My Journey
Its been 15 years!
Jan 1st
Today I am celebrating my 15th wedding anniversary to my best friend, the amazing @melissacaddell.
Wow, 15 years has flown by. Fifteen years ago we were in college. I had 9600 baud modem to upload programs for my computer class (and it took forever), a 486DX computer (an upgrade from the Tandy 1000), and a Motorola cell phone with a battery the size of a small shoe. I recorded most of my music off of CD’s to a cassette tape and our social media was watching Star Trek TNG and eating frozen pizza with our friends in our small mobile home with the $200/month rent we could afford in the middle of a sand pit. Some of you reading this have no idea what some of that is, so let me recap with the equivalent in today’s life:
Now we have cable modem, 3 laptops (one the kids share), an iPhone (that I have to pry out of the chubby hands of my game-playing toddler) and a Centro (that is half the size of the batter of our first cell phone). My kids have no idea what a cassette tape is, we talk to all of our college friends via Facebook, and I follow Wil Wheaton, Levar Burton & Brent Spinner (Star Trek TNG) on Twitter. We still like frozen pizza (though a better brand), watch tv when we want to off of our DVR and live in a comfy house in the ‘burbs.
There have been too many technology changes to mention in the last fifteen years. Some technology has actually been useful and improved our quality of life (raise your hand if you love your iPod). But some technology has made our lives much more complicated and/or cluttered (like why won’t The Wyf’s computer remember it has the print driver installed? Without having to be reinstalled for every print job?)
The struggle with how technology can actually be a hindrance to humans has led me to my focus for The SDG Group in 2010. The problem with most technology is that humans have to adapt to it instead of technology adapting to you. Stay tuned for some upcoming websites and software products that will address the human-technology interface problem.
I pray you all have a happy new year and live long prosper this year!
The Geek
© 2010, The Geek. All rights reserved. Click here for the Disclosure Statement
My first few weeks of Entrepreneurship
Dec 1st
It’s been three weeks since I changed my life. For those of you wondering what happens when a former software engineer leaves his job and comes home to start his own business (surrounded by his lovely wife and three charming daughters), here it is: fantastic and frustrating all at the same time.
The Wyf is a writer and works from home, and we just started homeschooling the geeklets. To say we have a full house most of the day is an understatement. The Wyf and I trade off during the day with homeschooling and activities with/for the kids so we can both get some work done The geeklets are pretty good about allowing the ‘off-duty’ parent to work (noise canceling headphones help). However, it does feel that there is not enough time in the day to get everything done that I want. I have come to the conclusion that even if I could work 24hrs every day, I would still not get it all done. Part of the challenge of working from home is that wherever you go, there work is.
The biggest struggle has been setting tasks and deadlines. I have a list of over 100 things that are all important, and probably a list 20-30 business pursuits I would like to tackle… and who am I to boss myself around. It’s hard enough for me to keep track of all these tasks, much less prioritize them. When I was an employee, someone else was in charge of the overall big picture and I just worked away at my smaller picture, my tasks defined by what was due next on the calendar that I didn’t set. As the business owner, my ability to prioritize will define whether or not I can make the mortgage payment in a few months. I am working with 15 years of employee skills, but my entrepreneur skills are improving every day. Now if I can just make enough to live on… :0).
I like to use the goal planning techniques of another fellow entrepreneur and dad, David Cheong . I also get great information from a fellow blogger and dad David Risley.
After three weeks I have to say I can’t imagine going back to a job. Our family loves being together. With both of us working from home now we have a great deal more flexibility. I have been able to spend more time with my beautiful bride and the geeklets–more then I have been able to in a long, long time. Such fantastic conversations and memories already. I am glad I made the decision to do this now and not when the kids were all grown up.
The future looks bright even if the in-between details seem unsure. Providence has been upon us from the beginning of this journey, so I am continuing my leap of faith. Now it’s time to just run.
For more about my journey of starting my own business click here.
The Geek
Solio Deo Gloria (The SDG Group Inc)
© 2009, The Geek. All rights reserved. Click here for the Disclosure Statement
I Quit!
Oct 27th
Voulentary Layoff Letter and Incorporation letter
In 10 days, I will be unemployed and (more to the heart of the matter) unemployable.
After almost 15 years in the defense industry as an engineer, I am finally following my dream and quitting my job to start my own business.
I have been talking about doing it for years—since college, really. There just never seemed to be a good time to quit a secure job and launch into the unknown of starting my own business. Ten years ago probably would have been a better time, but now is better then 10 years from now. I finally came to the conclusion that there will never be a “good” time to quit, so with a lot of prayer and prodding I have taken the plunge.
There wasn’t any one moment I can point to that finally pushed me over the edge. But in addition to a growing sense of almost physical discomfort that I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to be doing, there were a lot of small moments. Like realizing that my girls were growing up faster then I could have ever imagined, and I was missing it being at work 10 or more hours a day. That I married my wife, not my job, and I sure spent a lot more time at work then I did with her. Realizing as I climbed up the corporate ladder that the more I gave and the sacrifices that I made only ensured that I would be asked to give more and sacrifice more and that the cost to benefit ratio was not turning out in my favor.
My last day of work is Nov 6th. Leaving work is bittersweet. I have a great job (as far as jobs go), with great people doing things that are fulfilling as well as critical to the defense of our country. But I think it is time to serve my country in a different way by being an entrepreneur.
I am very excited and a little nervous too, but I am off and running. I have filed my tax info and incorporated my business and started preparing some of my plans.
I plan to keep updates on my endeavors on my website so keep checking in to get more info if you are interested.
The SDG Group Inc. (Soli Deo Gloria)
© 2009, The Geek. All rights reserved. Click here for the Disclosure Statement
