Number of times I moved: 4
Number of companies with which I had a full time job: 4 (incl. my own company)
Amount of time spent away from home (wherever that was): 3 months
Countries Visited: 4 (not counting transits)
Distance Flown: 80,872 mi
Longest Bike Ride: 73 mi
Longest Car Trip: 1,845 mi

Being unsettled created an amazing amount of stress for me in 2007. However, I couldn’t be happier where the year is ending. The bike ride statistic was accomplished yesterday when Ben and I biked from our place in Cambridge to Newport, Rhode Island. Im a little sore, but dancing tonight should loosen me up. See you next year!

We all have in us the potential to be a pessimist, or an optimist. We also have in us the ability to create our ideal future. Those people you know who are successful. It probably seems that everything goes right for them, right? Wrong! Those people have just as many problems as the pessimists. It’s how they deal with them mentally that makes the difference.

But colin, I don’t know if I am an optimist or pessimist!

Personality tests are fun. If you answer honestly, you might get some insight into yourself. Take a look at this Optimism / Pessimism test. You can see how I did by clicking the image on the left. It’s kind of funny in the test that the lower your score, the better. I guess optimists can handle that better than pessimists!

Ok, I could be more optimistic, how can I get there?

This is by no means a comprehensive list… just a few suggestions on what I do:

• Celebrate every small victory – at BetaHouse, it has become a tradition that we take a vodka shot every time we roll out a new release of software. This happens a lot in the Agile Development Method. You don’t have to shoot vodka! But, you should develop your own ritual to celebrate victory.
• Focus on your goals, not what prevents you from reaching them – There will always be a reason why you cant do something. Forget it! You see a mountain in front of you. Your goal is to get to the other side. The optimist thinks “what can I do to achieve that”. The pessimist thinks “I can’t achieve that with what I have”. The optimist then goes to buy a bike to go around, or some climbing gear to go over.
• Do exercise – Set goals for yourself at the gym. When you achieve them, celebrate with a small victory. This is even better if you do it with a buddy who encourages you (thanks Ben!).
• Give out positive vibes – Think about how you can raise others up instead of criticizing them and bringing them down. When is the last time you told someone at work how much you respect their work ethic. Positivity breeds positivity.

Most of the time you can change a day or an outcome based on your state of mind. The tips above help me to tweak my mind on a daily basis to stay on the positive / optimistic track.

How do you stay optimistic in everyday life?

• Brad Pitt, Fight Club
• 300 workout

Unless you want to look like the incredible hulk, the key (as you will see in the previous two workouts is high intensity, high heart rate, lots of exercises and lots of reps. I guarantee that if you do these exercises, your positivity and your ability to focus on your startup will increase ten-fold (or your money back).

The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.
- Bill Gates

Tim talks of how to outsource to a Virtual Assistant:

Never automate something that can be eliminated, and never delegate something that can be automated or streamlined. Otherwise, you waste someone else’s time instead of your own, which now wastes your hard-earned cash.

These are valuable points. In larger businesses and even small businesses in which I’ve worked, “because that’s the way we’ve always done it” is too often the answer to a question.

When starting a new business, get your processes and procedures down before you scale.

Having read your blog article on the topic, I’d suggest against a mediocre job delivering mail or working at a coffee shop.

You might want to consider some type of internship with a startup or other hi-tech company. This won’t pay that much, but should be more interesting.

Thanks for the advice!

Im now working with a seasoned veteran, Greg Gibson as an entrepreneur apprentice. Greg’s latest venture is PrayAbout.com.

What is PrayAbout.com

PrayAbout.com is a community driven, non-denominational site for prayer requests. People of all religions come to submit their prayer requests about that which affects them deeply. What makes the site sticky is candles, a reward for action on the site. You start with none, but invite a friend and you each get 20 when they sign up. When people light candles for your prayer request, you get some of those. When you light candles for someone elses prayer request, you get some of the candles lit after you.

Some of the things Im interested in learning with this position are:

• How google adwords works and how to get great results from online advertising
• How to grow from startup to successful mainstay on the net
• How to do business with angel investors and venture capitalists
• How to stay on task with the things Im working on while holding a part time job

Wish me luck!

(All numbers go to me, so don’t worry where I am in the world)
US: +1-617-379-0726
UK: +44-2071-934-419
Skype: sud0n1m

A sample of my missions at the moment

• Help Pip @ unearthtravel.com get more hits & traction
• Help Tom get more publicity for his band, Headland
• Evangelize elifelist.com for Lee

I know a lot of people across many different industries and countries and I want to help you achieve your goals in life!

• Because of my lack of money, I can’t justify getting in a long term lease which means I have to endure the stress of moving around a lot. (I’m trying to get that fixed by September 1st.)
• Because of my lack of money, Im screwed if something in my house in Houston breaks, and I need to find new tenants!
• Because of my lack of money, Im constantly having to figure out how to move around funds to make sure my bills get paid
• Because of my lack of money, I have to spend time doing less convenient things to avoid spending more.
• Because of my lack of money, Im distracted from doing what I really need to be doing.

I can’t stress to everyone out there enough, that if you decide to bootstrap, pay off everything first… and I mean everything. What you have to realize is that once you leave your job, your cash-flow shrinks to a crawl. When I was working, I was buying things for the company, going on business lunches. My income was somewhere around $4000 a month, but my revolving balance on my credit card was more like $5000 a month on average… I always had a lot of cash coming in and going out which meant that when I had a bill to pay, I more than likely would have that cash. Now, I’ve got 0 (or close to that) coming in every month, so if I get an unexpected bill (like an old $300 dentist bill from 2006 that my insurance didnt pay), it means I have to spend a lot of time figuring out how to move money around to pay it.

You’ll always have old dentist bills and the like creep up on you. I really can’t stress it enough: Don’t try to be clever and move debt to zero percent (for one full year) credit cards like I did, just pay the stuff off before you leave your job. Bootstrap first, then quit.

Lesson learned.

Wakeup Call

Last week, I got a call from a friend of mine to say that our friend Jason in the band “The Hudsons” was hit by a car while crossing the street in Austin. It was a hit-and-run and the driver fled the scene. Jason didn’t have health insurance and is going to have a huge hospital bill. Im sure Jason is just glad that he is alive.

I have not had health insurance for the month of March. I wanted to postpone adding additional expense for as long as possible, but the risk of long term problems from not paying a few hundred a month is too great. Im getting health insurance.

Starting Point

I went to US News and World Report’s Best Health Plans 2006 to find a starting point. According to US News, “Harvard Pilgrim” has the best health plan in the country, and they are based in MA and ME. I called Harvard Pilgrim and they referred me to 3 companies who handle their plan for 10 or fewer employees. I wont name names… but 2 of the 3 were incompetent. The first one, I spoke with the operator about 20 times as she told me to please hold. After a while a gave up on getting a quote. The second company promised me a quote and never got back to me. The third one, I will name because they deserve to be commended. I spoke with Paul Yoffe at Northeast Business Trust. He was professional and knowledgeable. I was very happy. He gave me quotes for four different providers: Fallon (11), Tufts(2), Neighborhood(210), Harvard Pilgrim(1).

A decision to be made

In the process of writing this article, I checked the US News ratings for the four providers above. They are in the parentheses. I was going to say that I will be going with Neighborhood, but in all honesty, I am now nervous. Number 1, Number 2, Number 11 and Number two-hundred-and-ten?

Here’s a table to better diagram what I was looking at:

Most of the plans I looked at were on the lower end of the spectrum. Paul advised me that MA has some of the best health care because the state has a lot of mandated minimums for coverage – such as mental health and in-vitro fertilization. I dont take or will likely need prescriptions at the moment. I can also change to another plan within a month of needing a prescription.

Welcome to the Neighborhood?

Neighborhood is the lowest cost provider. $10 per office visit… max $500 per hospital stay whereas the others have a $2000 deductible. What’s concerning is the rating. Can you analyze healthcare purely quantitatively, or is there something Im ignoring such as quality of care or how difficult it is to make a claim that makes Neighborhood the wrong choice? Part of buying health insurance is protecting yourself against being in a horrible situation in the future. Is Neighborhood another version of Tenet Healthcare (provides poor healthcare and unethical treatment of patients worldwide). All of these questions are troubling. Even with the higher deductibles on in-hospital care, Im going with Harvard Pilgrim. It’s about the same price, and I know that if I do get sick, I will have access to the number 1 health care in the country.

Im glad I wrote this. My opinion on what to do has changed in the process!

1. Write letter
2. Buy FedEx label
3. Walk to bank & get certified check
4. Walk to Print shop and print letter and label
5. Walk to FedEx to acquire envelope and mail documents

This process was time consuming and required expending a lot of mental energy prior to leaving my house to make sure I had everything in order. So, after having to go through a similar process twice and being frustrated with it, it was time to get a printer. Initially, I didnt want to because so many print shops are within a 5 minute walk. However, this is a penny-wise pound-foolish attitude. They are all not as close as in my office. Not being able to print on demand (directions, forms, documents for review) directly affects stress.

So, I decided to buy an inexpensive multi-function printer for around $80. I expect the printer to last up until we have a physical office and buy a proper office printer.

The key here, is that when you start something new, it is good to watch your cash and spend wisely – but not to the point where you can’t get your job done. In the long run, to get my $80 worth, I need to print 200 pages. I will do this easily.

Stress is a dangerous thing. Not only does it affect your mental state, but it affects your physical state too. Under stress, my body produces excessive amounts of stomach acid and I experience severe indigestion. The whole experience is quite uncomfortable. When I have it for a prolonged period, I start to realize I am stressed and then it gets worse! This reaction to stress is ridiculous and unproductive. For me, managing stress is essential for physical and mental health.

If it were easy and comfortable to be entrepreneurial, many more would do it. It is not easy and it is not comfortable. The stresses, however, can be overcome.

The root cause of my stress is FUD – fear, uncertainty and doubt. For example:
I fear that I will fail.
Im uncertain if I will be able to pay my mortgage in 6 months.
I have doubts about my own abilities.

Every single one of those notions is utter nonsense. Naysayers around you seed your mind with these thoughts. Don’t listen to them! Others criticisms of you are rooted in jealousy and lack of confidence. They contradict what you know to be true:

“I will be successful. I will achieve my goals. I will meet and exceed my expectations�

This doesnt mean to say that you overcome stresses purely with your mind. Taking action to deal with stress is a large part of it. There are several things that I did to lower my sources of stress and enable me to focus on my startup.

1. I transferred in excess of my credit card balance to a 0% interest card for 12 months. This allows me to leave my cash reserves as is in case of a serious emergency. Moving has been expensive. It cost me more than $3000 to move to Boston. These are expenses that I hate paying, but they are necessary and you need to bite the bullet and do things correctly.
2. Not rushing into a new lease / mortgage (if you’re moving). If you’ve laid the groundwork, you already have a large network of friends around the country. I am subletting one of my friend’s apartment while he is in India on a consulting gig. That gives me 3 months to look for the “rightâ€? place to live for the next year.
3. Find people you trust and offload responsibilities to them. I am starting two companies at the same time! My “Top Startupâ€? and my real estate company (at the moment, there is just one property). In order to rent my Texas house out, I needed to find a property manager, a carpeting guy, insurance, paint, tenants etc… For the property manager, I went with my friend and Real-Estate agent, Nelson. I trust him and he is great at what he does. He’s not yet experienced in property management, but I know he will do right by me. For carpeting, I went with a company that is about 5 minutes away from my property where I liked the way the guy explained different carpet qualities and advised me to get the cheapest carpet for my rental. They were less expensive and more knowledgeable than Home Depot. I used the same insurance company I used for my homeowners insurance and they got me a rate that was comparable. For paint, I went to the closest place – Sherwin-Williams, also 5 minutes away. Tenants, I used craigslist. This saved me money (no fees) and it is a great way to find people to fill your place. By going with people and companies I am familiar with, I am able to get things done in half the time. It may not be bottom dollar, but how much is your time and energy worth? I will take this same mentality to our company. There is a point of diminishing returns with each incrementally “betterâ€? deal you find.

In addition to clever ways to reduce stress and increase productivity, there is also a larger idea that I know will help:

Your thoughts influence what happens to you.

This may be a tough one to swallow. The basic premise is that people who think bad things will happen to them HAVE bad things happen to them. People who think good things will happen to them HAVE good things happen to them. I have had a strong belief in the power of positive thinking for a while and I recently had this reaffirmed in the movie “The Secretâ€?. As a side note. I am writing this from First Class aboard a continental airlines flight. I didnt pay for first class, I was upgraded. Why was I upgraded over everyone else on the flight? It’s probably a combination of my frequent flyer status, the fact that I checked in online for my flight and the fact that I want to sit in first class and I believe I deserve the things I want.

I also believe I will be successful. I believe that my team will build a successful company and make my investors and my partners very wealthy. I know these things will happen because I believe them to be true. That statement will sound strange to the large number of skeptics in the world. It is true. It will happen. Keep watching this space to find out how.