Diagnosed with the Entrepreneurship Disease
Friends, please don’t worry, but I have been diagnosed with the Entrepreneurship Disease. Although it is not known to be fatal, I will have to make some life altering changes in my life. I asked how I attracted this disease, and the experts told me that most entrepreneurs are born with it. When looking back at my life – he was right. Even as a child I sold rocks I found outside down in my basement “Store” and even hired my elementary classmates with a signed contract to work for some imaginary business called Hollie Inn. They would come to my bleacher at recess time and talk about the hotel we were going to build. (I still have the contracts – and look out, I will be moving to collect losses from their breach of contracts! Watch out at the next class reunion!) =)
As most of you know, I had left my full-time position at AmberWave Communications. This was a very long and difficult decision stretching on for more than a year. I first met the founder, Michael Rusch, when I was starting my web hosting company called the Unlimited Web Network when I was looking for a data center. When I came on board at AmberWave as an intern in the summer of 2000, I was excited with all the things we could accomplish. This is where I really started to get to know Michael Rusch who originally moved back from California to raise his family and start a company known as AmberWave today. Mike has a great technical mind that finds great niches to produce products. It was great working with him with the many successful products that were produced over the years. This is why I offered to still work in a consulting role for AmberWave, which allowed me to help with tasks and projects where they need my assistance.
Don’t get me wrong, I still love the products that AmberWave offers, but after almost 10 years of working at the same place, I just kept feeling that something was missing. I found myself more in a day-to-day operational guy, and not working on the product side any more. Come to later find out it was the nagging symptoms of the Entrepreneurship Disease. I missed the smallness of a start-up sized business and being able to move on to projects that excited me again. So, after many sleepless nights, I decided to work for the side company I started in 2009 called Bisso Technologies. More on that later.
To be able to put more than my free time on projects of my own is very exciting. However, this is causing the next phase the of the disease – workaholic-ism. Experts tell me this can be kept under control with the help of friends and family. With their help – I should be able to live with this life altering disease. =)
I cannot wait for what 2010 is going to bring!