2009: My Year In Review

January: The year started out well with me traveling back to WPI early to work on my thesis. I was also back running after a long term injury. I bought a season pass to Wachusett mountain and I was getting better at skiing by the day.

February: I went to the Mount Washington Valley Ice Fest and had a few good ice climbs as well as talk with people and learn. I also ran my first race in like four months, which while slow was a race I was very happy to run. I also started blogging and teaching the world!

March: Running and researching mostly including a sub 34 10k that was pretty easy showing that I could make a comeback. I also entered the Strage Innovation Awards and won!

April: Research was going full bore and so was the stress. My track season fizzled out due mostly to the stress of finishing my research. There were moments of grandeur here and there that kept me motivated.

May: The stress reached full tilt. I was going back and forth about what I was going to do once I came back from Pakistan. I considered dropping out of school and starting a company or being a climbing bum until the loan companies actually came for me. I learned how frustrating research can be and how deadlines are almost an arbitrary thing because things often finish when they finish not when a month ends. I also ran 52.4 miles in one shot.

June: After a short trip back to Wisconsin to pack my stuff I headed to Pakistan. Wow. Not your average summer.

July: More Pakistan.

August: A short trip to Colorado to use the full extent of my acclimatization then back to Worcester determined to actually finish my thesis. Suffering from a little post-traumatic stress I was determined to work harder in everything that I did.

September: Research was progressing as I was finally figuring out some of the basic mistakes that I just didn't understand before. I ran the Presidential Traverse with a bunch of friends then ran Reach the Beach with a bunch of other friends. The weather was nice and research was going well, more or less.

October: A nice month to be in New England as the leaves change colors and the temperature is nice enough to wear shorts during runs but warm enough that jackets are not yet needed. It's about this time that hot mochas come back into style taking a market share away from the iced mochas. I also had like 400 channels of cable. Work was accelerating, but in a good way.

November: Things were starting to look better. Research was going well enough that I was going to graduate in 2009. Running was going well as I was averaging more miles than ever before. I had finally settled into a great daily routine. In fact day to day life was so good that I'm actually considering going to school again because it was a nice place to be. My future was looking like I would start a company. I wrote a business plan and filed two patent applications. I also published a book. I also ran a PR in the half marathon in the middle of base training.

December: Things got a tad stressful as I finished my research and writing my 104 page masters thesis. However, finishing was a huge accomplishment. It was another huge confidence booster. Unfortunately I also left Worcester after getting to know my friends there so well. A month of great accomplishment and also great change as I enter the real world.

2010: Here I come!

Finding the right people

I just read on Google News the state of the economy in the US. 663,000 job losses in March. Read the article here. It did not mention total unemployment. But it said one in four were long term unemployed and gave 3.2 million for that number, so I'm guessing around 12 million total unemployed. 

In other news at the Strage Innovation Awards the multimillionaires were talking about the economy and one had a daughter at Duke MBA school and said that the number of recent graduates that couldn't find a job was 58% which was the highest total for new graduates ever. The previous high had been 8%. 

Another statistic: in 2007 about 2.1 million people in the US did traditional/ice/alpine climbing, which is what I do. So I'm hoping that I can find someone of the 2.1 million that is one of those people skilled in what I am not like selling and business stuff and finding start-up funding. I don't know that there is any "free" money to be had now from investors like during a good economy but I'm sure there are banks willing to lend at good rates now. In the case of taking out a loan it means that I would be able to retain a much larger share of ownership, but I would also have to succeed. I haven't started looking for a business partner outside of friends yet and I probably won't until I defend my thesis and graduate and write a business plan, but in this economy I'm confident that I will be able to find someone with the right blend of skills.

Strage Innovation Award

Yesterday was the presentation part of the Strage Innovation awards. Basically I spent five hours writing a presentation and power point and half of an hour giving a presentation and answering questions as best I could and I won! You can get an idea of the competition from the website here. I presented Fitzroy Mountaineering and my ice axe, carabiner, harness, and book as marketable things. Anyway they are all older and experienced judges and if they like it that gives me even more motivation to start a company. They are offering to help with my business plan and other such start up company problems. This could be a big help because it would get me in contact with people that have experience and can handle situations much more efficiently than I. 

One thing I learned that they mentioned twice was that I would probably qualify as a lifestyle company. So I learned more about lifestyle companies and investing on Don Dodge's blog here. I'm not sure how I feel as a company that they wouldn't expect to grow much. Of course their definition of growth and mine are probably a bit different. If there were ten employees and sales over a million dollars a year I would consider that the big time from where I sit.