It is very easy for me to spend a good amount of money eating out and entertaining myself throughout the week. The amount of money spent can add up very quickly. It is amazing that I believe this money is a necessity and not a luxury. Well that is what I used to believe.

In 2004 I was living in Denton, TX and working in Lewisville, TX, a suburb of Dallas. I was living with three other guys and we would frequently head out for great food and entertainment. One night while sitting in my room working out my budget and I realized how much money I was spending on food and entertainment. While I was not too surprised by the number, it made me wonder how little amount of money I could live on and still enjoy life. So I decided to create a plan to see how little I could live on.

Immediately the number 20 came to mind. I would attempt to live on 20 dollars a week for at least a month. After that month I would reevaluate and decide whether to lower that number.

I think we all know that 20 dollars is not that much money. I can easily spend 20 bucks on one meal out. I was going to have to come up with some strict guidelines for my experiment. But first it needed a name to make it more real. So I thought the name “20 Dollar Experiment” would be fitting.

Let’s take a look at the guidelines I set for myself. (I just spent 15 minutes looking for the original piece of paper I wrote these on with no success at finding it. So I must depend on my memory):

• Only spend 20 dollars a week.

• Take out 20 dollars in cash at the beginning of the week.

• If I have money left over from the previous week I can use it the next week.

• Living expenses and gas are not included. (I will explain below.)

• All groceries, toiletries, medication, food, and entertainment are included.

• No mooching allowed. I can not take advantage of others to get what I want.

• Before I begin I must eat all the food I have at the house or if non-perishable, relocate and not eat during the experiment.

I think I covered everything I remember from the original list. This list was very important to me because it helped me set boundaries to successfully carry out the experiment. I kept this list on my desk and referred to it weekly as a reminder.

I would take out cash on Sunday that would be used throughout the entire week. I used cash because it made it easier to keep track of my spending and made it less tempting to cheat. By the way I never cheated.

If by some chance I had money left over from the week before I could use it the following week. This was to encourage myself to save for special outings with friends. I could plan to go see a movie or eat out several weeks in advance and save for it.

My living expenses were not included in the 20 dollars. I have received some criticism because of this, but let me explain why I made this decision. Obviously I could not pay rent, utilities, gas for my car, and food with only 20 dollars a week. I would find myself living on the streets and probably losing my job since my car would have no gas. My objective was not to see how little I could live on over all, but just how much I could live on concerning food and entertainment. However it makes you think how difficult it could be for someone with no money even if they have a job. They may have to take a bus to work and have a very difficult time getting approved for an apartment. But that discussion is for another time.

I decided to include everything that would be purchased at a store, except for gas. This included toiletries and medication. I have never taken much medication. I like to take as little as possible. The only medication I took then and to this day is an inhaler for my asthma. I know that medication should probably be considered a necessity but I included it because I believe it adds more reality to the experiment that must be considered when making a strategy for my weekly budget.

To make this whole process easier I could just eat my roommates food, get them to pay for my meals out, and even resort to begging. But none of that was allowed. Mooching and begging would not result in an accurate outcome for this experiment. And being on the receiving end of mooching is never fun and gets annoying very fast. Which brings up a good point. I am trying to maintain a social life while doing this experiment and not become a hermit that can’t have any fun. Mooching would only put more strain on my social life. It was already hard enough going out to eat with friends and explaining why I was only going to drink water.

Last on my list was that I must eat or store any food currently in the pantry. I did this so I would not start my first week with stock piles of food to fall back on. Again I made this decision so the outcome of the experiment would be accurate. This wasn’t too hard for me because I didn’t have much food in the pantry at the time.

So now that I have explained the rules I set for myself you may be wondering how it went. Surprisingly it was not as hard as I had thought. The first week took some getting used to. I had to convince myself several times that I should not cheat when I was out with friends and everyone was enjoying good food and drinks. During that first week I would frequently think that this was a stupid experiment and I should just quit and enjoy myself. There were also times I could not go out with friends because they were doing something I could not afford.

I found myself eating a lot more healthy foods. This was a goal I had for myself even though it was not a rule I set. I know that most people that don’t have much money eat fast food and other food that is very unhealthy. I wanted to prove to myself that there was another way.

I ate lots of sandwiches. I would buy the cheapest bread I could find. On the sandwiches I would eat either peanut butter or turkey. The condiments such as mustard lasted me longer than a week which was great for the following weeks. Along with the sandwich ingredients I would buy as many fruit and vegetables my budget would allow.

Every meal for the week was planned out at the beginning of the week. This was to make sure that I was going to be able to eat for every meal. I ate 3 meals a day and would sometimes have some fruit for snacks. No special drinks such as sodas or beer were ever purchased. I drank a lot of water.

The two biggest obstacles I faced during this experiment were my social life and my health. Both of which I overcame successfully. My friends and I ended up hanging out at my house more than before. This turned out to be a lot more fun. We would play games or go out to the volleyball courts and play around. We began to come up with creative ways to hang out that didn’t require spending money. I am lucky that my friends were accepting of the crazy experiment I was conducting.

It took about a week to figure out the best diet for myself to stay healthy and not starve myself. Before I started this experiment I was consuming more food than necessary in one sitting. I learned how to eat the correct sized portions and feel satisfied.

The total duration of this experiment was 2 months and as I said before, I never cheated. Through the experiment I learned that the amount of money I believe I need to enjoy my life is a lot less then I had previously thought. We are a society that believes we should enjoy the pleasures of life and not limit ourselves. I do believe we should enjoy life and live it to the fullest but not at the expense of becoming slaves to materialism. I believe that limiting ourselves from certain things for a brief period of time can teach us a lot about what we should consider important in our lives and remind us that having more things is not always going to make us more happy.

I am not suggesting that everyone do this experiment. I am only suggesting that we all consider what is important to ourselves and whether or not that will ever truly bring us joy.

Photo credit: altemark

Run for the Water Race

I heard somewhere that most people never complete their new years resolutions. I think this is because most people focus on the result instead of focusing on the process. So for example instead of focusing on reaching a certain weight, focus on working out three times a week. If you can make consistency your goal, you may just create a new habit and your result will be fulfilled.

I usually don’t make new years resolutions. I try to set goals on a monthly basis so you could say I have January resolutions. However, I do have plans for 2010. But I won’t get into those here. I always like to look back on the previous year and see what I am happy with and what I could have done better.

Looking back on what I am happy with in 2009:

Created 2 successful businesses. At the beginning of 2009 I started Four Eyed Monkey.com, a web services company. In August I started a web development and branding company called Design Shaman. Both of these companies have continued to grow through strong pushes in social media marketing as well as good ol’ fashion networking. I am excited to see what happens in 2010.

Started working for myself full time. In August of 2009 I quit my job at Apple, Inc. to work full time for myself. This is something I had been looking forward to for a long time. It took me stepping out of my comfort zone and overcoming my fear. And look what happened… everything turned out great!

Custom built my fixed gear bike. At the beginning of 2009 I worked with my friend Kansas to completely rebuild my 1980’s Puch road bicycle into a fixed gear bike. Kansas only guided me in the process making me do all the work myself, including re-spoking my wheel. Re-spoking a wheel is a very tedious endeavor. I am now hooked on building bikes and fortunately I received lots of bike tools for Christmas.

Ran a series of races. At the end of 2008 to the beginning of 2009 I participated in the Austin Distance Challenge. The challenge included many races including two half marathons, a 20 mile race and the Austin Marathon. I completed every race except the marathon (made it to mile 18) due to a tendon injury I got from over training. Sometimes I think I am Superman, but am always reminded that I am not.

Started riding my bike most places. After finishing my fixed gear bike I started trying to ride everywhere I could. My wife and I scaled down to one car several years ago, so riding my bike everywhere makes sense. I hope to ride even more this year.

Started a personal blog. I have made an attempt to start a blog a few times over the past several years, and every time have failed. I write 2 or 3 posts and then get lazy. This time has been different. I have made it a point to write consistently and hopefully write good content. Remember what I said about focusing on the process not the result. I am trying to make writing a process to become a habit.

I believe it is always good to also look back and decide what could have been done better the previous year. Not to think of myself as a failure, but to intentionally improve on those areas the next year. So here are some things I wish I could have done better in 2009.

Traveled more, internationally. I did some traveling this year, but not much. And all of my traveling was done in the U. S. For 2010 I want to travel more and make sure to travel internationally. My wife and I already have some things in the works to make this happen, but more on that later.

Worked out more. I was working out almost everyday when I was training for running, but since the Austin Marathon in February I only work out sporadically. While I do ride my bike quite a bit, I have not run or lifted weights much.

Eat healthier. I started off eating very healthy in 2009, but the past 6 months or so I have started to eat more and more unhealthy food. It is very noticeable that I feel and act differently when I am not eating healthy. Time to eat more veggies!

Those are the big ones in each category. Here’s to another great year!

What were you happy with in 2009?

Photo credit: Stephen Poff

It is very important to have direction and goals with any project or new business venture. In the past I have found myself launching a great new business idea with no written plan or solid goals. I quickly discovered that while sometimes this approach works out fine, more often than not it either slows the process of success or eliminates it completely.

It is a well-known idea that when you write your goals down your chance for success increases dramatically. I have experienced this time and time again in my own life. Whether it was fitness goals or business goals I realized my success rate was much higher than previous attempts when I developed a plan to meet my objectives. Creating a business plan falls in line with this idea and offers a new business a greater chance of success.

Another reason for having a written plan for your business is to keep you focused on each task at hand. It is easy to get caught up giving all of your time to only one aspect of your business and forgetting about the other components involved. One example of this may be that you spend all of your time perfecting your online presence (website, social networking interaction, etc.) and forget that you need to be pursuing new clients by networking face to face. A business plan offers a map to follow in pursuit of your new venture that helps to keep you moving forward.

The business planning process can seem overwhelming at first. When I first decided to create a business plan I did a huge amount of research and it got very discouraging very fast. I felt even more discouraged when I looked at example business plans and found they were lengthy, detailed and wordy.

There are a few simple things to keep in mind that can make the process seem more manageable. For example, try to avoid over planning or getting caught up in the details, which may cause you to quit before you’ve gotten started. To help avoid over planning, write a business plan that is easy to read and understand. It is important to plan enough to be ready to take action but not necessary to map out every minute detail. You just need a solid plan that will lay the groundwork for you to get started and help keep you excited about your new venture. Keep in mind that this business plan is for you and is intended to increase your chance for success so keep things simple.

The best way to write a business plan that is easy to read and understand is to create your business plan in an outline form. This form makes the plan easier to navigate so you can quickly locate different sections throughout. Use bullet points whenever possible as long wordy paragraphs can be difficult to follow. With an outline structure most people can expect their business plan to be around 3 to 5 pages.

Below is an example business plan in outline format. This was my first draft for a web design company I started.

Before you get started with the business plan there is one more important step to take. Choose your business name. One of the preliminary steps for a business start up is to choose a name to represent your company. Choosing the right name will greatly increase your chance for success. Consider choosing a name that is descriptive of what your business will accomplish. A descriptive name allows others to immediately identify the purpose of your business. For example, if you are a florist living in Austin, TX, you may come up with the name “Austin Flower Designs”. This name helps the consumer quickly recognize your business services.

However, you may also consider choosing a name for it’s memorable qualities. An example of this might be a company named “Four Eyed Monkey“. This is one of my companies and I chose this because the name itself and the logo of a four-eyed monkey are unique and memorable to those I do business with. This is a good reminder that it is important to consider your overall branding strategy when coming up with your business name. Having a memorable logo to go along with your name may help you have a more successful marketing campaign.

Additional considerations when selecting a name:

• Keep your name short. If it is too long it will be hard to remember. Example: The Flower and Small Gifts Shop on the Hill.
• Avoid abbreviations and acronyms. Example: A flower and small gift shop called F.S.G.S., Inc.

Once you have secured a business name it is time to get started writing the business plan. It may work best if you approach each section by writing a list of your ideas for that section. Later you can go back and narrow down some of the ideas and information. It is important at first to get everything you are thinking written down. Let’s get started.

Your Vision

You need to begin by defining what the vision or purpose for your business is. Your vision is very important because it is what guides your business decisions so make it simple, clear and straightforward. The easiest way to do this is by answering the questions, “How am I going to reach my vision?” and “Why do does my business exist?” Once you have defined your purpose and identified how you are going to achieve it try to imagine what the future for your business might be.

Product or Service

Next, identify what your product or service is. It is important to be very clear in this section. If I am starting a web design company I may just put that my service is web design. But what does that mean? This description needs more detail. Instead I may put, e-commerce websites for small businesses, logo design, and online marketing consulting services. You may notice that even some of those could still include more detail but you get the basic idea, be thorough in your description of products and/or services.

Costs

Defining your costs and profit is one of the most important aspects of a business plan. To find these, three things need to be considered: What costs will I incur to provide my product or service? What will I charge my clients or customers? What will my profit be? These are very important questions because they let you know what to charge customers, help you set your budget and sales goals and determine overall profitability.

The best way to begin analyzing your costs is to write down all the expenses you think you will incur with your product or service. The cost of producing a product or service may vary from one cost to a number of different costs that when added together provide your total cost for that product or service.

Once your costs have been determined you can use this amount as a base to define what you will charge the customer for your product or service.  You may then determine your profit margin by subtracting your costs from the cost to your customer but keep in mind there may be additional costs to consider before you calculate your overall profit. For example, your services may require hiring a support staff, which will add additional costs you must take into account.

Staff and Wages

Hiring employees can make a new business start up more complex, financially and otherwise, but it may be necessary to assure that your business operates smoothly. Before hiring employees there are a few things that should be considered. To begin, don’t hire employees just because you don’t want to do the work. Starting any business is hard work and you have to be ready for that. You must decide whether you really need an employee before you take on that responsibility. In the long run, it may be easier for you to do the work at hand then to hire another employee.

While hiring employees may make your perceived workload easier, you must consider the added emotional responsibility as well. You must manage employees and meet their requested needs. If an employee is having trouble at home, you may become a part of dealing with those problems. You also have to consider that there are added expenses to having employees like wages, insurance, and the need for office space to have a place for the employees to work.

I am in no way saying that employees are bad but try to be realistic about the added responsibility that comes with hiring people.

One alternative to consider is hiring contracted workers or freelancers. In most cases when you hire a contracted worker they can work from their home and act as a separate business or individual. This means that you are not responsible for their taxes, insurance, etc. Another added bonus is that contracted workers in many cases work harder because they want to keep working for you as opposed to an employee who may find it easier to slack off here and there.

If hiring others is unnecessary then just fly solo for now. It is be much easier to hire people out of need than to let someone go when there is no work for them to do.

Budget

You must have a solid financial plan if your business is going to be successful. One of the biggest assets to your financial plan is a budget. In this part of your business plan you need to make a budget for your first year of business. In this section you will need to refer back to the cost section of your business plan. Your budget allows you to organize all of your projected expenses and projected income into one place that is easy to follow and utilize.

Your budget will consist of the following:

• All operating expenses such as office space, Internet service, and phone line
• Equipment and capital expenditures
• Wages for support staff
• Expected sales
• Projected income from all sources

It is very important that you include every expense and source of income you can think of. Remember this business plan is for you so don’t leave something out of your budget because it makes it look less attractive. Include everything because if you want your business to be successful you have to be honest with yourself.

Competition

Having competition is a good thing. When there is competition it means that there is a need. As much as you may like to be the only one out there doing what ever it is you do, most likely that’s never going to be the case. Competition gives you the opportunity to do a better job than someone else, it keeps you on your feet and prevents you from being lazy.

Since there is competition out there you need to know everything you can about it. You will need to research what the competition is offering and how they are marketing it. This will help to assure that your product or service is better than your competitor’s.

It may feel like you are wasting time doing research when all you want to do is get started with your business but finding out about your competition will give you a better chance at success. Make it fun. Think of yourself as an undercover spy trying to discover the inner workings of your competition. Call your competitor and find out what their prices are and request they send you their product brochure or any other materials they may have. The more information you have the easier it will be for you to successfully compete.

Writing a business plan will take you some time but it will pay off in the end, I promise. Just remember that even though you have a plan and all your goals are written down none of it means anything if you don’t take action. Take action. When you run into roadblocks, and you will trust me, push through them and keep going. Persistence will pay off in the end.

Me, April, Julie, and Jonathan on the color slides in Estes Park, CO.

This is the continuation of How I Became A Nomad: Part 4. Make sure to read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 first.

I arrived at the bar that April had told me how to get to. I will have to admit I was a little anxious. I had no idea what to expect. When I got inside I spotted Julie at a table with a lot of people. There were probably 15 people at the table. I was introduced to everyone including April. I sat next to April and everyone began to ask me questions.

Everyone was so interested in my sudden move to Colorado. I told them the story about the events leading up to me getting there. Then April asked where I was staying. I told her I was staying in my car for now until I found a job.

“Your not staying in your car. We all have places you can stay. How about you stay with me?”

April was a flight attendant for United Airlines. She had recently moved back in with her parents while she waited to move into a house her and some friends (who were sitting with us that night as well) had rented. She told me her brother was off at college and I could stay in his room.

This was great. I didn’t have to sleep in my car another night. Everyone at the table that night was very accepting and fun to be around. I ended up staying at April’s parents house for about a week until she moved in to her house. She told me I could move as well and sleep in the basement.

Me, April, Eric, and Julie

The house was on a street off of Table Mesa Drive. It was a split level house. When you walked in the front door you were immediately met with two sets of stairs. One going up and the other going down. On the top floor was the main living room and kitchen. There were also 2 bedrooms. On the bottom floor was another living room area, a laundry room, and 2 other bedrooms.

Besides April there were three other people living in the house. Three guys. One was an engineer, one was a high school teacher, and the other was in grad school. I was very thankful for everyone being so laid back and not caring that I would be sleeping on the floor in the downstairs living room.

I still did not have a job and was not paying rent. I was diligently applying for jobs, but no one was calling me back. I felt like a mooch, but was consistently reminded that I could continue to stay. I continued to meet new people and Boulder quickly became my home. I had a group of friends that I hung out with everyday. We would go on day trips together to places like Estes Park, CO. I started to rock climb whenever I had the chance. I mostly did bouldering since it didn’t require much gear.

April, Julie, Me, Jonathan, Alli, and Ross

April’s job as a flight attendant allowed her more days off in a row than my other roommates. She would usually work for several days and then be back for several days. This meant that I spent more time with April than the other roommates since we were home a lot at the same time.

One night when we were hanging out I told her we should get out of town and go on a trip. I told her I didn’t want to go too far because I didn’t want to have to drive for a long time. Her response:

“Why would we drive? Let’s just fly.”

That sounded like a great idea. She had buddy passes so that I could fly for free. She pulled out an International Hostels book and said we should pick a hostel we want to stay at. In the US of course.

We came across an amazing looking hostel in Washington State off the coast of Seattle. It was on Vashon Island. The reason this hostel was so great is because you could stay in a tee pee. So we decided that is what we were going to do. We were going to leave the next morning and leave a note for our roommates saying, “we went to ??”

There was only one problem, April had to work the next day. Since she lived in Boulder you would think she worked out of Denver Airport, but she actually worked out of Chicago O’hare airport. So every time she went to work she would jump on a flight to Chicago. Talk about a commute. She thought she might be able to get out of working so we headed to the airport destined for Seattle.

When we got to the airport she went to find out if she could get off. No luck. She was going to have to work. Oh well, I thought, we can just do it another time. Then April asked if I just wanted to come to Chicago with her and stay there while she worked and then we could go to Seattle. April had an apartment in Chicago with two other flight attendants. So we were off to Chicago.

April was working for three days. I did not know anyone in Chicago, so I went out on the town by myself. Her apartment was right off the blue line (one of the train routes in Chicago). I would get on the train everyday and head downtown to explore. I tried to see everything I could that was free. I spent a lot of time in bookstores and on Michigan Avenue.

Once April returned we were off to Seattle. When we arrived we met up with one of her friends. This is the same friend that was having the going away party when I first moved to Boulder. We hung out for the day with her and then she dropped us off at the fairy.

It was my first time to visit Seattle. I loved how green it was there and how you could see Mt. Rainer in the distance.

After the short ferry ride to Vashon Island we were picked up by a van from the hostel. When we arrived, there they were, the tee pees. The hostel was no where near anything. There were no other buildings or houses. We were surrounded by forest.

The weather was perfect. During the day it was in the 70s and at night got into the 40s or 50s. Perfect temperature for camping in a tee pee. The tee pees were big and had enough room for two cots. We spent our days there exploring the trails that ran through the forest. We made a great choice for a hostel.

After our short stay on Vashon Island we were headed back to Boulder. I forgot to mention that each flight we got bumped up to first class. How cool is that.

I stayed in Boulder for a short time longer before moving on to my next destination. I had officially become a nomad.

The trip to Denver was pretty uneventful. I left Lubbock mid afternoon so I arrived in Denver in the middle of the night. I only stopped to eat and get gas.

I was completely unfamiliar with Denver. I had no idea where anything was and what parts of town were safe. But that did not concern me too much. I exited the highway and kept driving till I found a neighborhood apartment complex. I have no idea where I was even today. I drove to the back of the complex and found a dark parking spot and parked.

I had a window shade that you put in your front window to keep the sun out, so I put that up to make it harder to see in my Jeep. The rest of the windows were tinted very dark so no one could see in through those with out trying to look in. I laid out my sleeping bag and pillow with the back seat folded down and went to sleep for the night.

I was in my new home, Colorado. I had made it. It had not even been a week since the idea to move came to me.

I had a few hundred dollars in my bank account, but that would not last long if I didn’t find a job. Finding a job was my first order of business. I didn’t want running out of money to defeat my new adventure. I dreaded the idea of having to call my parents to ask for money because things didn’t work out. I could not let that happen.

I woke up Thursday morning at 9. Sleeping in the car wasn’t the most comfortable place, but I felt rested enough. Since I had to find a job I went straight to a convenience store to buy a local paper and get something to eat. Looking in the job section of the newspaper was a little overwhelming for me. Everything I came across I was either under qualified or would not want to do.

So I thought I would just drive around and find places to apply at. I jumped back on the highway, having no idea where I was going, and headed North. I saw a sign that said Boulder. I knew Boulder was a college town, but didn’t know much else about it. I decided I would check it out.

When I got to Boulder I immediately loved it. I drove around for a while just checking everything out. I ended up on a street named Arapahoe Avenue. It had strip centers on both sides of the street. It made sense to start at one end of the strip center and work my way down applying at every store. So I did just that.

On my job hunt I came to a store called EMS or Eastern Mountain Sports. I loved mountain sports and was very excited about the possibility of working there. In Lubbock I had gotten into rock climbing at the rec center at Texas Tech, so I thought I would see if they had any places to climb in Boulder.

I found someone that worked at EMS. It was a girl named Julie. I asked her if she knew of any rock climbing walls in town. I felt very stupid when she answered by saying, “Yes, but most people climb outside.”

Of course they do!

We continued to talk and I told her that I had just moved to Colorado from Texas. She said she went to school in Texas and was very excited that we had met. She told me that her and some friends were having a going away party for someone that night and asked if I would like to come.

Are you kidding? Someone wants be my friend already? I just moved here!

I told her that would be great. I gave her my phone number and she gave me hers. I was so excited. I was about to meet new people and hopefully make some new friends. I was so excited that I could not fill out any more applications for jobs, so I called it a day, even though it wasn’t even noon yet. I found a coffee shop and stayed there mostly for the rest of the day. I was really hoping that she would call.

A 6 o’clock I got a call. It was her! Well it was her phone number but it was one of her friends, another girl named April. April introduced herself and told me they were meeting at 8 at a bar. She told me how to get there and said she was excited to meet me.

This was great! Making friends here took no effort at all. And from what I could tell both Julie and April were really cool people.

Now I just had to waist time until 8.

To be continued… Read Part 5

Now that I had cleared the biggest hurtle for moving to Colorado, I had to pack and get rid of a lot of stuff. By stuff I mean furniture, clothes, computers, etc.

I think like most Americans I liked having things. My mom is an interior designer so I always had my share of furniture. I had dressers, book cases, desks, and side tables. I also had several computers. I had one very large desk that I had built which had three computers on it. Did I need three computers? Probably not, but I had them.

I also had more clothes than I needed. I always found myself thinking I couldn’t get rid of that shirt or those pants because I may need to wear them someday, just not today.

I guess you could say I was materialistic. Which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing but had to change if I was going to go to Colorado.

My plan for the move was to take as little as possible so that I could be mobile. I didn’t expect to find a place to live right away, so I needed to be able to sleep in my car or camp out. I had decided that the most important thing for when I arrive in Colorado was to get a job. Then I could find a place to live.

So I had to go from materialistic to minimalistic, and fast. Fast because I was ready to leave as soon as possible.

I decided I needed to make a list of the things I would need so I could travel light. My list consisted of:

• 3 shirts
• 1 pair of pants
• 1 pair of shorts
• 2 pairs of underwear (don’t judge)
• 2 pairs of socks
• 1 pair of tennis shoes
• 1 pair of flip flops
• 1 jacket
• minor amount of toiletries
• a survival knife (another story about this later)
• first aid kit
• watch
• peanut butter and crackers

There were a few more things but these were the most important. I was able to fit all of this in to a backpack. Besides the things listed I brought a pillow and a sleeping bag.

Now everything else I owned had to go. I probably could have sold everything, or most things, and made a little money, but I didn’t have time for that. So instead I called several of my friends and told them they could come over and take anything they wanted. Almost everything was claimed and the rest I donated.

So now I had dropped out of school and became a minimalist, now I had to say goodbye to all my friends. There was a part of me that didn’t want to say goodbye or even tell everyone what I was doing because I didn’t want to make a big deal about it. So I decided to only say goodbye to my closest friends.

It was Wednesday night and I had said my goodbyes and was all ready to get on the road. My Jeep Cherokee was fueled up and my one bag, pillow, and sleeping bag were in the back.

So I am off to Colorado, but where in Colorado do I go? I decided Denver made the most sense because I could probably get a job there fairly easy. So I was off to Denver only 3 days after returning from the weekend with my parents in Wichita Falls.

To be continued… Read Part 4

To wrap things up in Lubbock there was a lot I had to do. The deal breaker came down to dropping out of school. It was late in the semester and well past the drop date to get a full refund on my tuition. This would not be a problem if I had paid cash for my school, but I had taken out loans for the semester.

Monday morning after returning from Wichita Falls my first destination was the Registrars Office. I had to drop all of my classes and see if I could convince them to give all the money back to the lenders.

Unfortunately they could not be convinced about returning the money. I was told that I would still have to pay 75% of the tuition for that semester. I did not even have close to that amount of money. With school loans the lenders will not pay if you don’t complete the class. So the lender would refuse to pay and I would be responsible for the money owned to the school.

I was extremely disappointed and confused. I knew I was supposed to go to Colorado, but there was no way I could go if I had to pay that much money. And I could not imagine finishing out the semester and then going.

My personality is somewhat impatient when it comes to decisions that I make. Once I decide to do something I don’t want to wait to do it. I don’t see the point in waiting. That is why it was out of the question for me to wait until the semester ended.

I had to figure out a way to get a full refund. If you have ever tried to get something accomplished at a university then you know it is very hard to find the right person to talk to. And if you do, there is so much bureaucracy that even they may not be able to help you out.

The only person I thought could possibly help me was the Dean of Electrical Engineering. So I immediately headed to the Deans office. Usually you can’t just go to the Deans office and speak with him or her. They are too busy and important to talk to just any student. But I had to try.

When I arrived at the office I was greeted by the Deans secretary. She asked what I needed. I decided to tell her why I needed the Deans help so I proceeded to tell her about my move to Colorado and how I knew I was supposed to go. I asked if she could somehow bend the rules to get me a full refund so that I could go.

After I explained everything she walked back to the Deans office. When she returned she had a printed out piece of paper that she handed to me. She said the Dean had granted me a full refund on my tuition and all I had to do was take this paper back to the Registrar and everything would be taken care of.

What?!?!

I couldn’t believe it. That was way too easy. Why would the Dean approve of me dropping out of school? I will never know.

After returning to the Registrars office everything was resolved and I was one step closer to being on the road to Colorado.

To be continued…. Read Part 3

My major at the time was Electrical Engineering/Computer Science. I enjoyed what I was learning in my classes but was seriously considering switching to a Business major. I was at that point in my life that most everyone gets to, where you have no idea what you want to do. There are the lucky few who probably knew in elementary school what they wanted to do for the rest of their lives, but that was not me.

At the time I lived with two of my friends in a house. The house was in a perfect location only a few blocks from campus. I would usually drive to school because I was lazy, but if I wanted to I could ride my bike or walk. I was also working at a local bank part time to pay for my rent, food, and frequent outings with friends. Life was good and I was very happy with where I was at.

Then one day, Friday to be exact, I had this crazy idea to move to Colorado.

Move to Colorado? Why would I want to do that?

To tell you the truth I have no idea why this idea popped into my head. I had not just watched some movie about Colorado or heard a friend talking about it. It was just all of a sudden. The idea didn’t include some fantasy of what my life would be like in Colorado, only that I would move there.

Moving to Colorado made no sense at all for me. I had a great life where I was in Lubbock. I had friends, was going to school, and had a job I enjoyed. Moving to Colorado would mean starting all over again. Besides that, I was completely unfamiliar with Colorado. The only times I had been there was on ski trips in high school.

This idea to move consumed my mind. I really wanted to go. I felt like I was supposed to go.

Before I made my final decision I thought I should discuss it with my parents. I was going home anyway that weekend and thought it would be a good idea to think it over for a few days.

My parents lived in Wichita Falls, TX which is about a 3 hour drive from Lubbock. I left Friday evening. My time in the car was spent getting even more excited about moving. And becoming even more sure that it was what I had to do.

But what would my parents say? Would they be completely dismissive of the idea?

My parents were not usually that way. They would usually support the decisions that I made. But this was a big decision. I was dropping out of college.

Over the weekend all I could think about was my new journey. I would be living each day with out knowing what would happen next. I would meet new people and live in a place I knew nothing about.

A little to my surprise my parents supported me in my new adventures. They asked me lots of questions to make me really think things through. I never had a single doubt that this is what I was supposed to do.

I left Wichita Falls Sunday afternoon heading back to Lubbock and had a feeling of freedom and excitement. It was a feeling that I had never felt before and for the first time in my life I knew with no doubt in my mind that this is what I was supposed to do.

“I am really going to do this!”

As I approached Lubbock the sun had just set. From a distance I could see the glow of the city lights. For a brief moment I was sad to be leaving Lubbock and all my friends there. But then my excitement returned.

Now all I had to do was wrap things up in Lubbock and get on the road to Colorado.

To be continued… Read Part 2

We all have dreams of the lives we would like to be living or the business we would like to start or the job we would like to have. People who fear failure are limiting themselves and will not achieve what they are capable of without overcoming this fear.

The fear of failure is very much rooted in the fear of what others think about us. It is a fear of rejection, or a fear of how people will view us. We are so worried that others will think less of us if we fail, so we just decide it is not worth it to try. The funny thing about it though, is that those same people we are worried about have the same fear of failure that we do, and for all we know they may admire us for even trying.

If you want to be successful you must overcome your fear of failure. I am talking about success in a very broad sense. The fear of failure is always going to hold you back from what you really want in life. You must start thinking of failure a different way. Think of failure as a positive outcome. When you fail you learn. No one gets it right the first time every time. From failure comes success. Successful people understand this and do not fear failure but embrace it.

The best thing you can do to begin overcoming your fear of failure is to take action. Action is the most important step any of us can take when going after our dreams, because if we don’t take action we will just talk ourselves out of doing anything at all. Action can be broken up into multiple actions. If you are wanting to move to a new place you may start by making a list of all the things you need to get done before you can get on the plane and go. Then set a date when you need to have everything done and be on you way to that new place. Now you can break all those things up and do a little at a time. Just take action as soon as possible or you probably won’t take it at all.

If you fail you must be persistent. You must not give up just because something did not work out the way you thought it was going to. If it is something you really want, keep going for it until you get it. Use your failure as a learning experience and use the knowledge you gain on your next try. Persistence is a very important part of overcoming the fear of failure.

Let’s go back to the idea that the fear of failure is also sometimes the fear of what others will think about us. It is very important to realize that others feelings towards us are usually a reflection of how those people think about themselves. If we fail others may like that because it reaffirms to them that their dreams are not reachable either. It makes them feel good to see someone else fail and know that it is not them failing. But we need to break free from caring about what those people think, because when we fail we should not take it personally. It does not mean that we are not capable of succeeding. It only means that we now have more information for the next time we try again. Just think how people will think of you when you are persistent and actually succeed at what you wanted.

So go and take action on the dreams you have for your life. And embrace the idea of failure, don’t fear it anymore. Remember to always be persistent. You may fail several times before you get it right but that is all part of the learning process.