Posts here have waned lately, and some have wondered what could possibly have eclipsed my obsession with pool, and why. Well, here's the story, starting with a little background...
There was a time, long ago, 1983, that I was quite poor. Bankrupt, in fact, the result of a business adventure that went poorly. At that time I started on the long road back to building financial independence. Of course, during the following 10 years there was no pool, no Frisbee, no real fun whatsoever; just total focus on recovering from destitute conditions, and on being a responsible member of society, paying my bills, and hopefully building a nest egg for my retirement.
It went well, and in '92 I was able to leave the world of business behind and basically go play and make up for all that I missed. I might have overdone it, what with the airplanes and Ferraris and fantasy homes. I'm like that, I have discovered; I tend toward excess. Sometimes that's a great thing. When it comes to spending money, I can hang with the best of them. But I'm getting better at being a fiscal conservative. Poverty is a good teacher.
The years since between 1992 - 2000 were filled with what could be called conspicuous consumption, and I gave a lot away to various good causes. Around 2000 I started to slow it down, and live a more conservative lifestyle.
About 2 years ago the thought occurred to me to do a spreadsheet to analyze how much longer my dwindling nest egg might last; just out of curiosity. The short answer is that there is a distinct possibility that I may outlive my resources. The good news being that I would die before the resources did, if you can call that good news. The bad news is that I could live long enough to be poor again.
The spreadsheet showed me that there was no great urgency, but it also showed me that I needed a plan of action that would resolve the issue.
Based on this analysis, it seemed that spending a lot of time on pool practice would be akin to Nero fiddling while Rome burned. I needed to get back to "Taking Care of Business".
Recently I went back to school. UCSD is only a couple of miles away. I'm taking a course called "New Business Ventures and the Entrepreneur". It's a subject I know a lot about already, having started several businesses from scratch, but I wanted to learn what they are teaching nowadays. And the best part is that it is being taught by a couple of Venture Capitalists. VCs are the guys with the money to help entrepreneurs start businesses. All my businesses have been started without VC money, but I'm thinking it might be easier/faster with VC help.
And I've been reading voraciously, everything about new technologies (my favorite business), VC blogs and books and videos. I've even been getting out in public, attending networking meetings, seminars, and reconnecting with business contacts from long ago. My inner hermit is giving way to my outer extrovert.
My business blog "The Art and Science of Success in Business" has transformed from intermittent to a much more frequent and focused endeavor and a growing resource for entrepreneurs.
Mentoring entrepreneurs has been a pastime for many years, but over the last two years it has taken on growing importance to me. And, it seems that being more involved in helping others with their businesses has increased my interest in getting back into a business of my own.
Over the last year I finished a couple of book projects. The story of my tour of Europe in an open-cockpit biplane in the summer of '97 is now available on Amazon.com (see http://AirMikie.com for more information). Another writing project was the republishing of my trademark poster "The Ten Commandments of Managing a Young, Growing Business" into a Pocket Guide for Entrepreneurs (see http://ArtSciBiz.com) for more information.
I even transitioned out of super-fast cars and traded the Corvette roadster for something much more practical, heck it even has two usable back seats (but still only 2 doors, of course!). See my car blog "A Man and His Car".
FastMikie is becoming BizMikie, again. Just as it was when I left my pool playing days in college in 1964, and entered the world of computers with IBM. The more things change, the more they stay the same!
I still shoot a little bit, but as you know, without a lot of focused practice, the fine edge wears down a bit. That is unfortunate, but I gotta be taking care of business, for now.
If I play this right, I should be able to add a zero to my nest egg and get back to shooting some sweet pool again in a couple of years. Wish me luck, and watch this space for news as it develops...
(top)
There was a time, long ago, 1983, that I was quite poor. Bankrupt, in fact, the result of a business adventure that went poorly. At that time I started on the long road back to building financial independence. Of course, during the following 10 years there was no pool, no Frisbee, no real fun whatsoever; just total focus on recovering from destitute conditions, and on being a responsible member of society, paying my bills, and hopefully building a nest egg for my retirement.
It went well, and in '92 I was able to leave the world of business behind and basically go play and make up for all that I missed. I might have overdone it, what with the airplanes and Ferraris and fantasy homes. I'm like that, I have discovered; I tend toward excess. Sometimes that's a great thing. When it comes to spending money, I can hang with the best of them. But I'm getting better at being a fiscal conservative. Poverty is a good teacher.
The years since between 1992 - 2000 were filled with what could be called conspicuous consumption, and I gave a lot away to various good causes. Around 2000 I started to slow it down, and live a more conservative lifestyle.
About 2 years ago the thought occurred to me to do a spreadsheet to analyze how much longer my dwindling nest egg might last; just out of curiosity. The short answer is that there is a distinct possibility that I may outlive my resources. The good news being that I would die before the resources did, if you can call that good news. The bad news is that I could live long enough to be poor again.
The spreadsheet showed me that there was no great urgency, but it also showed me that I needed a plan of action that would resolve the issue.
Based on this analysis, it seemed that spending a lot of time on pool practice would be akin to Nero fiddling while Rome burned. I needed to get back to "Taking Care of Business".
Recently I went back to school. UCSD is only a couple of miles away. I'm taking a course called "New Business Ventures and the Entrepreneur". It's a subject I know a lot about already, having started several businesses from scratch, but I wanted to learn what they are teaching nowadays. And the best part is that it is being taught by a couple of Venture Capitalists. VCs are the guys with the money to help entrepreneurs start businesses. All my businesses have been started without VC money, but I'm thinking it might be easier/faster with VC help.
And I've been reading voraciously, everything about new technologies (my favorite business), VC blogs and books and videos. I've even been getting out in public, attending networking meetings, seminars, and reconnecting with business contacts from long ago. My inner hermit is giving way to my outer extrovert.
My business blog "The Art and Science of Success in Business" has transformed from intermittent to a much more frequent and focused endeavor and a growing resource for entrepreneurs.
Mentoring entrepreneurs has been a pastime for many years, but over the last two years it has taken on growing importance to me. And, it seems that being more involved in helping others with their businesses has increased my interest in getting back into a business of my own.
Over the last year I finished a couple of book projects. The story of my tour of Europe in an open-cockpit biplane in the summer of '97 is now available on Amazon.com (see http://AirMikie.com for more information). Another writing project was the republishing of my trademark poster "The Ten Commandments of Managing a Young, Growing Business" into a Pocket Guide for Entrepreneurs (see http://ArtSciBiz.com) for more information.
I even transitioned out of super-fast cars and traded the Corvette roadster for something much more practical, heck it even has two usable back seats (but still only 2 doors, of course!). See my car blog "A Man and His Car".
FastMikie is becoming BizMikie, again. Just as it was when I left my pool playing days in college in 1964, and entered the world of computers with IBM. The more things change, the more they stay the same!
I still shoot a little bit, but as you know, without a lot of focused practice, the fine edge wears down a bit. That is unfortunate, but I gotta be taking care of business, for now.
If I play this right, I should be able to add a zero to my nest egg and get back to shooting some sweet pool again in a couple of years. Wish me luck, and watch this space for news as it develops...
(top)
1 comment:
Great to read your success story Mikie. Great.
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