Retirement and the Magic Number

I want to talk about a topic that's been rolling around in my head since my post last week on earning the first million dollars. When an idea strikes, I mull it around a bit in my head and come up with a few tenants of my main argument and then set to writing it all down. At first, I had planned on writing about planning for retirement and the magic number one will need, which then leads into the magic number one still needs to earn and save before the golden years sneak upon us all.

But, having just spent several days with my folks, I wonder how many baby boomers like my parents are approaching retirement without a real idea of what it takes to retire. Which of course, begs the question, do they have even a fraction of what they need now with retirement only 10 - 15 years out?

I'm fortunate in that my parents do talk about retirement with my sister and I. But, I always leave the conversation having distilled and contemplated their version of things thinking, "I don't think that's quite right." So, when I got my first job at 22, I went to the Bank of America homepage and started clicking around, looking at the retirement calculators and savings charts. I was shocked at what it told me. If I continued to make $30,000 annually and wanted to maintain my current lifestyle I needed to save a minimum of 1.5 million dollars.

Bank of America Retirement Calculator

This kind of cash was not at all what was being thrown around in conversations with my parents. I realized then, that they didn't know how much cash it took to retire on schedule, between 62 and 70 years of age. From what we had discussed, I figured that what they had saved was probably going to run dry about five years in to their retirement or they'd never be able to retire.

That's probably about the time the entrepreneur lightbulb went off in my head. My parents did it "right." My dad has been a hard-working employee his whole life and my mom was a stay-at-home-mom that made some money on the side while my sister and I were growing up. Then, once we learned to drive she was employed for some years at a local university. Even still, taking the prescribed course in life, they're having a hard time saving and earning enough to retire.

It occurred to me then that retirement can mean something else entirely when you're an entrepreneur.

I still have a goal of saving a minimum of 1.5 million dollars by the time I'm 65. There's no argument for how great that would be for one's peace of mind. However, if I'm living on passive income, investment income and I own a variety of income producing business ventures - 65 is just a number.  I won't stop earning at 65 like an employee does, therefore there's not a deadline to have earned my "retirement."

My dad, very smartly, went to a financial planner a few years back. Unfortunately, he received a rather nasty shock. He was told in no uncertain terms that technically speaking, they don't have a retirement nest egg. I know my parents aren't the only ones with this mindset; thinking that the act of saving any sum of money in a traditional retirement account constitutes having adequately prepared for their non-working years.

My friend's father lost his job a few years back as a real estate broker. Her father is a few years older than mine, meaning he was truly staring down the barrel of retirement. Her parents were panicked to say the least. My friend was considering relocating so that she could purchase their house from under them to bulk up their savings. If one is just a few years out, wouldn't it be a reasonable assumption that perhaps they could economize a tad each year and still make their retirement funds stretch? It was such a shame that a couple so close to retirement didn't have the resources to simply adjust their plan and slide into an early retirement.

I think the baby boomers are at a strange disadvantage in terms of their retirement mindset. I recall my dad telling me when I was younger who of his friends would have a pension when they retired. Even though he knew pensions were dying out, I think it was still common to think that your employer had your back. Now, instead Bank of America suggests thinking about what you can do in your "second career" as a semi-retired person. Why not be an entrepreneur? That's what my parents did!

-Grit Don't Quit, folks.

Great Forbes Article: "5 Warning Signs You May Have Entrepreneurialism"

This is the best, comical article on the disease sweeping the nation: Entrepreneurialism Disease. I found this piece to be spot on! Gosh, the constant urge to work for oneself coupled with all of these crippling symptoms really does feel like a disease sometimes! I thought the author showed a great deal of insight. I love that moment when all of things you've been feeling are finally capture perfectly!

I particularly liked this happy quote:

"A natural optimism and a cheery, cooperative personality could, unfortunately, spell entrepreneurial success as you age."

The only cure to ED… start your own business. Plain and simple folks!

Enjoy!

5 Warning Signs You May Have Entrepreneurialism

- Stay Gritty

Sarah Gilbert: Human Love and Stubbornness

I very much enjoyed this talk by Sarah Gilbert on "Your Elusive Creative Genius." Not having a creative business that relies upon my own creative abilities, I couldn't relate to this talk entirely until the very end.

Loved her gritty sign-off! Poignant and motivating.

To Have One Million Dollars

So, my mom and I have been keeping each other motivated to keep on entrepreneur-ing by saying we're going to make one million dollars. Each new investing idea, sales outlet or general business-like epiphany results in some great e-mails back and forth, keeping each other chugging along.

But there's this thought that nags in the back of my mind when I say it. When I say, I want one million dollars. Whenever I type it out or say it out loud, I have to admit that I imagine one million dollars plopping down in my lap. Its not that I want something for nothing or that actually I think one million dollars should or could fall from the sky and be directly deposited by ACH into my back account. Its just that I wonder what it really means to have or earn or make one million dollars.

I think...what counts as a million? What kind of one million dollars?

If mom and I are going to use the power of positive thinking to convince these million dollars to come on by and stay for a while, what is it that I really want? I need to be specific in my goals, here.

Naturally, one million dollars is 1,000,000 one dollar bills. But, really... I've done the retirement calculators online and I know that it takes about 1.5 million for the average American to retire. So, do I want one million dollars or do I want one million in my retirement account now, to earn interest over the next 35 - 40 years? Or do I want one million to spend on additional entrepreneurial goals? Or, it is enough to have one million in net worth? Maybe five hundred thousand in my retirement account and five hundred thousand in my savings/spending accounts.

I don't know what I mean when I say I want one million dollars. How odd is that?

What I do know is that I want to work hard now so that I am comfortable for the rest of my life when the time comes to retire. Even though, I full well know that I'm never going to retire in the sense that I stop earning money and start spending it all.

Maybe I really want about five million dollars...

Hobby as a Career?

There's a pretty mangled and misquoted piece of advice out there being distributed by a number of actors, entrepreneurs and philosophers which says, in essence, "Do what you love to do and you'll never work a day in your life."

So, I researched the quote a found a few variations. There's a strange evolution of this somewhat wayward inspirational quote:

I take the above quote to mean that you should take your favorite hobby and turn that into a living. Well, there are a few problems with that - if you love to play video games, very few people can truly make a lasting, long term career at playing video games. That's not to say that you shouldn't reach for the stars and really make a go of something you love if you have a good plan to monetize your hobby. But, I think there's something to be said for being realistic.

Marc Anthony says something very similar, "If you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life. Again, I think this is a little backwards. I don't think turning what one loves to do into what they do for a living is sage advice for the masses. Trying to eek a dollar out of your pastime, your creative outlet, your coping device can be a steadfast way to kill your spirit. My mother loved to sew until she started her own upholstery and drapery business. What she once loved to do became a chore. It became a job. It became work. 

Now, this one I liked quite a bit better. I have a feeling that this idea of doing what you love everyday began with the all-knowing Confucius's original quote, "Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life." So, its saying instead that choosing a job that's well-tailored to you, that you enjoy is a great way to infuse happiness into your life.

You don't have to necessarily to turn what you love into a job - you just need to find and choose a job you love. Which, a-huh, in this economy can be hard enough! Its not exactly simple to know what you'll love until you're in the thick of it. But, all the same, I think this is better advice for the everyman. Just find SOMETHING that you love to do. The best part is, I don't think that it has to be any one thing.

Steve Jobs takes it a step further and says that the only way to do great work is to do something you love. He urges us not to settle in some field of work that we don't love. Being in "like" with your career or profession is not enough!

So, in all, I believe in this whole loving what you do thing - it just has to happen in the right order! The truly gritty will try and try again until they find what they love to do and the rest will sort of just happen!

Inspiration: Richard St. John

I loved this quick and simple presentation by Richard St. John. I stumbled upon it in the TED.com archives - it dates all the way back to 2006 but it still rings true today! Richard St. John interviewed 500 people over 7 years and has distilled what he's learned into a quirky, fun three and half minute presentation.

Are you a work-a-frolic?

Update: My Bucket List

I've updated my bucket list. I added:

Have the time and ability to be a first responder volunteer for national disasters.

Helping others during their direst time of need has always been something I've wanted to do. I don't have any training or experience in such things, but living in tornado alley, every spring and fall there is some small city in Kansas, Oklahoma or Texas that's seemingly wiped off the map. And every time I see the footage, I think to myself that I wish I were there helping. 

I heard recently that one woman in New Jersey took in 15 people into her own home. That's simply an amazing feat of selflessness. While, I don't aspire to house and clothe 15 people, I want to help all the same, make a difference.

Having quit my job this summer, I technically have "spare" time now, not having to calculate vacation time and negotiate taking that time off with a boss. All I need to do is get the financial resources together to be able to take off at a moment's notice. It won't be long before I can do that, I am just ready for the day to be here. 

When I quit my job, I knew I'd be living a sparse existence for a while. I did the math, I knew what I was giving up financially and what I was gaining in terms of quality of life. But all the same, I had these goals and ideas of what I could and would do when I had the joy of working for myself.

As it stands now, I have the freedom to work as hard as I can to meet my financial goals so that I can eventually mark things off my bucket list. That just requires working many hours a day to meet those goals.

My updated Entrepreneur Bucket List:

- Quit my day job. Stop being an employee - Start an online retail business
- Create multiple streams of income:
   - 2
   - 3
   - 4
   - 5+
- Invest a portion of my earnings and savings with the purpose of creating additional income
- Save significant amounts of money to, in effect, have my retirement funds squirreled away at at an early age.
   - Don't use the above for anything except income generation and retirement
- Self-manage at least a portion of my brokerage account
- Invent something, manufacture and sell it
- Have the ability to work remotely, abroad
- Give 10% of my income to worthy causes
- Make my first million
- Save my first million
- Go to an exotic location for Google for Entrepreneurs Week
- Go to more conferences, exhibits and fairs related to my businesses
- Have the time and ability to be a first responder volunteer for national disasters

Being Sick is Hard for us Gritty Folks

I've been pretty sick for the past week - just a nasty cold. Fall allergies have been the worst this year here in Texas. Even the dogs are having sinus problems! At any rate, I have to tell you that yesterday was awesome. It was the first day that I was able to wake up and stay awake! Oh boy, I'm in trouble if that's considered a big accomplishment! I got so much done and my inner entrepreneur was screaming, "Hallelujah!" 

I felt I had been stagnating in terms of growth - not looking for new enterprises, outlets, ways to make money. The guilt and self-loathing was all compounded by the fact that I'd been sleeping about 50-70% of my day. Having a cold is not helped by my already compromised immune system and lots of time that could be misconstrued as "free" time to spend getting well, aka sleeping. One day, I woke up at 10 am, decided to take a nap by 1:30 pm and woke to the sound of my significant other coming home. He came in to check on me and I snarfled awake saying, "Is it 5:00 already?!" He laughed, I groaned.

Needless to say, I feel the same way about being sick as the wise philosopher, Sweet Brown. She said, "Ain't nobody got time for that!"

At any rate, I was thrilled to get back to work yesterday. I made great strides in accomplishing some new goals, found a new sales outlet and have made some good progress in my investments. It was an all-around great day! I hope my rediscovered energy holds out while I continue to fight off the remnants of this cold. Fall is a great time to be a retailer and I need to have my wits about me to take as many pieces of the pie as I can!

Grit it together, woman!

Forbes Interview: Warren Buffet and Jay Z

This Forbes interview with Warren Buffet and Jay Z is so very odd! Major props to whoever thought up this old versus new, multi-millionaire/billionaire mash-up interview but, unfortunately I don't think it worked quite the way it was supposed to!

Warren Buffet and Jay Z both come across as very approachable and amiable, but there's just not much connection between how they each made their fortunes. Yes, they're both very capable, smart businessmen - but they just don't relate to one other. Jay Z tries to bring together their two disparate business philosophies to bridge the gap between their styles but it just comes across as forced and confusing.

I was really excited to watch this interview, but quickly found myself disappointed. Not only because it was a little boring, but because Warren Buffet and Jay Z's fortunes were developed in one similar way - completely and totally from their singular talents. As a viewer, I found myself longing for their success without any actionable nugget or idea as a take away.

However, it cannot be denied that Jay Z and Warren Buffet are some of the grittiest of the gritty. They both keep their heads down and will work until they die.

So strange, this idea!

Unexpected Inspiration: Ashton Kutcher

Ashton Kutcher is clearly a wealthy man but, knowing what little I do about the entertainment industry I never truly considered actors much in the way of entrepreneurs. After watching his acceptance speech at the 2013 Teen Choice Awards, I wondered why this group of wealthy Americans escaped my, and I'm sure others', consideration because Mr. Kutcher is truly an inspiration!

Sure, the best actors are generally very successful at making large sums on money; however, whether or not they can retain those funds and keep their savings accounts in the black varies greatly. But, really I think I overlooked actors as businessmen and women because it often takes a team of managers and public affairs representatives to make an actor a lucrative business.

Sure, nary a member of the billionaires club did it all alone, but we've all heard so many times that actors didn't know they were broke until their manager told them they were. Since the attitude towards money varies so greatly in the acting profession - it just never occurred to me that actors could truly be gritty entrepreneurs. Shame on me!

So, where did all this love for Ashton Kutcher start? I found this amazing t-shirt with the quote, "Opportunity Looks a Lot like Hard Work" a few weeks ago at iwearyourshirt.com. I circled back around to it, considering finally purchasing it when I read the description of the shirt for the first time:

If you haven't heard Ashton Kutcher's speech at the Teen Choice Awards, you should watch it immediately. Not only is it surprising coming from him, it's also extremely poignant, and it hits home for so many entrepreneurs.

Naturally, I followed the directions promptly and looked up Ashton Kutcher's speech. I was blown away. I'd always considered him to be as goofy and dim-witted as his doppelganger Kelso from That Seventies Show. Again, shame on me!

His acceptance speech was indeed poignant, meaningful and inspiring. I think it was so wonderful that he crafted a speech such as this for an audience of teens - those who, unfortunately are least likely to remember his words but have the most to gain from his experience and advice. Cut to 1:35 for the good stuff:

Here it is transcribed:

So, its really three things. The first thing is about opportunity, the second thing is about being sexy, and the third thing is about living life.  

So, first thing - opportunity, I believe, looks a lot like hard work. When I was 13, I had my first job with my dad carrying shingles to the roof, and then I got a job washing dishes at a restaurant, and then I got a job in a grocery-store deli, and then I got a job in a factory sweeping Cheerio dust off the ground.  

And I never had a job in my life that I was better than. I was always just lucky to have a job. And every job I had was a stepping stone to my next job, and I never quit my job until I had my next job. And so opportunities look a lot like work. 

Number two: being sexy. The sexiest thing in the entire world is being really smart, and being thoughtful and being generous. Everything else is crap. I promise you. Its just crap that people try to sell to you to make you feel like less. So don't buy it. Be smart, be thoughtful and be generous. 

The third thing is something that I just re-learned when I was making this movie about Steve Jobs. And Steve Jobs said, when you grow up, you tend to get told that the world is the way that it is and that your life is to live your life inside the world and try not to get in too much trouble, and maybe get an education, and get a job and make some money and have a family. But life can be a lot broader than that when you realize one simple thing and that is that everything around us that we call life was made up by people that are no smarter than you. And you can build your own things. You can build your own life that other people can live in.  

So build a life, don't live one. Build one. Find your opportunities and always be sexy.

The Time Will Pass Anyway

My sister and I have a knack for thinking up amazing business ideas that inevitably will require hours of training for us to implement and develop. Being gritty, determined and altogether ridiculous we usually cobble together a long-term plan to accomplish our goals and create this new venture.

Once we part ways, we sober up a bit and realize how large of an undertaking we've imagined up and simultaneously, we lose interest. Justifying our new found disinterest, we always cite how long it will take to bring this idea to fruition...as if our time could be better spent on some other entrepreneurial pursuit we have yet to come up with.

Fortunately, the other day I ran across this extremely motivating quote from Mr. Earl Nightingale: "Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use."

So poignant and true. Its the same idea that's always rolled around in the back of my head but I'd never let myself grasp the idea long enough to word it as eloquently as Nightingale did. I'm so glad I stumbled upon this quote at the right time! So, now I will tell myself:

Imagine if you do buckle down, grit your teeth and make this idea come to life. You'll have used your time wisely and you'll have a brand new source of income. And, you'll have checked another thing off your bucket list!

Now, imagine if you crap out and let this idea sit at the bottom of your pile. Then imagine repeating that with the next bright idea you have and the next idea and the next idea. 'The time will have passed anyway' and you'll have no new businesses and no new sources of income.

Typing it now, it makes no sense that my brain thinks this way! But when I'm in the moment, its easy to say to myself:

That's too hard and its awfully time consuming - I need a better idea. A quicker idea. An easier idea.

What idea is going to be acceptable for that lazy person inside my head? The state lottery? Sitting on ass all day and magically getting money from the sky? I don't know, but neither of those are likely to produce any cash!

I love it when I find inspirational nuggets that help me rediscover or reignite my grit.

New Investment Strategy: The Daily Paycheck

My mom mentioned that she was researching a new passive income investment strategy by Amy Calistri called The Daily Paycheck. When she told me the premise of this retirement income strategy, I was intrigued.

Calistri has come up with a pretty brilliant strategy to bolster your stock portfolio with income generating, dividend paying stocks. Basically, the idea is to invest in dividend paying stocks that payout in intervals in such a way that you're paid 365 times a year, approximately 30 times a month. Her challenge was to find a way to generate significant, steady income for retirees. She has had some great, reasonable success: her portfolio of $267,000 generates about $1,400 in income from dividend payments alone - not including capitol growth.

This peaked my interest because I am a former day and swing trader. Having only held stocks for a less than a day to about two-three weeks, dividends didn't factor into my considerations. Dividends that I did earn were always just a surprise bonus that I didn't pay much attention to, I had never really considered dividends a strategy in itself.

Its a great idea - choose good, hearty companies to invest in that not only yield capitol gains, but extra bonus payments throughout the year! Also, dividends traditionally come from companies that are doing well financially and have gains that generally stay above the average stock market yields. Wonderful!

I took the basics of what I understand the strategy to be and have started my own daily paycheck using half of my Rollover IRA from my previous employer, which equates to one-third of my overall savings. The other two-thirds, I've invested in some safe, but profitable mutual funds and ETF's. Still being a young woman, I have a fairly aggressive investment strategy that I'll adjust as the years go on.

So, as it stands I invested in 16 stocks that will be paying out dividends 57 times throughout the year. Instead of paying for access to Amy Calistri's picks, I chose a few stocks from "Best of" lists on Kiplinger.com and chose a few of my own favorites that I've traded over the years. I double-checked that my chosen stocks did indeed pay dividends on Dividend.com.

I am going to employ and buy-and-hold strategy, but plan to exchange out some losers for winners as time goes on. There's still a danger of falling asleep at the wheel on this passive income strategy!

Dividend Paying Stocks

O

COP

CL

GE

WTR

ADP

MTB

WMT

CSCO

PFE

AAPL

PEP

VGHCX

FGRIX

VMMXX

VDIGX

Self-Employed is Often Misunderstood to mean Unemployed

I'm sure that many entrepreneurs have experienced this very same, deflating conversation. But it was my first time since becoming self-employed over two months ago:

A good friend of ours, who has been so very supportive of my new journey into entrepreneurship, told me about an exciting new job opportunity he saw on his employer's website. "You should totally apply, you'd rock at that!"

I know that this "head's up" on the job opening was meant to be kind. I know that it came with all the best intentions. I knew then, in that moment, that he just doesn't get it. And so, I took it in stride and nodded with raised eyebrows and feigned interest. I might have muttered something like, "Yea! Ok... sure."

But, my head was spinning a little bit. This is the same friend who gave me a big high five for quitting my job and pursuing small business ownership. The same guy that asks every time I see him, "How's owning your own business, boss?"

What happened? Why the sudden change in tune?

I haven't given him any indication that I regret my decision or that I want to go back to being an employee, because, I certainly don't. So, then, I started thinking why would he suggest that I get a job? Does he think I'm bumming off my boyfriend? Does he think I only quit out of spite and that I don't know really what I'm doing? Does he think I'm panicking on the inside and regretting my decision?

Then, I realized that its just his own misguided perception that everyone must have a job.  I mean, I'm not unemployed. I'm proudly self-employed.

Entrepreneurship is a completely foreign concept to some and I understand that. But, I have to admit its hard to buck the trend when even your most fervent cheerleaders are telling you to stop following the path less traveled and jump over to the hustling, bustling city-sponsored walking trail.

It took a few days, but I shook it off and reminded myself that I'm made to hack and trudge and to pad down my own path. Yes, there's the occasional spider web, irritating and sticky. But its all part of the journey. I'm just going to take that self-doubt that I let eek in for a moment and turn it into fuel for my grit!

Haters are going to hate, but grit don't quit, people! 

Mark Cuban vs the SEC: Cuban Wins!

I've been very lightly following the SEC case against Mark Cuban. As a fellow Dallasite and Mark Cuban fan, I was excited to hear that he was cleared of all charges this week!

Apparently, back in 2004, Cuban sold 600,000 shares of Mamma.com stock before the company made a private maneuver that was seen as unfavorable to its current stock owners. He effectively sold off all of his shares in the company, amounting to nearly 8 million dollars, a few weeks before the company made the impending, unpleasant public announcement.

Among a number of other details Mark Cuban was made aware of this private equity offering when Mamma.com executives invited major investors to participate in the new placements. Cuban declined when he found out that the company had begun to associate itself with a known stock swindler, Irving Kott.

He also claims that he was never asked not to sell his existing shares nor was he bound to confidentiality. The jury agreed with his version of events considering there was no written confidentiality agreement to prove otherwise. Seems likely that one of the grittiest, shrewdest men in business today would want anything that he's agreed to in writing. Oral confidentiality agreements are worthless and I'm surprised that the SEC went to trial with nothing but a claim that, 'he promised!'

Cuban spent more than the potential punitive SEC fees and fines defending himself against these charges since the case was dropped and re-opened in 2009. He declined to settle with the US government based on principle, knowing he had not committed illegal trading activities. He's fortunate he had the funds to fight these charges.

All in all, I feel its foolish to forget that he foresaw the pop of the internet bubble so many years ago. He sold all of his Yahoo.com shares he earned in the sale of broadcast.com, just before the stock devalued shortly thereafter.

Mark Cuban is just a talented, opportunistic businessman who knows his way around the trading floor. That's why he's one of my grittiest entrepreneur idols!

Unexpected Inspiration: Macklemore

I love this song, "Cant Hold Us" by Macklemore. As I was listening to it, realized that it was pretty inspirational for me as a small business owner. "So we put our hands up like the ceiling can’t hold us
Like the ceiling can’t hold us" Heck, yea! No ceiling. No glass ceiling. No earnings ceiling. The sky's the limit, people!

Also, Macklemore is a true inspiration, a true gritty entrepreneur. He worked for 13 years as a rapper and hit it bigger than he ever expected. All without a label. His story is repeated so many times because very few artists in the music industry have accomplished what he has without the support of a record label. Its remarkably impressive and its exciting to think that he keeps a huge percentage of each sale on iTunes. Brilliant.

Well, played Macklemore. Well played.

I Love Mondays!

Now that I've quit my job and am self-employed, I found myself exclaiming today, "I love Mondays!" Without even a hint of sarcasm. It was totally genuine! I swear!

You see, I give myself weekends, for the most part. I work a bit here and there; check in on sales, e-mails and customer service needs. I don't mind and I don't want to be blind-sighted by a big problem on Monday - otherwise I might hate Mondays!

But, as it stands, its one of the better days of the week for me. An exciting new week to tackle, no weeks are the same.

Another five days to make money.

Another five days to analyze, improve, cut, calculate, drive sales, run promotions, invest, buy and sell.

Another five days to be self-employed!

"Only Morons Start a Business on a Loan" - Mark Cuban

The title of this Mark Cuban interview by Bloomberg sucked me right in, "Only morons start a business on a loan." Even though I bootstrapped my way through the first three years of my business and saw wonderful, surprising growth, I think this spoke to me because I recently took out a loan for my business. Earlier this year, feeling that I truly knew my market and seeing that the profits were rolling in at a steady pace, I took a small loan for $12,000 to boost my inventory. The catch on this particular loan was that it was all due back in a matter of 6 months. I saw the principle payments due back, the overall interest payments and thought it was a great deal. And it was, still is. The terms were very acceptable, I just didn't know how to be a borrower. I had always ponied up the capitol myself.

It was all working so very well, until the fifth month the loans were due back. I just was not making enough to pay back the loan AND continue to grow. I felt stifled by these payments and I definitely feel that the progress I'd made immediately prior to taking on the loan was eradicated. I felt that was essentially starting back over now that the last payment is scheduled for the end of this month. I didn't get nearly what I thought I would out of this sudden infusion of cash.

I'm excited to get back to my normal that I'm so very used to, especially during my business' peak seasonality. I'm not saying that I wouldn't take out a loan again, but I certainly would like to have more of my own cash on hand to combat the payment periods during the slow time of the year. How ironic - you have to have money to borrow money. Or I might take out the loan just before a natural boom in sales. I regret taking out this 6 month loan just before the slow time of year. That was definitely something I would not recommend or repeat.

At any rate, there were a few other awesome nuggets in this video. The grittiest of us will like what he has to say at 1:30 "Small business don't fail for lack of capitol, they fail for lack of brains, lack of effort." Love it!

Let's "grit" our heads down and work, entrepreneurs!

The Reason I'm an Entrepreneur: #1

Genetically, I'm not an employee. I tried that for 6 years. Yes, I worked hard and made my team look great! I gave that company all of my time, efforts, thoughts and energy. Admittedly, I was happy achieving success over and over when I was employed. I was dedicated and hard-working. It didn't matter that I was paid the same everyday, I was driven. I am driven in just about everything I set out to do.

I'm not going to leave something undone or leave someone hanging. I'm proud that I was employed by the same company since graduating college and I'm proud to have been promoted twice during that time. But, I just could not stand to be managed. I was sick of being afraid of what my choices would render down the line if I didn't ask someone to ask someone to ask someone only to get an answer after the deadline. It was a crazy train of bureaucracy and I wanted off! Off I say!

For the last year and a half of my employment, the only thing that got me out of bed was Dr. Pepper. Dr. Pepper? Yup. I'd wake to my alarm, realize all the interpersonal hurtles I had to jump that day and get disheartened. I'd only get excited when I realized I could get a Dr.Pepper on the way in to work. I'd get dressed and ready thinking about it. Now... that's not physically or mentally healthy.

But, seriously, the number one reason that I am an entrepreneur is that neither nature or nurture have guided me to be a satisfied employee. My mom's dad was a cattle rancher and her mother owned a fabric shop. My dad's dad started a very successful air conditioning company. My father tried his hand at plastics manufacturing in the late seventies. And my mom...she's had a business since I can remember: custom drapery, a successful crafts business and now she's excelling at online retail. My family has set the example over and over - don't be an employee!

The problem, for a long time, was capitol. But I gritted my teeth, saved every penny and made it happen!

An Entrepreneur's Bucket List

A few items from my Entrepreneur Bucket List. I'm pretty proud of my few accomplishments so far and am more than excited to accomplish the whole lot! I'll circle back around to this list when I find something inspiring to add or when I reach a new goal!
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Entrepreneur Bucket List

- Quit my day job. Stop being an employee
- Start an online retail business
- Create multiple streams of income:
   - 2
   - 3
   - 4
   - 5+
- Invest a portion of my earnings and savings with the purpose of creating additional income
- Save significant amounts of money to, in effect, have my retirement funds squirreled away at at an early age.
   - Don't use the above for anything except income generation and retirement
- Self-manage at least a portion of my brokerage account
- Invent something, manufacture and sell it
- Have the ability to work remotely, abroad
- Give 10% of my income to worthy causes
- Make my first million
- Save my first million
- Go to an exotic location for Google for Entrepreneurs Week
- Go to more conferences, exhibits and fairs related to my businesses

Life Gives You Lemons? Make Lemonade. Then Sell It.

In my last post, I talked about looking for entrepreneurial avenues and ways to make money. One of my proudest entrepreneurial moments is turning a huge life-lemon into a good, old-fashioned lemonade stand. Heck, why not? I found out several years ago, in my mid-twenties, that I was whole-hog allergic to gluten. In fact, Celiac Disease runs in my family, many of the women on my mom's side of the family suffer from gluten intolerance.

So, my sister and I started a gluten-free related business and turned the tables on that nasty little protein that has made life so difficult. Its one of my smallest sources of revenue, but the most meaningful.  Now, I see life problems, even someone else's life problem, as a hole in the market. That's an entrepreneurial perspective I'll never be able to unlearn. Its in there, in my noggin, waiting to help me turn a profit on something else one day in the future.

I love talking to other entrepreneurs and listening to TED.com talks so much because I invariably get a "nugget" of an idea that I can store away for the day it becomes relevant. Some of them are so exciting that they stay in the forefront of my mind, cropping up when I'm in the bath, about to fall asleep or while I'm cooking. Annoying me, reminding me that I don't have endless capital... yet.

At any rate,  like I said, "If life gives you lemons, make lemonade then sell it!" That's the best way to conquer an obstacle - turn it into opportunity.

Google for Entrepreneurs Week 2013

Hey, ya'll! I almost missed Google for Entrepreneur's Week 2013! I was just milling around on the internet and saw a link for this great world-wide event! What is this craziness? Why is there nothing in Dallas, Texas? Who wants to go all the way to Barcelona and Milan? ;)

I have a new bucket list item for sure!

Google for Entrepreneurs Week 2013

The Grittiest Entrepreneur, Ever

I'm sitting at my beautiful West Elm desk, typing on my super fancy Apple Macbook Pro laptop, drinking expensive Teavanna tea while crunching numbers and ordering inventory that I no longer even touch, lift or pack myself. As I looked over my recent sales and expenses, lamenting how large my business loan payment seemed this month, really thinking that I was bootstrapping this business together. Hanging on to make it work. Gritting my teeth and scraping the barrel...

When I see an old man stop in front of my house to dig through the bulk trash we've put out. I couldn't believe the things he found value in! Just last night, I finally threw out the window blinds the previous owner had stored in our backyard shed. They were bundled together unceremoniously in a stack, bug leavings and strings everywhere. I cut the strings that had become interwoven so that I could move this mess to the curb in manageable hunks. Not even one set of blinds were spared from my crazy knife wielding exercise. I finished by piling the rest of our stinking, sopping wet trash on top - I had collected random bits in our wheelbarrow before it rained heavily this week.

Nothing stopped this guy! He examined each of the sets of blinds and found three that were in reasonably good shape. As I watched, I said out loud, "Really, dude? They're all broken and worthless!" Then he dug through the box of soaking wet, old electronics I'd dumped on top - stirring the box with a nearby stick. He didn't find anything he was interested in, but he was sure to look thoroughly.

As I type, here comes a second trash capitalist. Today is the day the pickers come out to pick - just a few days before the real trash men come to collect! However, his style is very different. He has a business partner, it seems. He sent his passenger out of the truck a ways down the street and they reviewed the piles on each side of the street and met back up mid-street, in front of my house. Much like how the laziest parents trick-or-treat with their kids!

It occurred to me that as gritty as I think I am - this guy had me beat by a long shot. He was out there digging through refuse to fund his small business. Saving reusable consumer goods from the garbage dump and reselling them to less picky buyers at some sort of secondary market outlet. Perhaps he's a professional garage sale-r? Perhaps he fixes up the trash and goes to trades day events. Who knows, but after I finished my critical thoughts and opinions, I was struck that entrepreneurs really do come in all shapes, sizes and styles... Do you think he's incorporated?

All jokes aside, this reminded me of a bit of motivational advise my sister passed on to me years ago. And it happens to be exactly how we both got started in our small-business ventures. If you're broke, but you are an entrepreneur at heart, there is money somewhere in your house. We started with our college textbooks. I don't even recall how much money I made on Half.com, but it couldn't have been too much more than $500 because many of the books I listed were outdated by the time I got started selling. I sold these books, however, because there were community college courses using these outdated books to keep the overall price of their courses low. The content was still perfectly viable.

At any rate, I knew Half.com wasn't where I wanted to stay but it sure got me started and watered the seed! It taught me the true meaning of the old adage: someone else's trash can be someone else's treasure. It taught me to look for any and all avenues in which I could sell. This same seed, I feel, is still being watered and developed. I want many streams of income and I'm excited to develop the streams of income I've found so far, but am anxious to find more.

My observation today also reminded of my absolutely favorite TED talk...the one that really got me excited about being an entrepreneur early on, Cameron Herold's 'Let's raise kids to be entrepreneurs.' He tells his story about feeding his entrepreneurial monster by selling none other than the dreaded... "wire hangers!" back to dry cleaners... among a number of other incredibly insightful and opportunistic ventures. Cameron Herold is one of my favorite creative thinkers and bootstrappers. Enjoy:

I hope this got just one other person's cogs turning! Remember, grit don't quit.

Down to the Nitty Gritty

I think its fitting to start "The Gritty Entrepreneur," a blog about my adventures in the realm of self-employment, by discussing the very inspiration for this journal's name: Angela Lee Duckworth's theory on Psychological Grit and its relation to success.

I started my third week as an entrepreneur by watching a TED video...or two... or three per day.  There's never a dull moment over at TED - so many golden nuggets of ideas! I sorted by "business" and just let the videos play. If I didn't grab an actionable idea from a talk, I almost always found that I was reassured of the path of self-employment-enlightenment-enjoyment-fulfillment that I'm on. I was reassured that I can do this 'workin' for myself' thing.

By the third day of my motivational marathon, I stumbled upon Angela Lee Duckworth's talk about her research on "The key to success." A seemingly intangible, enigma many have tried to grasp, define and understand over the years. I think she and her team have unraveled the mystery. She has determined that true and simple grit is the key to success. Grit. That's it.

Well, what is grit? Grit is a psychological trait measured by one's passion for their goals and their innate motivation to achieve these goals despite set-backs, extended time frames and lack of peer support. Sound familiar, fellow entrepreneurs?

She explains it best:

Being a native Texan, the grittiest of the gritty, this spoke straight to my gritty little heart! Grit don't quit and this little lady ain't afraid to get dirty!