Between the years 2014 to 2020, I was heavily active on this website. I posted regularly and it consumed a significant amount of my time and attention.

The topics I wrote about were extremely random. I wrote about politics, sports, word games, music, family life, spiritual issues and even art. I even threw in some fiction and off-beat satire. The only thing these topics had in common is that I was interested in them. Other than that, there’s no reason for them to have been on one website. The pinnacle of this randomness was the review I wrote of a cinnamon danish I bought from a vending machine.

From the beginning, I knew this randomness was not ideal for a blog. On the contrary, it’s better to stay on a specific niche or topic and establish yourself as an expert on that topic.

But I did the opposite and I knew I was doing it. I was all over the place. And I didn’t really care. I enjoyed the writing and the interactions that came from it. It was all good and fun. That is…until my time became extremely limited…to the point where there was no time at all for random writing. Gradually, my posts became more infrequent and I eventually shut it all down. My last post was more than three years ago.

Writing to Woodworking

One of the last articles I posted was about the woodworking business I had created. That business, in addition to my family and full-time job, were the main reasons why I had so little time.

But I was happy to make that trade. I never made any money from writing. Woodworking, on the other hand, was putting real money in my pocket. With minimal marketing effort, I gradually got to the point where I could be as busy as I wanted to be. I could fully occupy my available time with orders that earned me a respectable hourly rate.

The income wasn’t enough to justify leaving my day job. It still isn’t. I’ll elaborate on this in future posts. Nonetheless, the orders and the revenue served my interests quite well. They enabled me to…

• bring in extra income to pay bills (super helpful during hyper inflation)
• acquire new and better tools
• improve and evolve my products, designs and catalog
• establish a successful online profile and reputation
• create a long list of clients who now trust me and my work

Those are some modest yet tangible achievements. I’m proud of them. But the thing I’m most excited about – more so than anything listed above – is the knowledge and experience I gained while doing it all. It’s far more valuable to me than all the money I made in exchange for doing the work.

My plan is to continue full-steam-ahead with this knowledge to advance my woodworking business and also create more businesses. This effort is not the “big new endeavor” I’m referring to in the title of this post. But rather, it refers to my attempt to document my execution of this plan. I’d like to transparently demonstrate what I’m doing and how I’m doing it while articulating the thoughts that lead to my actions.

Documenting the Journey

All that to say…I’ll be posting regularly on this website again. But not with the random aimlessness with which I always posted before. No more satirical commentaries or silly fiction (although those were so much fun!). Instead, I will hone in and focus on my entrepreneurial efforts

This is the right time to mention that I don’t consider myself an expert on these topics, nor will I present myself as one. Of course, I certainly know more about this stuff than those who aren’t doing it at all. To them, I may appear to be an expert. And there may be some entrepreneurs out there who are at different stages of the journey. Maybe they’re just getting started or they don’t know how to start. Something I post here may help them along their way.

I don’t want to falsely imply that I’m doing this with purely altruistic motives. Obviously, I do hope that others get something out of this content. But I must honestly acknowledge that I also need to gain something from it. What will I gain from the time and energy I set aside to share my thoughts here? Whether that means clients, orders or subscribers…I don’t know. But it must provide me with some kind of return…otherwise I just can’t afford to do it. But I’ll figure that out later.

What’s clear to me now, as it always has been, is that I need to chronicle this effort in one way or another. I have to get these thoughts and actions on paper or on a screen … even if I don’t share it with anyone. That’s just the way I’m wired. Writing organizes everything in my mind and it helps me to align my efforts with my priorities.

Pivoting to the Goal

As for those priorities, they’re all aimed at one set of goals; build successful businesses, create wealth and make a significant impact in the lives of those who join me in this journey.

There’s obviously so much to learn from those who have already succeeded, from those who already walked this path and achieved these goals. But I would suggest there’s an entirely separate value in watching someone who’s still on the path … someone who’s still trying to make it.

I recently read a biography about Elon Musk. And yeah…it was super interesting. It tells you everything he did and how he got to where he is today, great. But it’s all written from the present-day perspective in which you and I and everyone else knows who Musk is and what he’s done. How interesting would it have been to read Musk’s personal blog from 1995 to 2005 and then see him rise over time to where he is today? I’m not sure if he wrote journals or chronicled any of those years but what a treasure they would be if he did.

I miss writing. I spent the last three years building my products and selling them…hundreds of them. I wrote very little about it. Aside from my wife, hardly anyone knew what I was doing or what I was aiming for. At times, not even I was aware of what I was aiming for. I was just doing it. And I could very well spend the next three years doing the same thing.

In the last year, however, I came to the realization that something has to change in a big way. My present routine won’t get me to where I need to be. I have a corporate job from 8 to 5 (which I like). I have a family (I like them too). And as I mentioned, I also have the woodworking business on the side for which I’m very grateful. It’s all good…I’m very blessed.

But the current outlay of my time won’t get me to my above-mentioned goals. A drastic change is in the works. I’m not ready to reveal it all now. But if you’re interested in what’s next, that’s a good reason to occasionally check in here and follow along.

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