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After some reflection I will be starting a new company at the beginning of the year. This is regardless of whether or not I do anything else. I am going to create a more localized company here in Nashville and adopt some new strategies I’ve been working on for the past couple months. I will go in to more detail in a later post but I’m looking forward to a fresh start with a new company. It’s very likely I won’t be taking on a business partner this time. Instead I’m going to work on strategic partnerships for specific parts of the business.

It’s funny to be called a "Serial Entrepenuer" as I didn’t really see myself that way but I guess the label applies well. I do start a lot of businesses and if they don’t work I’m quick to learn from them and move on. But much of my history as an entrepenuer was as a sole proprietorship and just in the past 3 1/2 years have I been dealing on more of a corporate scale and managing larger teams. I like to fail small, learn quickly, adapt and apply that wisdom. I tend to be an extremely good architect and thinker but need people around me to continue to force me to continue action in my chosen direction. Luckily, I have friends and family who are very supportive and I’m thinking with this new company I won’t need to draw on the strength of a partner to balance out my personal flaws. Plus, over the past year or so I’ve worked hard at balancing my idiosyncrasies in a way that will benefit me in the long run.

I still love the "Cogwise" brand and discussed it with my former partner that my new company will buy the branding from the old company along with any other materials that the company owned. So, I hope to continue to build on the success of the Cogwise brand and counter the small flaws and lower the high overhead that were a part of the old Cogwise company. The new company will be called "Cogwise Solutions". This is a more inclusive brand based on the fact that we will offer consulting services, marketing services as well as software development services. Further, we will still be able to take advantage of some of the relationships we have built with the previous Cogwise company.

I’m working on building some new strategic partnerships to strengthen the brand and to repair issues that were a part of the old company. This will be a huge challenge but I’m looking forward to facing it in the coming year! Also, I want to continue to build on our internal software projects. I need to put all the advice I’ve received to good use and this move is a measured reaction to the advice that I’ve received.

This doesn’t mean I won’t be considering other routes or combining the other opportunities that have been preseneted to me with this current move. It means this is my decided direction and my other decisions will be based off of what helps me maintain and strengthen the long term viability of the brand.

This past year has been one of my best years and one of my worst years. It was filled with wealth, pain, loss, beauty, awakening, renewal, discovery and several minor strokes of genius. My company at a turning point because I’m looking for a new partner and re-organizing the company under a new structure. I’m also considering other options such as working for someone for a year or so. There is still a lot of baggage from my old company but I’m working to clean things up and lighten the load. I want a much more agile and responsible company out of the dust of this re-organization. I’m building something that reflects the point I am at in my life. Even if I do decide to take a break to work for someone I would still build this new company as I can’t help but be an entrepreneur. I can be extremely useful as an employee when properly motivated and when I have a stake in the success of a company. But working for a company that I don’t have stake in was something I said I would never do again. So, I’m having to reconcile that definitive statement I made several years ago with who I am today and where I want to be. Will I do something that I normally wouldn’t do because the circumstances of my life have changed? Well, if I can keep some of my freedom and retain my individualism then maybe I could work for someone for a brief period of time. Of course, I’m making moves in a lot of different directions to protect my interests and make sure I have plenty of opportunity.

As always, my next big move in my career and life will be based on what will make me grow the most as a person and help me fulfill my obligations as a father and a man. This defines most of my choices. I always work to move with life and hold my expectations to a minimum but keep my goals high. I did set my goals for the coming year and wrote them down so I have some targets for my life. So, whatever is going to bring me closer to my goals I will do. Through the achievement of my goals I will grow and fullfill my obligations. 

I am blessed and grateful to be where I am at in my life and I’ve worked extremely hard to get this far mostly unscathed. I hope that with my next big moves in my personal life and my professional life I can manage to build on who I’ve become and come to the end of next year in much better position than I already am.

Dating is an interesting ride. I didn’t really ‘date’ all that much when I was younger. Dating, truly, feels awkward and invented - even & especially with someone you really like. When I was younger I knew people for a bit and then they would become my girlfriend. I mean, I did go out with people on dates but not like a bunch of dates. So, it feels strange to do so. I do like dating but it’s not my favorite thing in the world. Further, I tend to have very good luck at some things. When I selected the house that I currently moved in to it was the first house I checked out and it was perfect; everything I needed in a home. Many times I was out looking for the right woman and just as easily one of the first ones I meet is the one I like the most and the right woman for that period of my life. So, it seems I attract the right things in my life for the right situation and I don’t really question things if it feels right. So, I was dating a couple people. I can date no more than two people at a time because I’m busy and I just would rather not split my focus and energy up so much. After several ‘interviews’ I found that one of them was not very intellectually or emotional stable and decided not to pursue her only to talk to another - which wasn’t going to work out for complex reasons I don’t care to get in to, so we had to part ways. Now, I’m left with one that I’m currently seeing regularly and she’s very interesting. So, interesting that I haven’t decided to -actively- look for another to fill my ‘second slot’.

I found that through dating her I question some of my long held values as I put on the chase for this woman. I can’t go in to what values I’m questioning but let’s just say they seemed right when I set them up but now that I’m older and actually question them they fall down in the face of scrutiny. I would assume this is good. My goal is one of constant self-reflection, self-improvement and to find out that my values are less mature than I personally am at this stage in life means I get to change them. There are certain things that were important to me in previous relationships that seemingly are far less important now. It’s funny how you set up standards for yourself and repeat them brainlessly until the right person poses the simple question, "why?".

I’ve been told I’m in no state to select someone to be with because of my recent breakup, my business restructure and blah, blah, blah! But, I apply my own rules to life and if something feels like the right thing to do you should do it unless it hurts someone else. I enjoy a good pursuit and it gives me energy to work, live and be a better man (when it’s a good woman). I have lots of challenges in my life because I work on a lot of things at one time. So, I thrive on challenges and I alluded to this in a previous post a few days ago.

My best advice to anybody going through something like this is to keep looking but keep an open heart and an open mind. Don’t let your past control your future as you don’t have to be defined by your past relationships but defined in spite and because of what you learned about yourself through them. Find someone you can learn, grow with and build something that makes you both better than you could be by yourselves. Listen to those closest to you and don’t turn down their advice but remember it, even if you don’t agree.

With wit sharp as words can weave.

Your beauty is something to behold & believe.

Concise and elegant in expression and word.

Honesty and seductiveness such limits unheard.

Depth behind those eyes of brazen pride.

Many men inimidated to journey but I am well supplied.

We can hold sensual intellectual conference till any night is through.

I’ll come well equipped for any combo of mind, body, spirit you wanna do.

I’ll leave you unwrapped and physically deepend so you can get your best.

If my evidence and vocab are underwhelming put me to any form of test.

God must have made you out of godess Aphrodite image supreme.

Just out of my reach so I could ambition to collect on the challenge of a dream.

When the light of your mind’s eye catches on memory of me in your immagination;

Remember who I am, my embers glow for thought of you - my passion’s sensation.