Happy New Year!

It's a good thing I didn't resolve to avoid procrastination, because my first substantial post of the new year shows up a week into it! Oy.

Quick recap of 2008:

The best thing: the birth of my son, Joseph Gordon. We were worried about a difficult pregnancy, but Grace sailed through relatively comfortably, and except for some inconvenient umbilical-cord-around-the-neck-necessitating-a-C-section stuff, he came out a healthy, happy little boy. After they wiped the slime off of him, of course. And after the goo they put INTO his eyes melted away.

As I write this, Joe is ten months old and scooting around the house like half a crab (4 legs). He's about to bypass walking and go right to running. His first word...pause here to relish the thought...was "Dada." Well, to be honest, it's actually "dadadadadada..." Close enough. He looks at me when he says it. Oh, and he can do a little sign language, too--he knows how to ask for milk.

His favorite music seems to be either classical, Gregorian chant or Joni Mitchell. That's my boy.

My business, MyTruckBud.com. This was a total surprise. I never set out to create an alternative "micro moving" business, but people seem to need it, and there's some real potential here. In late 2006 I put some ads on Craigslist for hauling and moving services, and I got a huge response. It's a bit dead right now (more on that later), however I expect that to change PDQ.

Two year wedding anniversary. When we got married in late '06, we both wondered if we had made the right decision. From my perspective, my wife must have had some princess in her background. She was annoyingly, claustrophobically neat, and couldn't stand my music. From her perspective, I was a slob, probably lazy, and an emotional flake. Two years and some months later, I'm neater, she's more laid-back, we like the same music, and we both appreciate the speed with which I cave on most matters. (Hey, it's just easier...)

;-)

Seriously though, life is good on that front. I had no idea I could love someone so much, and could give so much of myself. And that's a two-way street. I think it's often said that "marriage is 50-50." That's only half right. Marriage is 100-100. Grace and I give each other everything we have, and it makes life just right.

Getting laid off. This is, of course, related to the business. I want to say that getting laid off from my day job at the non-profit signaled the end of all my W-2 jobs, but we'll just see about that. If January doesn't see a significant rise in revenue through MTB, I'll have to finally get something to pay the bills, or at least half of them. (Health care would be nice too.) Nonetheless, I have yet to worry about the "unemployment" situation. I see nothing but opportunity here and I plan to exploit all of it.

Resolutions for 2009?

I've never been good about resolutions (or goals, for that matter). I'd usually forget what I resolved to do or not do within a week. Resolutions were wishes, at best. Goals? Lol. Goals were for losers.

Having now witnessed the ascension of a number of losers my age or younger to great success, I'm willing to reassess my impression. As it turns out, goals, especially when they're written down, tend to produce results. Who knew? Thank you, 2008, for kicking my ass and explaining "Life 101" to me.

So what are my resolutions and GOALS? Fresh from the top of my head, here are a few:

1. Prove the MTB concept.
Just before I got canned, I laid out a plan to expand MTB nationally by May. That's not off the table, but my plan, while ambitious, was FANTASTICALLY optimistic. I might as well have thrown in a cure for AIDS and the development of the warp drive, too. There were numerous reasons for this, but the biggest problem was lack of clarity of the end product. What would these "Truck Buddies" be doing? Why would they stick with MTB.com? My answer: because it would be a profitable, proven system. One problem: I hadn't proven the system yet.

Fortunately, getting laid off brought this into sharp focus. That's why I'm working my butt off to make this thing a relatively easy money making machine. It's within reach. I can see what that scenario looks like. I just need to make it happen. More on that in my next post, but right now that's my #1 short-term goal.

2. Replicate the MTB concept nationally.
Whether this is a full-time career or just something I do on the side while toiling at some W-2 job, this business will have branches in every major urban area of the country by the end of 2009.

3. Establish a freelance career.
I've got the copywriting skills, even if I don't display them here. (I've never been able to settle into blog writing. I compose fast, edit...rarely...and often don't have a point other than to keep the blog alive. If I get feedback, I'm inspired for a bit, but basically I feel like I'm talking to a void about nothing. Heh.) I'm up to my eyeballs in copywriting and Internet marketing books, and as it turns out, I love it. If I can get paid a few thousand bucks or so per month for writing some sales pages, letters, e-mails or whatever, I'm set. It's not my DREAM, but why let the skillz go to waste?

4. Begin publishing fiction.
I'll probably start writing some fiction on my other blog in addition to sending it to a few of the other fiction-publishing blogs out there. I don't expect to get rich...ever...as a writer but it's necessary for some reason. As someone once said, "It's not like you don't have a choice--you either write or you die." For some reason I can't explain (some writer, I know), I simply must continue to think of writing as my vocation. People tell me to--people who write much better than me. So, there it is.

More soon. Until then, my handful of faithful readers, (Jimmy, Jim, Steph, honey), Happy New Year! As Steph said, (on her Facebook page, I think), 2009 is going to be my bitch. I've slept through 34 years of my life, I'm about to turn 35 (watch for drunken live-blogging on the 31st, as well as many more parenthetical statements), and I'm sick of it. Here I come, 2009. I'm cocked, locked, and ready to be adequate!

Happy New Year!

I suppose that all over the Internet, RE investors are writing posts about how they're going to kick 2008 in the teeth. Me? Nah. I'm not going to assault it. I'm going to subtly manipulate it like a Jewish mother until it finally just gives up and gives me what I want.

But first, let's reflect on the past year...

I entered the year as a witless, scared little boy who'd recently found himself married. We learned a lot in those first few months. Things like how to fit the combined crap of two very different people into one little condo. (Solution: get rid of my crap.)

I changed jobs because, for the most part, I was bored. I wasn't going anywhere there, and we all knew it. A new job opened up in a nicer part of the D.C. Metro Area, and I took it. As luck would have it, it's a much better, funner (yes, funner), more fulfilling job with far better possibilities. Sure, I've bitched about it in the past, but after a year more or less putzing around in my office, I see what a gift it can be. I've got some plans...

We started reading some books about REI in May or so. About the same time we started thinking about trying for a baby. As it turned out, it's easier to create a unique human being with a soul destined to live for eternity than it is to flip a house.

Joseph, (the baby) ended up teaching me more about how to be a man than all previous experience. We found out about him in June or July, and that's about the time I discovered these things called "real estate investment clubs," and "wholesaling," and "sub-2s." I could have easily forgotten about all the neat real estate stuff I was learning, but he had a way of keeping me focused.

I learned that there really are no get-rich-quick schemes--except for those people who come to REI meetings and pitch them. They end up going home with tens of thousands of dollars for "systems" that may or may not take into account current market conditions. They make a lot of promises, but if the "system" doesn't account for certain variables, good luck getting them on the phone...

I finally learned the value of back-breaking physical labor. For some reason, my moving business is more enjoyable than my cushy desk job.

But now, as 2008 looms, it's time to get back into it. And even though I take the glorious predictions of the snake oil salesmen with a grain of salt, there is some sense to their optimism: the market sucks, people are desperate, and "real estate is about to have a sale." We'll definitely be working to make some deals in 2008, but our goals aren't to become gurus or REI superstars. If you ever read a "system" by me, it'll probably say something along the lines of "Work hard, don't expect fast cash, and if you happen to make a deal, thank your lucky stars."

We'll be taking the slower approach--more advertising, more networking, and keeping our eyes open. We've been chasing the deals--this year, we're going to let them come to us.

In the meantime, we'll keep trying to unload this condo, I'll keep after that raise (which I expect is coming) and I'll keep bringing in the moving cash. (Rates are going up, by the way).

So, stay tuned, dear readers. I'm a little bit wiser, a lot less naive, and more motivated. We're down to our last dollar, the baby will be here in two months or less, and I don't have any more patience for b.s.--my own or anyone else's.

Happy New Year!