Are Art and Business incompatible? October 23, 2009
Posted by Rio in : Money, Rio , add a commentArt and business are usually viewed as incompatible. I don’t think that having good business sense somehow devalues you as an artist. On the contrary, the most successful artists know how to market themselves. They know that people won’t come to you just because you built a better mousetrap. And they know that money is a pretty useful tool in getting you where you want to be. It’s like time. Time is gold for me right now.
Just being poor doesn’t make you authentic. And it certainly doesn’t make you a better (or more successful) artist.
Money is a tool like any other. It’s leverage. And you can use it to create the life you want to create. For me, it’s a means to a much more creative end. Art and business are both self-expression (self-promotion, I mean), and I’d rather be an artist who’s financially secure enough to work on the things he wants to work on. Some of the most authentic people I know are the ones that are financially independent. They don’t have to prove themselves to anyone. Rejection isn’t the end of the world because they don’t have to worry about their next meal. They have that air of comfort and confidence about them. They’re not endlessly worried about making other people happy. When you don’t worry about other people’s judgement, you’re free to be who you want to be.
In other words, being self-funded is awesome.
I officially received, then rejected, “funding”! October 22, 2009
Posted by Mike in : Funding, Mike , add a commentOn the 5th of October I signed the official papers to be part of the great state of Michigan’s golden child to help keep entrepreneurship strong in this state. They call this organization “SPARK“. Thee weeks later I fired them.
Who is SPARK? SPARK is intended as a way to ignite entrepreneurship in Michigan before Michigan bellies up and sinks into the great lakes. SPARK is backed by local home owner taxes and state funding. The basic concept is: They pay for local people to provide you services, like business plans, lawyers, etc., up to $25k.
They do not pay for something that is actually worthwhile, like computer programmers or paying the fee so that I can get trained on how to fill out SBIR grants that would bring in real funding.
Even though I just signed the “you now have funding” papers, I was accepted a long time ago. I started having problems when I could not get them to return phone calls about an item in my final papers. My contract stated I was required to take a “boot camp” class that costs $1,000. I went “WHAAT???”. This was supposed to be free! To me that’s an entrance fee. I tried for two weeks to get a simple yes or no answer on if I had to pay for the bootcamp, or could I substitute it (they originally said no). It was only when I wrote the “big” boss that they replied….”uh..yea, I guess you don’t have to pay that now…uh…maybe…”. And when I stopped by with the contract (I had an appointment) the building was locked up tight…twice in the same day! They went “Oops, sorry, we stepped out, what are the odds..haha”.
When people flip-flop that much and are that sloppy, your radar should go up, it might just be a scam. As my dad says, if it smells like a skunk and looks like a skunk, it might just be a skunk.
It also becomes a little discouraging when you’re eating Ramen Noodles and the “professionals” they suggest advise you on your business without knowing anything about it or your industry, get paid $100 to $200 per hour, and are long time friends of the people who picked them as your advisor. Do I hear nepotism?
Sometimes it’s best to cut bait and move on to better pastures. Time is the true gold and when you see yourself wasting it (and $1,000 apparently) it’s time to move on. I guess I’m insane since I’m the only one out of 70 companies to let them go. I’m sure those 70 companies will become Fortune 500 companies very soon.
So here is my letter to SPARK:
Subject: DatMap Corp asks if you ever saw Trump’s Apprentice
From: Mike Mack
Date: Sun, Oct 11, 2009 at 12:11 PM
Dear Sean,
I am respectfully firing SPARK.
No work has been performed, and as our contract states, once work begins, which I’m guessing will be 2011, I would have to repay it. That means I owe SPARK nothing.
I expect an official letter of cancellation effective immediately. Please mail to: DatMap Corp, (…) Ann Arbor, MI.
Why you may ask?…glad you did.
I have never met a more inept group of people in my life. The mere act of getting a simple YES or NO takes weeks. And the contradictions are ridiculous. If SPARK’S inabilities are any gauge of the skillsets available from the consultants they use, then my company will suffer. The only people I see benefiting from the “services” supplied are the out of work friends they hired. I wonder what the taxpayers and Gandholm would say if they knew there was an entrance fee called “BootCamp” for $1,000. How many brilliant ideas get excluded due to that one fact alone. And who pockets that.
And who is SPARK’s attorney. I thought Bozo died. One does not make people sign a contract to get legal services when they do not have the funds to pay for a lawyer to get that contract reviewed…LAWYERING 101.
I hope I offended everyone. As Grouch Marx could have said: “Please accept your firing. I don’t care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members”…so true Groucho…so true.
P.S. If any of SPARK’s “buddies” happen to pop-up with my ideas on their roster, I’ll sue SPARK like dragons from hell…have a nice day.
Mike, one pissed off entrepreneur.
Why don’t we just get a job and shut up? October 20, 2009
Posted by Mike in : About, Entrepreneurship, Mike, Money, Opportunities , add a commentSince the economy tanked in Michigan, all the talent have taken their pink slips, packed up thier goods, and headed for the coasts. I’m guessing they figure if your going to be broke you might as well have an ocean and a viable city to be it in. Especially in the post Auto-Bust era the suburbs of Detroit have suffered through. Even I, in a panic, took a job at the University of Michigan as a temp. $18/hour. No bennies. No health. Cinder block walls, buzzing computers and four guys in a 12×12 cube they called the Bull Pen.
Definition of “Bull Pen”:
“A temporary holding area for prisoners, as in a courthouse.”
And oh yes…it was. The only sounds were the breathing of the other guys, and occasionally the breath of your “boss” over your shoulder as he is looking at what you’re doing and you jump out of your boots going “Jesus! Announce yourself. You almost gave me a stroke!”. That doesn’t go over well by the way.
The only advantage of a job is if you work for 2 quarters and accumulate enough paid time in total to make 1.5 times your highest month’s pay…which I did by 200 dollars…you can collect unemployment when they fire you. Which they did. Thank you. The lesson there was a “full time” job means you won’t have any time to do anything else. As my dad always said: “When you’re working for someone else, you’re just working for someone else”. All the promises in the world, or the hopes based on someone else’s whims or the strength of the market mean nothing. My sister worked for GM for 25 years, they let her go in 15 minutes with a pocket sized kleenex (which they asked for back if she didn’t need them) and that was it. No pension. No retirement. So tell me there is security in anything, even life. You take life and make life.
Getting a job? No. We have reduced all expenses to bare minimum. Survival living. Time is the gold, not money. Living lean means eating healthier, working out, sleeping when needed versus in your cube having to explain its your lunch hour and wanting to say go fuck off instead. I picked Fuck off.
Are Entrepreneurs Made or Born? October 19, 2009
Posted by Rio in : Entrepreneurship, People, Productivity, Rio , 1 comment so farI just read an article in The Economist that suggests that entrepreneurs are made, not born. The article claims that the modern mba is good for only one thing: networking.
The world’s a different place than when Richard Branson first started selling records out of the back of his car, and the internet is a large part of that. But when it comes down to it, you still need people to help you get where you want to go. I tried for a year to get my photography website up, sitting there trying to learn html like some OCD-addled idiot, and not getting anywhere. Then I met mike and he cranked out my website in 3 days. We sat next to each other passing ideas back and forth and somehow it always ended up being 5 am when we were at our creative best.
We had fun, most of all. And those are the kind of connections you need. That’s the networking that’s important to me: finding someone to work with who brings out the humor, the fun, and the daring in you. I’m talking about those people you can talk to and get excited with, about ideas and more. They just make you feel right. Mike is passionate and raw (loud and blunt, most people would say). He’s emotional and can infect you with his energy. Combining our strengths, we get stuff done. And it feels good to be working on stuff that you’re excited about.
Sometimes it’s hard to connect with people. Maybe it’s the culture, that coffee shop, your mood. But sometimes there are those that just draw you to them, they have that energy that leaves some left over for you. The Economist article goes on to mention that the mba today is teaching people how to harness the innovative resources that should be present in every thriving business. That means “creating an environment which encourages new ideas and approaches“. Right now, for me, that means meeting and connecting and creating with as many interesting people as I can find.
Problem is, most encounters leave me frustrated. Most people disappoint when you take a closer look. They’re only healthy in small doses. They’re all fire and color when they pass you at 50 mph but then when you chase them down, question them, try to dig deeper, there seems to be nothing there. They laugh and take swipes at those who put their heart out there and really push themselves by not being afraid to question and make fools of themselves.
Where the Wild Things Are October 17, 2009
Posted by Rio in : Motivation, People, Rio , add a commentThere’s a reason why every kid loves “Where the Wild Things Are”. Sometimes you just snap and wonder if you’re doing it all wrong, swimming against the tide. Maybe I’m just in one of those moods. You know. PMS. You just want to get away. Take a vacation.
I was in one of those moods where I wanted to sail away into the unknown and and dance in a dark forest and forget everything. I needed to get away. Find out what questions I should be asking. Distract myself with fantastic scenery and wild dreams. See, I wanted to be like Max, who stares into their eyes without blinking and becomes king of the wild things.
There are people like that. They live in a rich world of their own creation. They’re not escapists, the exact opposite, they’re powerful, because in end, we’re all responsible for creating our own lives.
It’s rare to find that person who’s truly happy with the way his life is going and who commands his own ship. We all need those kind of people, and they’re the ones who hold up under questioning, who are happy to help us find our way because they have more than enough left over to give. They may not know exactly where their own ship is heading, but they’ve got that glint in their eye and can stare any monster straight in the face. They can reveal a little about themselves because they know there’s always plenty more where that came from.
What is that magic ingredient that these people have? It’s not just confidence, it’s security. Very often it’s the self made people that command their own source of income that can take that next step in life because they know they want to, not for any other temporary reason like fame or prestige or money. Sure, those things can be fun, but its more fun when they’re the byproduct of doing the things you really love.
The people you know and the things you do shape you. There are those that make you feel small, and there are those that bring the humor, the fun, and the daring out in you. How do you meet these people? I’m not talking about networking. I’m talking about those people you can talk to and get excited with, not just about ideas. They just make you feel right. They don’t just meet you on an intellectual level, you can grab their heart and feel it too. They’re intensely emotional, but they understand their emotions and can get you excited too. There’s not many of those people around, and it gets pretty damn lonely sometimes. Because we all want to feel inspired. Passion and inspiration are closely related.
Did I just need a vacation? Should I grow a forest in my bedroom and sail away until I’m calm again? Maybe. But I think it’s a hell of a lot nicer to make that journey with people you love.
We made our first money! October 13, 2009
Posted by Mike in : Mike, Money, Rio , 1 comment so farRio made 27 cents.
In frustration as we boiled over at fever pitch trying to run 6 or 7 ideas, (see the post on quitting) Rio spent $1,000 on her credit card and took off to LA in the hopes of relieving some stress. During that waste of time, she stole 27 cents off of this guy’s desk.
This totally counts towards our 1 million.
She came back, shrugged her shoulders and is back at this game again.
The moral is, push though the pains, learn from mistakes, and don’t quit. If you do quit, yet still come back and try again, then that makes you an entrepreneur.
P.S. I figure tit for tat, so I stole the 27 cents from her and am going to put it in a little frame that will read:
“I am now officially an entrepreneur!”
Good job Rio! Someone had to make a buck.
Who are these f*in people and why isn’t everyone an entrepreneur? October 10, 2009
Posted by Mike in : Entrepreneurship, Mike, People , add a commentEntrepreneurship is pain. Hard pain.
People snap. They dump it all, they go to Hollywood to discover themselves, they get a job, they become a bum or go to grad school.
It’s why no one does it, its why morons can become rich just cause they tried longer.
It’s why people are drawn to positions or titles of empowerment. CEO, Doctor, PHD. We feel they found the secret. We want to be close to it. Absorb it. Learn by it. More often than not its nothing but a well constructed veil of attitude, arrogance and false self entitlement.
I went to a Entrepreneur meeting, the purpose to bring investors and inventors together. 40 inventors. 1 investor.
The inventors all danced in front of the camera, the investor sat in the rear with arms crossed, look of old time wisdom across his face. The look of blue bloods judging a prize horse. All was needed was a pipe and a “pip pip bravo” coming out his mouth.
Turns out the investor was a retired businessman with a need for power but no means to attain it. He’d been around for years, so the organizers snapped him up to be their one investor. Even 40 inventors, dorky as they were, might not buy “This show will be seen by thousands of investors on the Internet!”.
And the drudgery of going to all this stuff. Meetings and consultants cramming business cards in your hand going “I got what you need! I can fix all your problems!”. Why not ask me if I need anything at all!.
The out of work consultants are the worse. I went to a chamber of commerce lunch meeting…my last. Sat at whats called “The round table”…just round tables that people sit at. Some speech by the president of the chamber on why were so much better than New York..blah blah blah.
When we did the “round table” speech and introduced ourselves, I said what I did and 9 cards flew at me.
I thought I was in some trick magic show where the goal was “who can slide the card the fastest and make it appear on top of the others before the others do”.
I’m like…uh…no…I can’t afford 2 lawyers, 3 business consultants, 1 accountant, and a weekend clown for children’s birthdays…pony included.
The reasons this happens is I supply a product. They support the product. Like vultures on carrion…Kaww…Kaww…moneeeyyyyyyy!!
My suggestion, lie. Say your a window washer…a bad one. Broke your arm once falling 2 feet up off a basement window. They will stare at you…blink…then look at the next guy and lick their lips.
This is one reason why people give up. It’s why they quit. No ones clean. Can’t tell who from what.
It’s easier to sit in a cube, sip a latte, tap on a key or two, look at the clock. Once or twice a day have your boss come over and shove a list at you saying. Do this, do that. You got what I need yet. You lie, perhaps have it ready, perhaps shit yourself. But then the bell rings and you go home. No meetings to attend. No pocket full of white hard little cards screaming “Do you remember me!! I was that guy with the suit, I was that girl in the hat with the pin”.
The world is filled with morons my friends. Two bit Presidents. Two bit PHD’s. Two bit Doctors. All passing themselves off as the truth, the real deal. They wear it well. They push it hard, yet might not appear pushy.
Seeing past them is no easy trick. So be wary. If your gonna work with these people, you have to gain a thick skin till you meet one of them who’s worth their weight.
Dark I know. But sometimes this game just feels dark.
What is love? October 7, 2009
Posted by Mike in : Mike, Motivation , 1 comment so farIt hits us all. They write reams of poetry on it. It’s used as an identifier of the ephemeral quality on things as diverse as soap to space walks. Is it the quality of something? You love your work. You love your mate. But what is that. In the book “Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance“, the author tried to unravel that mystery.
His motorcycle broke in the middle of nowhere. He needed a piece of metal welded. The only place in town was some tooth less guy who said it cost 5 bucks. He’s freaking out. “This guy is gonna work on my baby. No way!”. But limited choices and limited time make him hand it over as he heads out for a shaky cup of coffee. Upon return, the guy hands him the metal bracket and goes “5 bucks”. He looks down…and to his amazement…its the most beautiful weld he has ever seen. No rims. No lips. Rainbow smooth irridesence. He said “Jesus! Here is fifty! That would cost $200 in new york! “. The guy gives him back $45, says “5 bucks” and closes the door. What was that?!. Our traveler loved the weld. He loved the quality. But he contemplates this and comes to the realization that you can’t define quality. Put similar items side by side and most people can point to the one that is better. How do they know?
I challenge you to try it with a friend or two. You will only list things. Like this cap is tighter. That one has a cute bulb. Her hair is darker. Love and quality. We use them daily for people and for things. They define our work lives and our private lives. Yet they are not quanitfiable. So where do you put your passions. What do you love to do. And how do you define that. That is the challenge, and its my challenge as well. Pursue it, and there might just be a million bucks at the end of the road…unless your god damned set on $5.
An opportunity!? October 4, 2009
Posted by Mike in : Mike, Opportunities , add a commentI just had one walk up and sit down. In my ignorance I ignored the opportunity that was slapping me in the face and continued to prattle on about nothing. It was only when Jesse said…”our web site sucks” that I went “huh??”. Here is what happened. Jesse, the pianist from the MacPodz 
comes over and shows me two new articles from music magazines…and I was like cool…they are getting exposure. So he’s still chatting me up and I’m like…okay…whaz he still doing here. I’m not that cute and I know he’s straight.
So when Jesse said “Mike what do you do again with computers”, and I give him the spiel, and he has to reply “WE NEED A WEB DESIGNER!“, that I pull my head out of my ass and go “OH!!…so whatcha lookin for?”. Turns out their old designer “passed away” and understanding that any programmer is emotionally on the edge anyway so I’m only slightly surprised when I learned it was due to “Suicide”. Makes sense. I carry two virtual guns with me all the time and occasionally, just occasionally, I pull them out, put them to my head and go “Pkeewwwww! Pkewwwww!”. But I digress.
So how does one handle this opportunity? I said without batting an eye: “I’ll do it for free”. So why Free vs. something? It’s called penny economics. There is a great article by Chris Anderson at Wired Magazine “Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business” that discusses the second you charge 1 cent for an item, you are in a completely different business model.
Free affords one flexibility and freedom, especially when you are unsure of the payoff, which in this case will be exposure for me. “PR” is worth more than any cash that I could charge for the web development. So for the MacPodz, I sent Jese off to go get a consensus on the design of their website, and if he returns, I can look at what he has and tell him if I can do it or not. If not, no skin off my nose and I’ll point them in the right direction. If I can, I’ll pick a time limit to finish it and that includes a “frustration” factor…for if that puppy is high…I’m out.
But this post is about spotting opportunities. I believe the answer is in what is called Socratic Questioning. I learned it when I took a course in sales training at the Sandler Sales Institute. Basically, instead of popping your mouth open and spewing forth what you think they need and how you can help them, you step back and ask “What do you need?”, “What is wrong with your website now?”, and let them tell you. Common sense I know, but like that rule of “no crossing railroad tracks when the lights are flashing”, people do it all the time.
When you see the eyes of the listener staring blankly at you and their lips aren’t moving, just stop with whatever your saying and say: “Sorry I’m prattling on…did you have something in mind?” That one question will open a dialog were a great opportunity may be hiding.
How much does 1 million dollars weigh? October 4, 2009
Posted by Rio in : Entrepreneurship, Money, Rio , 2commentsWhat’s in a million dollars? It’s a great number that gets thrown around all the time in movies, bad romance novels, and blackmail notes, but hardly anyone knows what that kind of money looks like. Would it fit in my backpack? My house? Could I use it to crush people that annoy me? Apparently, the weight of one million dollars in one dollar notes is one ton. How convenient.
1 million dollars seems to be that magical number for people, that unreachable goal that would fix everything. But what’s our goal here? Winning the lottery wouldn’t change much in the grand scheme of things. My business partner says to me out of the blue the other day: ” If we had $10,000, we still wouldn’t know what the fuck to do.” Slightly worrying, but what he meant is: throwing money at problems doesn’t exactly encourage you to solve them in a creative way. Having no money as a startup does have some advantages, it turns out: you start being really creative. I’m not talking about using food stamps to pay for dinner with potential investors. I’m talking about coming up with really clever viral marketing campaigns because you can’t afford to pay for traditional print advertising. We’re still working on that viral idea for my main business. But if it pays off, we’ll get a bigger payoff than we ever would have with a traditional media campaign. I’m not saying having a bit more money wouldn’t be nice. But a lack of funds means we’ve had to put off impetuously launching all of our products, and has actually forced us to brainstorm and come up with some pretty good long term strategies in the meantime.
My goal is to create a self-sustaining source of income. Money is just a means to and end, a means to much more creative endeavors. For me, an automated source of income is a way to free up my time to focus on the things I really want to focus on. Not that those things are clearly defined. Yet. Why can’t I just work at Starbucks and do this whole entrepreneurship thing on the side? I admire the people that can work on great projects while keeping their day jobs. They’re pretty focused, and persistent. For me, though, the opportunity cost of working a day job is just too great. The cost is not only time, but the wasted opportunity of working on becoming financially independent. I also really hate getting up at 8 am if it’s for someone else. If it’s getting up at the crack of dawn to post offensive ads for my portrait photography business all over campus, I’m all for it.
Tim Ferriss had the right idea in The Four Hour Workweek: a person who earns $40,000 by working 4 hours a week is richer than the guy who earns $500,000 a year and works 100 hours a week. In terms dollars per hour, the first guy is making more. Time is my most valuable asset right now. I can use the time and freedom I have right now to create even more opportunities for myself.
Money can then serve as a springboard to bigger and better things, if you reinvest your money into bigger projects and get your money to work for you instead of working for money. It frees up your time to focus on the things you really want to focus on. And that’s what being rich means to me.