Failx3, Win!

Posted on December 28, 2009 by Mark Essel

This topic is more than a geometric proof of three left turns setting you in the right direction. It’s about the past three days and what I’ve not accomplished.

Your Failure is Another Man’s Masterpiece

Pay careful attention to the details of your latest failure. If you document each step with the utmost care, your recent catastrophe can serve or even save someone else. It is an extreme form of generosity and altruism to share your most bitter defeat.

Over the past weekend I have done a terrible job of managing my project work schedule. I’ve socialized, lazed about, and over eaten to the point of gluttonous glee. I know what I have to do next, and it’s hard. Procastination is an insidious inventor of excuses.

Right now:

  • I don’t have time to catch up with friends and family
  • I don’t have time to (re)watch game changing movies (Avatar 3D just go see it)
  • I can’t have it all
  • I have to create an irresistable reason for another person to visit and use our service at Victus Media

Each decision to enjoy a particular activity, steals time away from a vital work task. If you’re serious about building real long term value the distinction between what is essential and non-essential will become painfully clear. Just cancelled plans to meet up with a friend and my bro because the time cost is too large right now. But that decision was only the beginning.

Executing What Hasn’t Been Done

I’ve set about a task that I’ve never seen done before. An interactive social search bot, that “lives” on the web. My hope is that this type of tool will be remarkable enough to bring folks to our user designed discovery portal. It’s not hubris that beckons me to try, but desparation. Building something of lasting value to others, is validation for the biological footprint of my life. Life is a gift, squandering it will not be my legacy.

Our life’s worth:
No man can judge it, but all men do.

My deepest concern is to earn social freedom for my and my loved one’s future (aka choose my projects from here out). I believe this motivation in various forms is shared by all first time startup founders. The unobstructed freedom to create and choose our labor drives us more clearly and powerfully than any whip or fear.

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About Mark Essel

I’m Mark Essel, a dataminer & systems engineer that’s added cofounder, web developer and author to my bag of tricks. My quest is to rediscover my life’s passions, and leverage that drive into profitable business ventures.
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  • Sometimes it seems pointless and impossible though, and you feel like giving up. Maybe I'll snap out of it in a few hours, but I feel that way now. I feel like I'm getting bled by one vendor, blown off by another, and I'm wrestling with how to market my business through what appears to be the one viable channel which happens to be cluttered with crap and scams.

    Good post though.
  • Dave I wrote up a small wall of text, but the damnable paste on my iPhone is flaking.

    You're either at a point where you have to push through (being creative can help) or where you recognize a systematic problem in which case you have to switch gears.

    You can count on me to cheer you on in the face of the implausible or damn near impossible. But for more specific feedback, hit me up by email. Even if I can't provide any good alternatives I find it's valuable to identify with clarity the challenges when faced with a hellish task. Hit me up at messel at gmail dot com anytime.
  • Thanks, Mark. I'll try to hit you up via e-mail later today. I'm feeling slightly more positive now though. Just heard from someone I respect as a savvy and numerate investor that he's going to become a member of the first site. It's a vote of confidence when someone savvy signs on. Challenge is to get more of them.

    Anyhow, got to prepare for a conference call with the guy who may be bleeding me. Thanks for your interest and I'll reach out later.
  • Ha, fantastic news Dave! Sure enough if you can create value to the best, others will follow.

    Best of luck removing the "bleeder".
  • Thanks, Mark.

    Just got off the conference call with that vendor. I may have been too harsh in my assessment before. He made a good point in our call and a couple of useful suggestions.
  • BTW, the other vendor (the blow off one) seems to have a real self-destructive side. Fortunately, his gal Friday is finishing up those projects for me.

    Mark, what is your e-mail address? I am sure you list on this blog somewhere, but I couldn't find it for some reason. If you don't want to post it here, maybe you can send me an e-mail at this address and I'll write you back: impossibledistances@yahoo.com. <-- Incidentally, when I tell you where that e-mail address comes from, you'll probably think it's fitting for your "cynicism guru". It comes from this poem by the great New Jersey man of letters Stephen Crane:

    There was set before me a mighty hill,
    And long days I climbed
    Through regions of snow.
    When I had before me the summit-view,
    It seemed that my labour
    Had been to see gardens
    Lying at impossible distances.
  • That's an incredible poem Dave. Thanks for passing it along. It's
    getting added to today's post!

    My email is messel at gmail dot com. I need to add it to the blog,
    (about page?)

    Glad to hear things are being handled properly by his assistant.
  • fave part:

    Our life’s worth:
    No man can judge it, but all men do.
  • What we build is valued by society. So we get measured. Glad you liked it, always fun riffing in the morning while walking. I can use the sales practice for VM ;)
  • 'Procastination is an insidious inventor of excuses'

    Mark, good morning

    Harsh and true words that we all fight against. We will win the battle against procrastination and it doesnt' really matter whether the motivation is inspiration or desperation as long as the motivation persists.
  • Good morning Arnold!

    Love how you semantically parse and capture the best one liner and essence of my posts/comments :)

    Now you have given me some food for thought between des/ins/piration while I complete my morning walk.
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