David Michael Bruno

Business: If you don't get it, you're going to lose

Been doing some reading about NPR's embrace of digital media and their impressive online strategy. Caught this quote over at mocoNews:

The first NPR iPhone app was developed by a volunteer; that’s also the case with the Android app. Google engineer Michael Frederick used his “20 percent time”—the search company lets staffers devote that percentage of their time to personal projects intended to ultimately benefit the company.

Do you think that NPR and Google "get it"? Uh, yeah. Now take a look at these numbers to prove the point.

There's Always Time After A Relaxing Holiday

I have the good fortune of working for an employer that gives a half-day on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and then the rest of the week off. It makes for a four and a half day holiday weekend. I thought very little of my employer during my time off, though I like where I work.

Those are different hours and attitudes than I kept over the last several years. One of the conditions of working for my own company was to keep working through every holiday, every weekend, and every hour of the night. Of course there were times over the five years I spent with ChristianAudio that I did not work. Mostly though, the business was always on my mind. I'd say that in the five years I spent starting and growingChristianAudio , there might not have been a single weekend I did not think about the company. For almost all of those eighteen hundred consecutive days, I spent at least a little bit of time thinking about the business.

I have determined to do things a bit different since leaving ChristianAudio. People have told me that an entrepreneurial spirit usually never leaves someone with that disposition. I don't feel like much different these days. But I want to act on my entrepreneurialism differently. One way I determined to change is to allow myself to  not be always filled with thoughts -- whether positive or negative or meandering -- about my endeavors. This holiday weekend, without thinking about it, I did not think about it. My concerns were not much on the 100 Thing Challenge or writing or reading.

Change

Finally a non-political post! You will have to forgive me for shifting the focus on my blog back to me. Well, me and the 100 Thing Challenge and consumerism, etc. Certainly it is not that the election warrants less attention now that it is a day past. But while the trajectory of the nation may be changing over the next four years, the course of my own life is changing in the next couple of weeks. A number of new adventures are afoot.

This past week I sold my portion of the company I helped start, ChristianAudio. In all, the decision to move on from ChristianAudio is positive on many levels. Yet I would need to be as dispassionate as an Enlightenment philosopher to not feel some sadness. It is hard to explain if you have never experienced something like it.ChristianAudio was conceived by a very talented businessman who is also a best friend. He pitched the business idea to me five years ago at a Starbucks in Southern California on Monday. By Friday of that week I had gone to part-time at the job I was working. The following week the two of us started meeting early in the mornings and late at night at that same Starbucks to sketch out the business plan. That same week I made the first business contact for our new company. I called Lamb's Players Theatre and arranged a meeting with Dave Heath, who was incredibly gracious and helpful. (Dave has just completed what I believe is the best audio recording of the Bible. He readCrossway's ESV translation beautifully. While I did not have direct involvement in that project, I am so very glad to have planted a seed for it five years ago.) After that first meeting, many more opportunities and friendships developed. I want to talk about all of them now. But I will resist. Over the next, oh I don't know, several weeks? Months? Anyhow, I plan to write a bit about theChristianAudio experience here. And more in the book, because some portion of my motivation for the 100 Thing Challenge has grown out of my experiences helping to start, grow, and ultimately move on fromChristianAudio.

This past week, too, I learned that the first installment of my advance from Harper is getting sent out. Of course there is excitement (and terror) in the reality of being paid to write. Like the experiences at ChristianAudio, this too is hard to explain. About a year ago I set myself a vocational goal: to write and get paid for it by the time I am forty years old. The goal is not an assurance that for the rest of my life I will make a living by writing. It is more of a response to -- dare I say? -- a calling that I cannot seem to get away from at this time in my life. Does a "calling" last a lifetime? I have no idea. But in gritty entrepreneurial language, I have business to take care of. And I am immensely grateful that I have been given the opportunity to pursue it.

Honestly I am excited about the money, too. It is not pittance, but neither is it going to make news in Publisher's Weekly. The amount really is not what has me stirred up. What has me eager is the opportunity to put the money to use in ways that I could not put money to use atChristianAudio, where several other people were involved in each financial decision. The first proposed budget I drew up for ChristianAudio years ago included a line item for charitable donations. We never gave to charities. (To be fair, we gave away tens of thousands of ouraudiobooks . And I am hopeful the company will begin to give some of its money to charity, too.) My desire for any business I am involved in is to give generously. And while I will not yet be able to give generous sums, I can begin to give liberal percentages. Thatfreedom is worth a lot to me. And also the ability to allocate money to savings and to a line item I am calling "enjoyment," which is not exactly the same as "entertainment expenses" that are too often selfish or useless, or both. I do not plan to share specific numbers, but I will outline the structure of my humble writing budget. Over time, I hope it will develop into a "way" of doing business that is sustainable and charitable.

There are a few other changes going on. But the others are a bit harder to explain, having not taken substantive form yet. There will be more to share. All this is enough for now, though. If you've made it this far, thank you. You are kind for reading so many of my words.

Entrepreneurial Mindedness and Other Pursuits

What really pisses me off about being entrepreneurial minded are the ideas.  And the opportunities.

Like tonight.  It is Friday night and I'm home after a week of business travel for the company I co-founded.  I returned home to urgent tasks requiring my attention.  And I missed my family and really wanted to spend time with them.  Now much of the catch-up work is done.  Our family has reconnected.  But the ideas keep coming.  And there is opportunity to be had.

Is the life of an entrepreneur such that always the mind must be filled with new constructions for industry and policy, monetization and influence?

There is no time for me to consider this right now, present tense as I write - but I wonder if the modern-day notion of the entrepreneur lacks space?  An area in the mind and soul where ideas and opportunity are put on hold for other pursuits.

Vent

This is an old fashioned run-of-the-mill unedited complaint post.  I consider myself an entrepreneurial day laborer, which is a politically incorrect way of saying that my startups do not quite pay all the bills.  That means I do other things, too.  Honestly, I think that should be the way it is until a startup takes off.  Too many new companies burn founders' and investors' cash.

But tonight I'm tired of it.  All I've wanted to do is get a short review of Wall-E posted on my blog.  Still not up there.  And I think I'll have to give up the hope of writing something too meaningful.  As I'm not employed nor experienced as a movie critic, the Wall-E review will just have to wait a few more days and go online, like Wall-E himself, a little rusty.

And the Wall-E review is hardly the most important part of my life getting the short end of the stick.  Presently I've got a wretched commute.  No longer am I jogging three miles a morning with my dog.  He's sad, and I'm a sorry excuse for an allegedly fit human being.  I don't like sucking wind on a short jog like tonight at 9:30 PM.

And my family takes a hit, too.  It's hard enough for parents to remain present with their kids when everything's smooth sailing.  Throw in a lot of work, desires of our own, the boredom of summer vacation, and you've got the makings of neglect.  And that drives me nuts!  I want to be attentive to my kids.

And one final grump.  My eyes hurt.