Smelling The Roses

One of my design customers forgot about our meeting this past friday -thank goodness- and went out of town. That was good timing since I stayed up until 4:30am the night before working on the cost proposal to the European client. I wasn’t quite as alert and creative as I wanted to be that day. So, tomorrow, I will get in touch with my client and reschedule.

As for the cost proposal, I had a chance to really make it shine on Friday and spent more than 14 hours on it. Then, yesterday, my other client and I reviewed it. He made some good suggestions and I spent another 5 hours on it to tweak it. Now, it is honestly the best cost proposal I have ever seen. It even makes ME want to buy. lol. It clearly shows how I can take their business from $190 Million per year to $250 Million per year using less than a million dollars to do it. That might sound “too good to be true”, but I have a knack for taking small amounts of money and growing it exponentially. So, I have a great plan and I think they will see it. If they do, that would be great too.

Back before I left for Costa Rica, I had taken about $70,000 and grew it to $800,000 within just 3 years. So, that’s a fairly good testament to my abilities in an of itself. However, the fact that I had to leave my self-made fortune has been tough in several ways. Most importantly is in regards to respect. People have a tough time believing I can truly make them rich and build their wealth when I currently have none to show. It isn’t enough to simply say I was a self-made millionaire. They want to see it now.

This isn’t unreasonable, I suppose, since there are a LOT of people these days claiming to do the same when they’ve never even had more than two pennies to rub together.

So, yeah, I despise when that very valid question comes up: “If you’re so good at marketing online and making money with small amounts, then why are you not rich?!”

And, you know, that’s a very valid point.

Although, I do have a good answer, it’s not one I want to (or have time to) go into. Basically, if the crooked cops hadn’t tried to ruin my life, I would still have my fortune. And, I’ve been working very hard over the past year or two to build my online businesses back up. And even though I finally finished some projects (costing me more than $130,000) that should have made it big for me, I now have ZERO dollars to promote them.

So, the point of all of that is to say that if I had money (or at least credit) to work with, I would have made it big again by now. However, this time around, I am truly fighting against all odds. Once I realized how limited my options truly are, I realized that my businesses would ultimately and eventually fail without my making some more money to market them. So, that’s why I’ve been taking on the design and consulting work. Fortunately, though, this opportunity with the European client has come about and if I can make them believe in me, they do have money. So, I can use their money and finally prove what I can do. In doing so, I should do alright myself.

Finally, I could get to a point where people aren’t asking me why I’m not rich, if I’m so good. That would really be nice. If only people knew what I had been through right when they met me, they would not ask such questions.

So, anyway, this post is titled “Smelling The Roses” because today, I am making this one post and then spending the rest of the day with my girlfriend, Leah. YaY!

We went on a date last night to see “National Treasure 2.” That was a fun movie and just as good as the first! Anyway, I’m over and out!