new one has been swirling in my head about two weeks now. I couldn't really pin it down. A whisper of a thought shot out, but the idea was almost like it wasn't really formed enough to even be a thought. It was more like I could feel it, but not be able to think it. As it spun around my brain it picked up a little piece of information from all the data in my head, and spit out another piece to me last night. 

"Ahhh, you mother f*****, there you are!" the swirling thought drops into my lap, and I have another baby startup to build. Who put this startup slot machine in my head; and it keeps landing on three "Build Me Now" matching tiles? 

Hmmm : - ) this is the part of The American Dream that's not part of the dream. It's the part you only get to experience if you chase The American Dream, if you decide to no longer be a sightseer. 

Happy Fathers Day Dad. I love you!

Hiring People For My Startup? Not Part Of The Fantasy.

Every time I followed my ideas, I never thought about the whole picture. If my idea turned into something that people would want, then I might need to hire people to help me build a company. Well, that never entered my mind. Hire someone? No, not in the fantasy of the idea at all.

The Idea Fantasy Is Just That
A fantasy without all the intricate details of how to mass produce the product, get it to the customers, yeah, sign on the dotted line to be a startup, when you wake up out of the fantasy.

The day came, when I needed to hire help. Yet I was still in the unstable ground of my startup, not having a cash flow, not making money, yet needing help. How do I hire someone and tell them "I can't pay you anything" uh-huh or "I can pay you a little here and a little there" that one works just about as good as the other one. Okay people here is the job posting: New Startup looking for someone who will work countless hours for no pay. Someone who likes to create, devople and discover. Someone who loves tech, the internet, mobile, apps, design, and having no social life. Oh yeah, it's a really great job by the way! So please apply. : - )

I Started Seeking Hiring Help
I knew it would take a special kind of person, who had the special kind of circumstances to be able to work for me. That kind of person is super hard to find. People need to get paid to live. You have rent, automobile gas, insurance, internet connection, cell phone charges, heat and electric, and some people have families to support. Virtually no one can work for no pay, except the founders. The founders always seem to find a way.

I have managed to bump into a few potential hires. Now, I have a problem, because, I've never been a boss, I've never had to hire someone or fire someone. How do I judge them? How do I decipher their code? Are they someone who who can see my vision, or are they someone who pretends just to get a job? Are they seeking cash just to stay alive, or are they seeking a quality of life, and cash is only the means to quite the bill collectors? 

Judging Others
To be placed in the position of judging another is so very hard for me. It's been quite shocking to me to be frank. I thought all people were just like me. Hard working, never giving up, give way more then you get paid for, never be late, outshine everyone with a smile, and go way overboard to care for your customer. Hmmm, it seems like, no one is like me. This makes me sad. 

As kind as I am, I have been used. Yep, I let these people who say they want to work for me, basically con me and take my money. The very little cash I had left to make my startup go. I gave it to them in hopes they would give me what they promised. Yet they had seen that cash as only a means to end their agony, not as a means to build a gift for humanity. 

It's Not My Fault They Are....
Yet I don't blame them solely, I blame myself. Because I have no skills in hiring people. I think every person is great and has potential. Then when I have to see the truth about them, it hurts me. The truth was, they only want money and to satisfy themselves. They are not concerned with helping me build a company, they are not concerned with helping others. Yes, they truly are all consumed with themselves. It's really sad. 

It's A Catch 22
Yeah, we all have bills to pay. But when you agree to do something for another person you should always give them more worth then what they pay you. That's my philosophy. It doesn't hurt me at all to give the countless jobs I have had every bit of my soul. I show up early, I always show up happy and with a smile. I always give every patient (customer) my everything. I am being paid to be there and to do a job. Not a so so job, not a lousy job, but a more than they pay for, job. This is how I live my life. Giving way more than I'm paid for, because to see another worker slack and make excuses for not being kind to another, for not doing the job they are paid for, to see the lazy worker who hates their job, and would hate any job, well, to see that kind of person is to see a self concerned person. That's not what I want to be.

Step Out Of Yourself And Help Others
You can do that every time you show up to the job you don't like. By being the best at that job, then anyone. By being the kindest at that job than anyone. You can help others in every job you have, by being the most extraordinary worker. It's up to you to SHINE. You can shine shoes, shine mirrors, shine floors, it doesn't matter. You can SHINE in any job you have, even if you hate it. When you find that the struggle to pay the bills is not what you should focus on, when you find, that your focus is on helping others and not yourself. Well, you'll find, life is pretty awesome! 

Give it a try! : - )    

Market Research Is Ridiculous For Entrepreneurs. Lines Drawn In The Sand

I run into this issue from time to time. It's the issue of when you have your idea, and you start to chase it, when you reach out to someone most certainly they will ask "Did you do your market research?" Ha ha, I smile to myself. Market research for an idea is ridiculous to me. This is why.

An idea coming out of a creative person, needs no market research.

It's their art, their gift, their creativity. Does someone need to grade my idea? I don't need any market approval to create ideas. If I lived for my ideas to be approved by others, then I would have no need to create. To me it's only a judgement of people who have no idea that your idea is awesome, because it's so new and different it takes time for people to understand your gift, and how useful it can be to them. Some never will accept your ideas because it's art. It's creative. No one likes every Picasso or Van Gogh. 

What it needs is to live, to grow, to inspire, to give to others.

Do you think William Shakespeare said "Oh I must do market research before he presented his plays to people?" No. He knew what his gift was and he wanted to give it. He didn't do market research to see if people would accept or like his ideas, his plays, his art, his writings. No. He built a theater to show it to them in.

Shakespeare's Market Research

What if Shakespeare had done market research, and the people that read his plays thought, this is super freaking weird? What if twenty or so turned away and just gave him the wrinkled face, no comment look? If Shakespeare had done market research than, well we might not have ever had such a gift to humanity. You see, if you are an entrepreneur and you follow some standard business practice in the industry, well, I'm sorry, that may turn out to be a good thing for you to do, but it could also keep you from discovering what you really know is the truth for you. You create. There is no market approval needed for creating. It's your gift, and you will make it shine no matter what, if you believe in it. 

When the person I reached out to spit out that question, I knew. I knew one very powerful thing. He does not possess the gifts of an entrepreneur. He goes by what society teaches him. He goes by school preaching. He does not have the capacity to see what I see. He does not have the capacity to cross over the lines drawn in the sand. But I do. You see when my friend asked that question, he drew a line in the sand. I'm gonna walk right over it. My creativity has no lines! 

Yes, there is a place for market research and it's called social networks. Get your damn idea out there and let the masses decide. Fuck all the marketing experts. 

The real problem anyone will have with their idea is selling it. So maybe put your efforts on learning how to sell, and skip the market research step. That's a useless step. At least for the extremly creative types like me it is.

My Startup Stress Is Better Than Wiping Ass

Recently I read a Medium post about a man who had started a startup with his buddy. They lived in the same apartment building and sat around one night coming up with ideas over beer, and came up with an idea. 

Sorta like most of us do while we drink. The thing is, they decided to do something about it. Bravo! Doing something about those ideas you come up with while drinking is, the most amazing thing one can do. 

You see almost everyone has ideas, but few actually take the steps to create the idea. 
Those of us who do, are the ones, well, who enter a whole new world of stress! : - ) all in the quest to make something others need. All in the quest to make something that will help others. All in the quest to see if we ourselves, can accomplish what we set out to do. 

This young man and his friend decided to enter a startup competition with their beer drinking idea, and they won! So they both quit their jobs and started building their startup. 

After two years and other funds raised, the stress was taking a toll on this man.
He often thought of the life he had had previously at a great company, and the perks of just punching the clock and working for someone else. He started to think that the world he left had greener grass. A bed to get eight hours of sleep in. A place to do the 40, and have the rest of life all to yourself. But startup life is not 40 hours a week it's 168 hours a week. It's all the time you are awake, and all the little time you are asleep. It's none stop.

So he told his co-founder, it's time for me to say good-bye! He had had enough stress, lack of sleep, loss of family and friend get together's, etc..he was done!

Now I don't fault him at all.
I understand all that. The thing for me is, I never had a great 40 hours a week job. My jobs have always been at the bottom of the working totem poll. My job now is literally wiping ass. Oh yeah, I love my job at the hospital taking care of patients. I dearly love them. I give them the best care, and love a person can give. I stroke their heads with my hand and whisper, I love you, when they are dying, even though I don't know them. I tend to their every need, even the ones who are angry, negative and bitter, who yell at me, mistreat me, hit me, spit on me, call me names, yeah even those people. I love them. They are sick, that's why they are in the hospital, so they can be as horrible as they want to be to me, and I give them love, kindness, comfort, passion, and the care they deserve and need. 

Yet there is one thing about that job that makes me love building a startup.
I hated changing diapers on my kids, and now, I wipe the ass of adults! It doesn't bother me, I can do it. But I don't see myself as wiping ass the rest of my life. I think I have greater gift to give to humanity. And yes, if you need ass wiped, I'll wipe it, if you can't do it. But really, I'd like to kick ass now. I'd like give more people the love I have in me for humans. I'd like to make your life better with my startup ideas. 

So that's why I build startups ~ It is a ton of stress, but I always think, it's better then wiping ass.