Maybe I’m jaded. Maybe I’m confused. Maybe it’s inexperience. Maybe it’s poor management. Maybe it’s poor people.

But in my short experience it seems that when I’m pushing someone to get involved in a project, I’m doing most of the work. I can motivate someone to get involved with a project that they’re not initially excited about but after a few weeks, that fizzle goes away. Once the fizzle goes away, I’m the one that’s baby sitting, making sure work is getting done and making sure that the fizzle, that was once there, doesn’t go away. Many times the fizzle is long gone and they’re just doing the work so they don’t disappoint themselves or me.

Well, I think from now on, I’m going to look for people to bring ideas to me. I think I’ll wait to find the people that are willing to stick it out through the inevitable highs and lows. I’ll wait to see what ideas I want to get involved with rather than bringing ideas to people. I won’t try to change people’s minds or ideas until I’m completely sold on the people.

As I’ve said before, people are more important than ideas. Once I know I have solid people then I’ll share ideas. But I still won’t push ideas onto people. I’ll do my best to explain a vision and hope they catch fire… I’m not interested in the fizzle, I need to see the fire.

      

In July I rented my house to a family and since then, I’ve been living in Bryant about 30 miles from the Little Rock. The drive takes about 30 minutes and its been killing me.

I’ve purchased a few

I finally found a house here in Little Rock… Its off of Hillsborough and its in the process of being remodeled… a process that I swore I would never do again… but this time it’s different… this time people are getting paid to do the work… it goes a lot faster, its better quality, and it keeps the stress off of me. I don’t think I’ll be there for a long time but it is a step in the right direction… I’m excited to see the property after the work is done.

      

I’ve always wondered why people act like they need a daily cup of coffee to wake up. I’ve always been a little wired and never needed anything to “wake me up.”

Recently I’ve been waking up early and have really been struggling (I’ve always been a hard sleeper).

I’ve decided to move my workout to the mornings and because of that, I’ve started using N.O.-Xplode as a supplement. Every morning, I drink a cup of this stuff… it’s great. Its just like someone else drinking coffee… I need it to get going and as soon as I take it, I’m up and ready to go. I think the stuff is meth… My heart pumps a little faster and my brain works a little faster.

I’m not recommending the product or anything like that, I’m just happy that I found my morning coffee.

      

Everyone knows New Year’s Day is my favorite holiday. On this day, we’re able to wipe away all the mistakes we made and start fresh. We get to evaluate our prior year, during the evaluation we’re not critical on our selves, we’re just evaluating to make ourselves better next year.

I made a lot of mistakes last year. I’m hoping to make a lot more this year I’ve learned a lot more than I ever expected and achieved more than some thought was possible.

I look forward to 2008, I will own the year and this time next year, I’ll be standing with my 3 page list of goals and red pen… I’ll have a bunch of the goals achieved and a lot more goals that I didn’t even come close… but at least I’m trying.

      

Well… I’ve started a new project that involves real estate… specifically - single family homes in Michigan, South Carolina, Mississippi, Ohio, Georgia, Illinois, and Indiana.

Its been a lot of fun and I’m learning a ton about other state laws, other markets, and meeting new people. This opportunity has great timing, great planning, great vision, and a lot of potential… But, I still feel like we’re missing something.

Its something I talk about a lot… great people. They’re hard to find…

When I find good people, its hard for me to share my vision… its hard for me to get them excited.

When I find great people, they just get it… Sometimes they get me excited. Sometimes they see it before I do!

I love working with great people… but they’re hard to find.

I’m looking for partners in the states listed above… Or you must be willing to relocate there

If you’re interested, let me know.

      

Wordpress has been great to me. I just upgraded and it only took two clicks… No… seriously.

Before I used Wordpress, open source applications took forever to configure, install, and customize… wordpress completely changed that.

If you need a recommendation for a blogging platform, I give my unstinting support to Wordpress. Roxane Martino (sister) just released a new WP blog…

Does anyone else use Wordpress? If so, let me know… if not… why not?

PS… iProv can design, install, customize, and configure your WP Blog

      

Google’s OpenSocial is exciting. I talk a lot about “integration of applications” being the future of software; OpenSocial is proving my point.

OpenSocial is a set of common API’s which will allow developers to write applications that leverage a number of different functions from participating web sites…

Good usage of an API can be seen at FORECLOSEDmaps.com. FORECLOSEDmaps.com uses Yahoo Maps… the way we’re able to use Yahoo Maps is by utilizing the Yahoo Maps API. If we decided to switch to Google Maps, we would have to register with a different vendor and re-write all of the code… Long story short… its a pain to use multiple API’s

OpenSocial will allow developers to quickly leverage mutliple sites using 1 API!!!

There are a ton of articles about it and everyone is really excited but the API isn’t publicly available yet… I can’t wait… I’m going to make something cool… I don’t know what… but something cool.

My Predictions

1. As I stated (and its been proven) with the facebook platform, there are going to be a lot of new applications developed.
2. The first (not necessarily the best) applications developed will see a flurry of users and will quickly go from thousands-of-users to hundreds-of-thousands.
3. Acquisitions of the most popular applications
4. You will see many new integration applications… that is… applications that allow you access to many of your favorite web sites from a central location (Facebook, myspace, linkedin… all from one location)
5. People will become more transparent and data will become more seamless. Now that developers can easily marry your information across different platforms you will be able to connect a linkedin profile with a facebook profile.

      

Yes… I know… I spend as much on phones as most people spend on cars… Every time that I start looking there is a review that promises me that some phone will solve all my problems… and each time, I’m dissapointed.

My last phone (the blackjack) was actually working perfect for me… it sync’d with my calendar, contacts, etc… It had email access… it had internet access… a full keyboard… played mp3s… took pictures… came with 2 batteries!!!

So, when I read all the fantastic reviews about the iPhone, I was pumped… I bought one and to my dissapointment, I’m still not happy… I actually want my money back and I want to go back to the blackjack… Here is what I hate…

1. Not a full keyboard… I have to look at my phone as I text
2. When I place it on my chin, it always puts people on hold
3. The internet is NOT faster
4. You can’t bulk delete from your emails
5. No third party applications
6. It has to sync with iTunes… I hate itunes

      

GrandCentral.com is a phone project brought to you by Google… free of charge.

My GrandCentral.com phone number is: 501-859-6035. You can call me now or you can even click the “call me” link on my page.

I’ve recently started using it and I’m really impressed. It make screening phone calls (something I do a lot) easier. Here’s the short version… Once you sign up, GrandCentral.com assigns you a phone number. When someone calls your phone number it immediately asks you who you are and why you’re calling… it then starts ringing… you can play any ring back… it also gives you a list of funny ring back options.

I told GrandCentral.com my “real” number and GrandCentral.com then calls my cell phone when I get a phone call from 501-859-6035… I pick it up and it says “X is calling.” I then have the option to answer it by pressing “1″, ignore it by pressing “4.” If I press “4″ to ignore, I can listen to the message that they leave… if I feel like answering while they’re talking, I can press “*” to pickup immediately… while they’re leaving a message! I can see a list of calls that I recieved on any day… and

It records the conversations and allows online access to voice mail. I can change my “real” cell phone at any time and just redirect where GrandCentral.com calls me from… I can switch phones while I’m on a call… I can immediately block unwanted calls (telemarketers hear a “disconnected” ring)…

Its pretty cool and worth taking a look at… if you’re interested, call me and ask me for a private beta invitation (I have a few left).

PS… I think this will be heavily used with the Google Phone. As a matter of fact, my prediction is that it won’t be network specific (like the iPhone, which only works with AT&T)… it will work across any network because the features are independent of the network you’re on…

      

Okay… here is a free business idea.

I want a recruiting system, that allows potential employees to submit their resume, allows our guys to sort through those resumes, search the resumes and store the resumes. Thats it… really simple… I want it to look good and run fast.

We have a recruiting system now but I’m not really happy with it. Its slow, complicated and not user friendly.

The Free Idea (lets call it XYZ.com)

What would be really nice is if XYZ.com was a job web application like monster.com. But, XYZ.com created an API which my web site could use to allow John Doe to submit a resume for my position. Then, using their API, I could view, search, and store any resume submitted through my web site.

When John Doe submitted his resume, although he sent it to my company, it was actually stored at XYZ.com. XYZ.com, as a service, offers companies the ability to search through the “global resume database” for a small fee.

After John Doe submits his resume to my company, he can now easily submit his resume to other companies that use XYZ.com.

The Revenue Model
XYZ.com is basically a monster.com… it gains revenue by companies paying them money to search through resumes and post jobs.

What Makes XYZ.com Different
What makes XYZ.com different is their ability to obtain a vast number of applicants… its viral marketing… its distributed networking… its pushing “the work” onto other people.

The application is given away but the data is saved. It is inherently integrated into a business with no need to change the way business is done. People and businesses hate change… the requires NO CHANGE.

Conclusion
Do you like the idea? Good… me too… As a business owner, I would use it because it would allow me a cheap way to obtain a recruiting system… I’d be your first customer

If you like it enough, higher iProv to write the software.

Or email me and lets do it together as a joint venture

Call me, we’ll do the development