I get asked over and over – why do you stay in front of a computer all the time? There are 2 very different reasons. Here they are in order of importance to me.
(1) Love and Passion for what I do
As most of you know I am very passionate about technology. I have said it over and over again that I wake up every morning wondering if there are enough hours in the day for all the cool things I need to do. I do not even keep a phonebook in my house anymore. Why? There is Google. I can find out anything I want with Google. If I don’t have my laptop handy, then I can always send an SMS (text) message to Google. All of my paper documents are being converted to searchable PDF files. I even scan all the crayon drawings my 3 boys make for me, and I do all this using my desktop scanner (although eventually I am going to purchase a Xerox Documate).
If you want to communicate with me, then email or Skype or GoogleTalk are the best ways. I can answer multiple emails, maintain chat conversations, and work all at the same time. It’s not that easy when you are on a phone conversation though. When I am on a phone conversation, I record many of them for digital archiving and record keeping. *Louisiana is a one-party state so yes it is legal.
There is a much bigger reason for my passion with technology. That is – communications and sharing of information. From my home/office, I have clients all over the USA and the world. I can work on a website, help code an application, or even remotely fix a computer all via the Internet. That is the most intriguing thing about technology to me. As long as I have a laptop. cellphone, and ‘net connection, then I can work.
The amount of information created and shared by the collective of all of us is absolutely staggering. It’s nearly overwhelming as a matter fact. Many times when I am researching a project, I will get sidetracked for hours on tangent subjects. There is no end to what you can learn.
(2) There is money to be made
It takes money to make the world go round and what better way to make a living than by doing something that I am passionate about?
I was in a discussion this past weekend with my best friend for nearly 20 years. We were talking about the “globalization” of the economy, ethanol, and the increasing cost of corn as a side effect versus the cost of petroleum. One of other friends in the conversations is a geologist who works in the petroleum field. Anyway, Mike was agitated by the fact that much of our economy is based on products and services from foreign countries now. My arguments were simple: Our current unemployment rate is the lowest in quite some time, and because of this globalization then my small business is instantly international. In other words I love taking advantage of the globalization.
I’m not going to be a millionaire anytime soon – unless I get lucky or come up with something very smart. However, my business is double last year and continues to grow with only word-of-mouth advertising. I am able to pay my bills and start pulling myself out of the poor credit hole that I dug while in my 20’s. Life is not perfect, but it is very good.
I am an entrepreneur at heart and a capitalist. I firmly believe that the only way to true financial prosperity and freedom is to work for yourself. Like I always say: If I fail then I can only blame myself. The opportunities are right here in front of me.
That is why I do all of this with computers and technology.