Author: Chris Minnick

Chris Minnick is an author, trainer, web developer and co-founder of WatzThis? (www.watzthis.com).

He has authored and co-authored books and articles on a wide range of Internet-related topics. His published books include: JavaScript All-in-One For Dummies, Coding All-in-One For Dummies, Mastodon For Dummies, Beginning ReactJS Foundations, Adventures in Coding, JavaScript For Kids For Dummies, Coding with JavaScript For Dummies, Beginning HTML5 and CSS3 For Dummies, Webkit For Dummies, CIW eCommerce Certification Bible, and XHTML.

In addition to his role with WatzThis?, Chris is a winemaker, painter, novelist, swimmer, cook, and musician.

Doing something part II

You’re all insane!

Not really, I just wanted a snappy title. My post from yesterday has generated quite a firestorm of controversy. Not really, but hey, I can dream. Anyway, in my dream, I’m responding to my critics:

I’m not calling you lazy. I’m saying that you’re hung up on one aspect of starting a business (start-up money) and you’re neglecting the important parts–namely, that you don’t have a plan.

To the person who told me that I should take my own advise and start that bowling alley that I mentioned 5 years ago (see this), I say this:

It’s ok to forget about things you used to be obsessed with and even to drop them like hot potatos. If you keep hanging on to old stuff, you’ll be afraid to have new thoughts. I don’t care that I thought it might be a good idea to start a bowling alley once (and even did some research). Today, I know that running a bowling alley is something I don’t want to do and I’m ok with the fact that I probably never will. I’m also ok with getting interested in it again if I want to.

I used to do Kung Fu, take pictures, make movies, and lots of other stuff…but I don’t do those things now and I don’t consider myself to be someone who does those things anymore. To call myself a photographer or filmmaker or Martial Artist when I haven’t done any of those things seriously in years would just make me stressed out.

It’s the same with business ideas. If you get some new information that makes owning a record store/book store/cafe seem like a childish and dumb idea, just forget about it…even if all your friends think it would be really cool.

Do Something!

The standard advice I used to get from my creative writing professors was to write SOMETHING. I’m a firm believer in this, but not often a practitioner. I’m also a firm believer in doing some sort of exercise regularly…but, again, I don’t follow through most of the time. Although…look: I’m writing something now, and I just started swimming again, which just goes to show that people can change (at least when the weather is right and things aren’t too busy at work).

The reason I bring this up now is because I often get asked for advice about starting a business or some such similar activity. I don’t consider myself a business guru, but I have built something that’s allowed me to be self-employed for almost 10 years, so I guess I know a thing or two.

My advice to anyone who wants to start a business is this:

Do Something!

Talking and planning and dreaming are ok. But, why not put your ideas on paper? It won’t cost you anything and it’ll get you one step closer. Already have it on paper? Do the research and write a business plan…and DON’T spend more than a couple minutes researching the format of a business plan. AND YOU BETTER NOT GO BUYING A BOOK ABOUT WRITING A BUSINESS PLAN OR TAKING ONE OF THOSE CLASSES. I’m serious. I’ll kick your ass if you do. Formatting and style should be the least of your concerns at this point…why not start with answering these questions (off the top of my head):

Who will pay me money?
What will they pay me money for?
How much will they give me?
How will I do or make what they’ll give me money for?
Where will I do whatever it is?
When will this happen (make a schedule…who cares if you might miss a deadline?)

The one question you shouldn’t specifically answer just yet is “how much money do I need before I can do it?”. Save that for your second draft. Almost everyone I know who wants to start a business but hasn’t done it thinks that money is the problem that’s keeping them from their dream. I almost guarantee that it ain’t.

Books I’m Reading

I read the first 20 pages of a lot of computer books. I’ve been trying to be better about making it through the whole thing lately, but there are just so many. Here are some of books I’m reading now that I intend to make it all the way through. I’ve decided not to link or list the publisher. You can find these at all fine book stores.1. Pragmatic Version Control with Subversion
2. Head Rush Ajax
3. The Art of SQL
4. Agile Web Development with Rails
5. Complete Book of Chess Strategy
6. Innovation Happens Elsewhere
7. Best of Ruby Quiz
8. Linux Server Hacks
9. Practices of an Agile Developer
10. The Horn by John Clellon Holmes
11. The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil

Getting something done

We spent the weekend implementing organizational systems at work, a la “Getting Things Done”. It feels good, but my mental life is still a mess because of all the non-business stuff running around. The next step is to get all that organized, but until I do, I need a place to jot down a couple things and this is as good as any.

Things I want to research and possibly do:

1. make the gangster fun videos available as on-demand DVDs.
* maybe edit them first
2. make all my music stuff available somewhere on-demand
* gee, maybe all this can be on chrisminnick.com
3. compile my fiction writings into something
4. re-edit Beef and make it available somewhere

Your basic catch-up post

I’m not going to go a year without posting something!

I just finished doing this major revision to the book from HELL. I’m not feeling the relief that I should be feeling yet, however. Maybe next weekend I’ll actually believe that it’s done.

Work is good. We have 3 full-time people and 3 interns now. Sacramento is treating us good. We have interesting friends here now and I feel like I did when we left Austin…that feeling of knowing some people and belonging in this place. So, that’s good.

Yardwork continues to overwhelm me. The yard is so small…but there’s so much life going on in it! The problem with Texas was that nothing would grow. The problem here is that everything grows and just won’t quit! We’re being overrun with oregano.

new servers

steps yesterday: 16000

finished John Adams book yesterday and started on Out of Africa.

work stuff is good. We have new servers. Today, fastmetrics’ network went down for a half hour, which makes me that much more eager to get our websites out of there.

Adams smart

steps: about 150000
listening to: David McCullough’s John Adams

I sometimes have a tendency when reading/watching/listening to biographies of smart people to take pleasure in the failings and weaknesses of the person rather than being amazed and impressed by how far above me (intellectually) people like John Adams were. I realize that this is wrong, and that Ayn Rand would have something to say about it.