I know I’ve barely scratched the surface of what I can do, and that I’ve wasted most of my unemployed opportunity trying to learn everything.  I tend to do things backwards; effective, but slow.  I’m so slow it took me 27 years to even know I wanted to invent something.  I’ve found myself and my passion, I know I won’t give up, but I have no idea how I am going to succeed.  The only thing stopping me is me.  I’ve isolated myself, but things are changing.  I’m excited to meet new friends and find new partners to help me with my dream.  I don’t know how it will happen, but I know if I focus and endure and work my ass off, things will work out.  Even if I have to work my ass off for someone else for a while.

Thanks for reading!

quietly working by jazzmann91; Encouraging you to Question Everything.

Shine by Booty Luv remixed by Moto Blanco and off of the MOS album Put Your Hands in the Air vol. 2

Thanks for watching!

Dance Video #4 by jazzmann91; Encouraging you to Question Everything.

Thanks to Hybrid for inspiring me.

Special thanks to Daniel Hogg of http://hogwildfilms.com for filming and editing!

Thank you for watching!

Dance video #3 by jazzmann91; Encouraging you to Question Everything.

The few of you who actually know me, may know that I’ve been exploring a dark part of myself for a while.  It has been difficult to persevere with starting a company during this time, but I think I have managed it.  I’ve been learning new skills by the dozen, but not mastering any of them.  I’ve also been reaching out and increasing my network.  It has been rewarding, but has taken way longer than I thought it would.  I have less than zero money and personally owe quite a bit from my past (credit, student loans, and personal debt with my ex).  I intend to pay back my debts, as I always have.  I have been living on next to nothing at a relative’s house, while making payments to my creditors.  My office is my bedroom and I’m getting tired of living so small.  I’m sure things could be much worse and I am grateful for everything I have, but it’s time to make some strides.

Over the weekend I did some volunteer work with a group of 15-20 year-olds.  My sister is the head of a company that delivers personal growth programs, which I highly recommend to anyone who wants to learn more about themselves.  The best thing besides helping others grow is the refresher I got out of it.  I got to see how I was being ineffective and the story I was telling myself to keep those habits around.  This might not mean much to some, but my driving needs are:

• Intensity
• Independence
• Intimacy
• Power

If you’ve communicated with me or read my poetry you might understand how this is true for me.  I love ridiculously.  I commit without hesitation.  I suck at small talk and try to find the root of things.  I am open, but very sure of myself (ie a little stubborn). I am bluntly honest and I enjoy working with small teams and tend to disappear in crowds.  I also tend to jump into my imagination to explore the future more than actually creating it.  My dreaming has incredible value to me, but needs to be harnessed, so that we can do more of the productive work.  I have found my purpose, but I am scared.  I’m scared of succeeding, of becoming “famous”, and living an “exposed” life.  However, I am increasingly tired of failing to produce and I know what I need to overcome this.  I need partners.

I need life partners who will support me and share a vision of peace.  I need business partners who have the networks I lack to finance and lead the project.  I need technical partners to help me stay focused and busy with the details of creating the user experience I know we can deliver.  I need artistic partners to make it look and feel amazing, so that it sells like wildfire.  I need help.  I need a great deal of help.  I am asking you for it.  If you can see a place in this story that excites you, I want to hear from you.  If you dig my companies core values: Peace, Freedom, and Fun, I want to hear from you.  If you think I’m crazy, delusional, or a tyrannical maniac, I want to hear from you.  If you have a friend who works the web in any manner who wants to change the world in a big way, I want you to share my website with them.  I know how to listen very well.  I may not always know what to do with what you tell me, but I want to hear you.

The one thing I hear loud and clear is that humanities greatest values are not on top. There is a group of us that have selective hearing and are in denial about the source and solution to our collective problems and somehow they seem to be in charge.  This is changing, especially as our voices combine to expose their denials!  I hope to facilitate this change and birth a new golden age for all life on this planet.  Then we can engage and participate in a civilization that puts it’s best and brightest values at the forefront.  One where we can dance with the shadows, rather than denying them.

Thanks for reading!

personal growth by jazzmann91; Encouraging you to Question Everything.

S/He danced and sang with the Sun in a brilliant embrace.

S/He swung to Mercury and said “,You’re a quick one, you’ll mess with the message, but get it there.”

Next was Venus who was hot and windy. God made love here and smoked a cigarette. Puff, puff.

Mars was cool and handled all the blood of God’s self-hate, turning it red with war.

Jupiter swirled a gaseous mass. Giant protector of the inner wealth.

Saturn buzzed with beauty and God painted rings around her for a time.

At Uranus, I’d say, God took a dump, but that would be cheap humor.

Neptune flew and showed blue was true.

Pluto an afterthought.  Almost big enough to cause a riot in God’s eye, as it trundled by.

Last and least s/he spins back to Earth and looks. “What an out of place bit this is.”
“I’ve painted, bled, sung, and danced such beauty and here there is just mud and lava.”
“hmmmmm” (sometimes pronounced Ohm)
Danced again, s/he did, and rather than paint or sing s/he just breathed.
Silently love transformed.
And suddenly there was green.  A drunken silence settled around and God was spent.

“We’ll see what happens now,” and off s/he went to 8C 1435+63
Leaving the Sun to dance the light and the rest to influence the night.

The Moon watched the whole charade: Affairs of blood, and painted smoke.
The Moon kept the secrets and revealed them true.
Thus choice was born and emotion too, and the tides role ever on.

~ Anonous Imaginus

galaxy dance by jazzmann91; Encouraging you to Question Everything.

Current presentation of what I’m doing. It still sucks, but I want to take a break from presentations and start coding. Thus this iteration gets pushed out the door, unpolished just like the rest.

The freedom of business by jazzmann91; Encouraging you to Question Everything.

Last week I got into my #1 competitor’s beta: Quora. This application is amazing and their name is way better than mine. I love that they share the same central idea in their product: No duplication of questions.  There are some great strengths and obvious weaknesses to me, but I’ll save that post for later.  Today I redo my go to market strategy for my non-existent prototype, which I can’t seem to start by myself.  I keep saying I’m more of a fixer than a build-from-scratch guy, but maybe I should just get on with it.  I’m definitely way behind these guys technically.  I hope my story will catch their eye and we’ll talk about teaming up.  Either way I’m sure we’ll talk eventually.

My initial target market:
Brands trying to market on twitter and facebook that aren’t satisfied with the effectiveness of their campaigns.  As well as, other social companies and organizations, that want to capitalize on their value conscious way of operating in the world.

Positioning statement for economic buyer$:
For socially aware organizations who need to engage with online audiences in a meaningful fashion, the QuestionCollector is a value centric debate community, where we can all share our big picture values.  Unlike twitter and facebook we offer a rich cultural experience for brands to grow their online social identity.

Positioning statement for user buyers (free):
For rebels, jesters, believers, and thinkers the QuestionCollector is a debate hosting website for people who care about our collective future.  Unlike Yahoo!Answers, StackExchange, and Quora we create a deep cultural experience to organize us around our questions and values, while empowering people to participate in a story of freedom.

Value proposition for organizations:
We believe that organizations with social capital should be able to increase effective engagement with their people by achieving a greater reputation in the marketplace, through our ability to organize people around their deeply held beliefs and values, as a result of our unique multicultural experience.

Value proposition for users:
We believe that honest, caring, thoughtful people should be able to increase their freedom by participating in their own unique way, through our ability to provide an organized, cultural debate site, as a result of our unique ranking and privacy systems.

Just by doing these exercises repeatedly I’m finding great value in the process.  The sentences quite often end up absurdly too long, but they are excellent at squeezing out the answer, of what our product will be, and what we know it will do for our subscribers and our users.  <~ I think it’s training me to make my sentences too absurX… nevermind. It has also helped me see my business model more clearly, along with helpful advice I’ve been getting.  I look forward to getting a whole bunch more.  If you have any questions about what these mean,  I want to understand your perspective.  Please bang out a quick comment or tweet me and I’ll be sure to respond.

Thanks for reading!  I can’t do it without you.

Positions & Props: the Play with no Prototype by jazzmann91; Encouraging you to Question Everything.