Modern Optimist

As with every year, at the beginning, you look ahead and envision yourself in a much better situation at the end of the year than it always turns out.

That being said, it’s always good to aim high and you’ll always accomplish something satisfactory.

It’s been frustrating at times working online. You read daily stories of overnight millionaires in new startups and all you want is a piece of it.

I really want to blog more, but as soon as I start writing, this annoying self-doubt kicks in whispering “what do you really know that others don’t, what have you made that has changed things and the way people work”. The time it takes to blog, you could be building something.

The work hours have increased, I’m surfing less, been saying no to gigs, music festivals, cricket matches, comedy shows and other events I’m normally jumping at.

Worst of all I’m seeing less of my friends. But it is my choice and it’s the path I’ve chosen not working 9 to 5 for anyone and I don’t regret any of it.

Negativity aside, for the first time ever I feel all the reading and hard work is starting to really come together.

Loads of solid foundations have been put in place for 2012.

In April this year, my mate D Rock and I launched a blog on minimalism, a subject that we’re both passionate about. Traffic is great and our (secret) master plan of using it to leverage other goals is working perfectly.

I have cleared a fair chunk off my plate by deleting a lot of my little ideas and side projects I had going on. When I say ‘deleted’, I mean absolutely murdered them so I never have to think about them another second and they are impossible to resurrect. Examples being CardFlare, BoardFlare and the FlareBrand network with loads of sub-sites almost going live. I also left a venture I have been working on for 3 years, even went to UK to work on and now it’s no more and I actually feel amazing about the decision. All those were good ideas, but not great ones.

These decisions all sort of came clear to me after my Indo trip in May that I needed to declutter to see clearer into the future.

July and August saw some big chunky Atlantic swells and the boys and I really pushed ourselves to surf some bigger rounder stuff. The adrenaline hadn’t pumped like that in a while.

In September I finally came to my senses and bought a MacBook Pro. It’s allowing me to change scenery and still work, productivity is at an all time high. Best. Purchase. Ever.

September I also dived into my first bit of actual e-commerce. For ages all my projects have been bringing in cash via an advertising model with me updating them daily and I wanted to create something more passive. I’ve been really pushing to sell something digitally online and it has started with a WordPress Theme. Response and sales have been great.

In October I officially teamed up with two super talented guys for a venture which I’m really feeling is going to help me take the big leap into getting out the client game next year. More info on this venture soon.

November has a quick getaway planned to Mozambique then full steam into the next year.

Once I’ve accomplished more of the milestones I’ve set, I’ll blog about them and the lessons I’ve learnt.

Here’s to 2012.

Aim high and you’ll always take something away to be proud of.