Will Bridges

So, I'm headed to Front Royal, VA today. Just an hour southwest of Washington DC. That's my home town. I'm really not interested in going except the fact my son's birthday is Tuesday and we are throwing him a big party on Sunday for his brithday. I'm also going to do an in-person training session with one of our Employees in Virginia who is a trainee learning Ruby on Rails. I have a couple clients in the area I want to visit as well. So, I have plenty of reasons to make this wonderful 11 hour journey. The worst thing is my air conditioner is leaking so that won't work on the way up there. I hope it stays somewhat cool.

I am looking forward to seeing some old friends. But every time I stay in Virginia for any more than 3 or 4 days I start to lose my mind, get extremely bored and get depressed from my surroundings. My friends that stayed there really are doing mostly the same shit and not really advancing much. Sometimes that's the most difficult thing to see. I always try to convince them to leave when I see them. Try to motivate them to do more. But they rarely can see beyond their little boring town in northern VA. Viva la Front Royal. 

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Many people go through their life figuring out what they can get out of life. But, the saying that you only get what you put in to life is very true. But I would take it even further and say that you must give and feel good about giving in order to receive. If you feel like you always have plenty then you shall always have plenty to draw on. You actually put yourself in a position to give more because you feel so joyous about giving. It creates a circular effect. You give and feel good about giving so you receive more in order to give. Your mind is eventually put in to a position of thinking "I must have a lot or I couldn't give things away" and this puts you in a position of success. 

You may ask then.. "How come greedy people have so much?". They have so much because they don't believe they could have any less. They are ingrained with the thought that wealth flows to them freely and easily. Thus, it does. It's been said if you took the wealth from the top 1% of the world that is the most wealthy and redistributed it to the masses that within a couple years the top 1% that had the wealth would mostly regain it. This is because they think wealthy. They never think from a position of 'not enough' and thus they draw wealth to them and put themselves in a strong position to gain wealth. 

I always believe I have enough and if for some reason the facts don't seem that way I believe enough and plenty are coming to me. Further, I give when I have less than I believe I should and soon enough it comes back to me plus additional resources. I'm happy I got to give and thus I put myself in a position to recieve more. To some degree this takes a leap of faith that most people don't have and that keeps them feeling less than wealthy. I always feel wealthy, even when I have just a few bucks in my personal account because I trust that I have enough and that my real value is not my bank balance but my abilities, my charisma and my content of character. I know that with that I could regain myself from financial disaster or any other perceived disaster that could ever befall me.

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Every CEO and/or Business Owner must have these things to be a success.

• Great Organizational Tools - Nothing makes a person more efficient than the proper tools & software. Anything that helps you remember, cuts back on time spent on mundane tasks, or keeps you in touch with the rest of the world is a great thing. Always be on the lookout for better tools and software because these things give you the ability to adapt to changing circumstances quicker. I don't even mean get the latest gadgets. You could end up spending a lot of money getting the next best gadget. My favorite organizational tools are the cork boards and dry erase board as well as my dry erase calendar. When I'm in my office I'm always a head glance away from my company's status. Don't get stuck in using a tool either… be open to investigating new tools, always.
• Excellent Social Skills - Social skills are very important. You are the face of your business and you must present a face that is inviting and happy to be around others. Business is not about money, talent or hard work. It's about people. You may say… "In my business I don't have to deal with people because we produce Widgets and sell them online"… really? Okay, if you have no vendors which you deal with, no contact with customers and no employees then you can have terrible social skills. In just about all businesses you are one conversation from a better deal with a vendor, an undiscovered talent and a group of new customers. If you don't have people skills and you want to be in business then get out now, develop your people skills or find someone willing to partner with you that has these skills. You must not only have the ability but the desire to deal with people. Every person is a branch to your network and thus a path for possible growth, professionally and personally.
• An Attitude That Exudes Assurance & Positivity -  I am almost certain this is what has kept me in business this long. I'm sure like I'm sure that everything is positive and headed in the right direction. Even when I'm not, very few people know. I'm not saying be ignorant to reality. I'm saying don't sulk, don't worry, don't show weakness or disgust. You almost have to be a zealot about your business to succeed. Speak nothing negative and show nothing negative. If you have a problem approach it in a way to look for a practical path away from your undesired result but do your best to not get emotional about problems. It tends to make them worse. You must have zen like dedication and be as flexible as the water around the rocks. Keep moving. Don't let anything get you down. When you lose your ability to adapt you are lost.
• Wise Advisors - Surround yourself with people who have knowledge, like you and are interested in your well being. Wise advisors cost time, energy and at times money. Be willing to sacrifice for these people. Approach it as a friendship and also a business deal. Friendships are mutually benefitial arrangements to share time, knowledge and resources between people which make each individual in the friendship stronger than they would be on their own. I know it sounds cold when put like that but it's the truth. I'm probably the best friend you'll ever know. Do not ever put a friend out of your life completely if you can help it. Do your best to stay in contact, send cards if you can, send emails… do something. Friends are your best natural resources and will many times be more useful than paid advisors. Plus, your next lead, your next thing that makes your business even better could be from a friend of a friend.
• Knowing The Thinnest Line - I'm a very honest and blunt person. However, there are times in business where giving every bit of information to a customer, an employee or a vendor can be a thing that will get you in to more trouble than it's worth. Lying is a terrible thing… avoid it like the plague. However, choose your words carefully. I tend to not speak in absolutes and always remember the instances in which I do speak in absolutes in order to not tell lies. If you are unsure about something be careful about telling people you are sure. Learn to exude confidence without using certainties. There is a very thin line between a lie and the truth. In the end it's really about what you are comfortable saying and doing but lying will get you in more trouble than it's worth and remember that telling someone you are certain about something and having it not be correct due to unforseen circumstances is as bad as lying in most cases. Good politicians know the line pretty well and understand how thin it is. Keep records and notes about all full or semi-business related conversations if at all possible. Deliver the facts you are sure of, show off the positives and don't declare all of what can be percieved as negative, unless asked. One caveat, sometiems drop a small negative without being asked as it may deter getting in to worse negatives, if they exist. Be genuine, be real, be honest but understand politics even if you don't like politics. You can't avoid it completely.

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About 2 months ago I got a new laptop. A pretty nice one at that. The first thing I did was uninstall Windows Vista and install Ubuntu Linux. I was happy about this because I haven't had such a nice laptop in some time.

Sadly, last week my laptop was stolen out of my car. Someone broke my passenger side window and took the case with laptop inside out of my car and left. You're going to say "Damn Will, why'd you leave the laptop in your car?". Well, I was only 4 rows from the door of circuit city, it was broad day light, I was only gone for 15 minutes and I had the laptop bag on the floor board. I didn't think anyone would notice it. But, someone must have been watching for that. Oh, a special thanks to the Rivergate Circuit City, who has no cameras outside but has 20,000 inside the store. Another special thanks to the Nashville Police Department, who had me waiting for them for 3 and 1/2 hours in one of the hottest Augusts in Nashville's history so I could file a police report. 

So, I actually got the laptop on rent to own through Aarons. I like Aarons… since I have terrible credit. But, also they have really nice things and they don't jack up the price really high. They also charge no interest for the first 90 days. So, if you pay off your stuff in 90 days you don't pay any interest. Great place. But, like I was saying… I was renting to own the laptop from there. They don't have or offer insurance on theft. Great… So, now I will probably have to pay like $1,200 to Aarons for a laptop that someone else has. Though, I did call Aarons corporate office and they said they may be able to lower the cost for me due to the cicumstances. More on that later. If anyone sees someone with a nice, new HP laptop with a 17 inch screen and it's running Ubuntu… punch them in the face and then email me.  

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I'm back. The company just bought a dedicated server and now I have all kinds of space and power for the things I want to do. So, one of the first things I decided to do was to get my blog back online and update the look of it. I'm also going to be putting up a company blog to just blog about company stuff and ruby on rails stuff. Yes, so now I will be blogging as much as I can. Hopefully I'm going to make it part of my daily morning routine. Right after breakfast or right before. I haven't decided. A lot of positive things have happened over the past 4 months and a lot of things are happening now. So, I'll have tons to write about. I know all of you Invisiwill fans out there just couldn't wait to see my blog back up. Yes, yes… I know. So, I'm going to attempt to spread out all the posts in to a few days because if I got started today and just started blogging about everything over the past 4 months and everything that's going on now I'd be blogging till the wee hours of the morning. Anyways, so welcome me back. Talk to you later.

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I’ve been so extremely busy lately I haven’t talked to my good friend, the blog. Sorry to all the people who are interested in my life and ramblings. I just have been very busy.

Anyways, what’s been happening? Derek, the new CTO for Bluepaw Enterprises has been working hard. He is having some difficulty balancing managing and programming. But, since he is new to the position I figured it would take him some adjustment. However, he is doing an excellent job of understanding the business of web development contracting.

My son, Juhlyun is almost 7 months old. He has to be sat up but he can stay sitting once you put him on his butt. So, he’s getting to the point where he can sit on his own, soon. We started him on stage 2 foods, which I thought was pretty cool. I went crazy yesterday and bought like $100 worth of food and such. He’s eating meats, vegetables, and fruits. Some of the food sounds pretty tasty but I haven’t ventured to tasting any of his food yet.

We got a large new contract with a medical transcription software development firm here in Nashville, Base Systems Inc. We will be helping them finish the development of their product over the next 3-6 months. We are pretty excited about it.

I’m going to Atlanta this weekend to celebrate a long time friend’s birthday. That should be very interesting. She rented out a club and Yendis and I got a hotel room right across the street from the club. I’m supposed to be really busy working this weekend but I couldn’t pass up going to her 25th birthday party. She’s actually Yendis’s cousin as well so Yendis really wanted to go too. I haven’t been to Atlanta in a couple years but I always had a pretty good time in Atlanta.

Oh yeah, after months of being in business I think we are finally going to get health insurance at the end of the month. With Derek coming on board we have been able to near completion on several contracts, accepted some new contracts and have a good influx of money coming in. We will be getting the best available because I consider health insurance pretty important.

On another note of finances this month I will finally finish building my computer. This is no average computer. It’s a beast of a computer. I will detail the specs in another post at the end of the month. But, I tell you it’s beautiful. Brings a tear to my eye.

My best friend moved his wedding back to the fall so looks like I won’t be putting together a bachelor party till the end of the year. I was so looking forward to it but it looks like that will give me some more time to save money for it. I want it to be an enormous bash. The kind I want to have when it comes to my bachelor party.

That’s all I have now. I’ll post again next week. I swear. No, for real this time…

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Oh yes. It’s that time of year again. The sound of birds and the smell of freshly blooming flowers. Also, the time where we clean all the crap up we’ve been huddled inside with all winter. I’m finally going to move in to a new house that I’ve been waiting for my land lord to get done with. Further, I just hired on Derek, our new Chief of Technical Operations. Boy, do we have a lot of projects to finish over the next 6 weeks and I still have to fit in time for sleep, eating, and … oh yeah, breathing. But, once we come clear of all these projects that need to be finished yesterday we should be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. That light is the reputation in these projects and the clients we can attract based off that reputation. By myself (before the incorporation) I was in business for 8 years. I earned a great reputation helping people make lots of money and come up with incredible ideas and I also earned a reputation as being late on delivering almost every time.But, I feel with a person to help manage that shortcoming we will be a very successful corporation.

I have to pay some people off for work they have done in the past this month as well so I can go in to spring with a ‘clean house’. But, I have a nice amount of money coming in near the end of the month that should pay those people off and sustain Derek and I as well with some profit left over. So, everyone will get paid. I cleaned up my books and visited an accountant to make sure everything I wanted to do tax-wise was a good idea. She said I knew a lot about it and decided I didn’t need much in the way of her services at this time because I kept so good care of my books.

Let’s see, anything else I need to clean out for spring? Oh yes, now that I have time to focus on the business end of my company I have come up with an incredible plan to quadruple our income by the end of the year. So far the plan has been working pretty well.

Then there is my health. I got back to the gym, finally. This time, my girlfriend comes with me just about every other day. Golds Gym has a daycare in it so we just drop off our son and get to working out together. Now, if only our neighbor would stop bringing over cake and bullshit like that.

Finally, I know this is kiddish but I’m getting a Playstation 2. Yeah, I know I’m a bit late but I play computer games when I get a chance to play any games. So, I never really saw a need. But, it is fun to have around and sometimes you just want to sit in front of the TV and play. I have a 52 inch high def widescreen tv so it’s a waste to not have a game system. I figured it’s only like $100. Then, in about 5 months or so if I use it a lot I will get a Playstation 3. I’ve heard the games are mostly backwards compatible. I just like the fact there are a lot of the games I like already out on PS2 and I don’t feel like spending the $600, yet.

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I don’t want to sound overly religious or self-helpish in this article. But, I must write an article on this very important subject. Many people have a difficult time creating a life they want for themselves and most of the time it is their own fault. Usually people create themselves as victims of circumstance or environment. This is a faulty belief because we all create the circumstances and environment that we live in.

I was told many times when I was younger that I would never amount to anything unless I got a high school diploma. This was very false and I never believed it. I could have listened to these people and never sat on my hands and felt sorry for myself. I was told there was some ceiling on what I could earn or who I could be if I didn’t do certain things. I know this is false. The universe is infinite and there are hundreds of paths to success. At the time I was about 18 I read ‘Conversations With God’ by Neale Donald Walsch. In this book the author has a conversation with god and writes a question, then the answer from god. I know it sounds crazy but it’s a great book. I got to meet Neale a few years back and I believe he was divinely inspired to write the book. It’s hard to get people to read these days though. Especially my generation. Lets fast forward 7 years to now.

My mother has had to listen to me over the years attempting to explain the principals I learned in Conversations With God to her. She saw an Oprah episode about something called The Secret. I was at first a bit skeptical. But, nonetheless I watched the Oprah episode with my girlfriend and the subsequent follow-up. I noticed that it was a condensed version of what I already knew from Conversations With God but put in a different way and in to video format. It tends to be very easy for people to absorb the video format these days. My mother decided to order the video and we have all watched it a couple times. The secret is a a secret to controlling life and the universe that has been held tightly by the most powerful of us for thousands of years. It’s more of a universal truth and this being the information age it was bound to get out and become widespread. It is much like magic when you learn it but you use it you will see magnificent results. I would guarantee it. So, I highly recommend buying it and checking it out. It’s one of the most important decisions you will make in your life.

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So, I went to the Department of Motor Vehicles while I was here in Virginia. It was great… well a great waste of time anyway. They suspended my license by mistake. I was supposed to take a class in Virginia because I had so many tickets before I left but after I paid my fines and reinstatement fee Virginia told me all I needed to do was get my Tennessee license within a certain amount of days and I wouldn’t have any problems. The people at the DMV treated me like I was an liar when I told them this story. I finally convinced them to call the Virginia DMV headquarters and they told them my story was correct and they had mistakenly suspended my license since November of 2005. That’s over a year! And I drive to Virginia all the time. I could have got pulled over at any time and been stuck! I did get pulled over and harassed because I and my car were searched for no apparent reason. Further the police pulled me over because ‘my license plate lights were too dim?’. That’s absurd. Not only that but I couldn’t drive over the New Years holiday so I had to spend it in a local bar doing bullshit. Though I still had a pretty good time. I lost out on work because I couldn’t travel to my client’s office.

I’ve decided I’m going to send the Virginia DMV a bill for the hours of time they wasted and the work lost due to their mistake. I’m going to bill them the same rate as I would bill my clients. I’ll report back what they say when I send the bill. I’m just annoyed with the waste of time and resources they cost me for a mistake that was their own and not mine.

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Okay, so I’m kinda stuck here in Virginia till the 12th of January at least. Why? Because my driving license is suspended in Virginia. That really doesn’t make any sense because I would have never been able to get my Tennessee license if that were the case. I paid over $500 in fines and a reinstatement fee to Virginia when I moved to Tennessee so I could get my Tennessee license. So, now I find out my license is suspended here in Virginia. I could get Yendis to drive but this time I want to make sure in person that I can verify it is not suspended and I can drive in Virginia. I can do my work from here or anywhere so I am no worried about that. I’m just not as comfortable doing my work from here because I don’t have my own office or all of the creature comforts I would have at home. But, I guess I can ‘tough’ it a few days here. I have a couple clients I can make money from while I am here as well. So, it might be to my advantage to be here a few more days that I expected. It’s just annoying because of the fun stuff about the govt.

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