Image credit: sideshowtoy.com

It was 10 years ago today I incorporated my first business. To me, it seems impossible how time has flown by so fast. I’ve been blessed with many great experiences, some hard-to-swallow lessons from colossal failures and a couple good wins.

Now, I’m elated to find myself back at my original business, focusing on two of my strongest areas… technology and membership groups. I’ve always run revenue through this company and for the past six years, it’s been very, very stable while I learned and experimented with several tech and non-tech businesses.

I’m going to keep this short as I’m spending the rest of today reflecting not on what could’ve been, but what a decade of entrepreneurship has meant to me. Then I’m going to finally write a few posts answering what I seemingly always get asked… how did you get into business and startups? We each have our own career story and my next few posts will cover some key observations during this time.

Most folks know that I use people around the world to accomplish different business tasks, so I agree with the “world is flat” theory, but it’s also amazingly small.

Update: I woke up today are realized the real lesson here is NOT that the world is small, but if there’s someone you want to meet professionally or network with… you CAN reach them. It’s relatively easy to break down the world of connections if you try. I’ll post soon about how I got lunch with my favorite author and he PAID for it.

Flickr credit: Basegreen

After several months of development, Kevin and I have launched our new business, MoneyPath.  If you’re not aware of this new venture, read this post.  We are still adding more banks (starting in the Louisville, KY region) to our lender network, but we’ve started accepting loans and banks will start bidding on these loans in mid-February.

We’re bridging the divide between lenders and businesses, so both can eliminate their search for one another during the lending process.   Banks spend a great deal of money attracting new commercial clients and businesses spend too much time finding a bank to lend money.  MoneyPath brings these two parties together through a proprietary matching algorithm.

Have an existing business loan?  Find out if another bank can save you money with a better rate by entering your existing loan information.  Also, If you need some money to expand or stay afloat, simply enter in your desired loan amount and some current financial figures to find your match.

Kevin and I are really excited about MoneyPath and how we can help save people money and banks find great customers.

I’m happy, actually thrilled to announce I’ve taken on the new title of Uncle Todd. My awesome (trust me), handsome (see for yourself), athletic (he can kick), studly (two girls almost wiggled their way out of their bassinets when he entered the nursery) and down-right smart (he already can make an ‘O’ with his mouth… as if to say, “Oh ladies… take it easy”) nephew, Kaden Gregory Earwood was born on July 16, 2008 at 1:45 PM. He weighed 6 pounds, 10 ounces and was measured as 19 1/4 inches tall.

Becoming an uncle made for a long, fun, love-filled, emotionally draining day for myself and my family. We all raced around to prepare (impossible task) as he showed up 25 days early! And like most people in a new role… I’m lost. Unlike you Auntie’s out there, I don’t have a cool resource to turn to. For now, I’ll look for guidance from those with experience and I’ll work hard to figure out how I can make Uncle Todd mean something special to Kaden.

So without further ado, let me introduce the man of the hour with a video (of course) of the first time I met Kaden face-to-face.

Image by nirbhao via Flickr

Today, my family celebrated Mother’s Day in typical Earwood fashion in Georgetown, Kentucky by going to church, eating out for lunch, then came home for Mom to open her presents (see below).

While my mother hasn’t requested I create a national holiday (that I know of), I am very grateful she supports my ideas and entrepreneurial drive. She doesn’t always understand my level of risk, but she’s always been encouraging. I know I’m lucky to have such a positive influence and hope you’ll take a moment today (or any other day) to thank your mother for getting you to where you are today.

My friend, Andy Swan said it best, “$500 says that on average, bloggers blog less and less once they get on twitter.” I’ll try to post more here, but the best way to interact with me for now is on Twitter, so follow me there.

This question is easy for me to answer, but not in a short manner… so my best bet for brevity is to use categories.

1. Family – I feel blessed to have two loving parents who raised me in a Christian home. I’m especially fortunate to have parents who have lived their lives as an example for me and others to follow. I didn’t grow up wanting to own a business, but I was told I could accomplish my goals and was encouraged to pursue them. As an entrepreneur, every decision always wasn’t successful but I was never discouraged to try again. I know how lucky I am to be loved by my parents, siblings and other relatives. At times, they struggle to explain what “I do”, so I appreciate their understanding and support.
2. Nikki – At the time of this post, I’ve dated the same girl for over seven years. Yes, I can see the raised eye brows through your browser, but it’s true. I’m in a strong relationship with a very beautiful, incredibly intelligent, funny, loving and very, very driven lady. I have the best support system in Nikki. She’s known me for a very long time and there have been many times she’s given me the necessary boost I’ve needed personally, professionally, emotionally and spiritually. She sounds pretty awesome, right? Well, she’s that and much more. I’m overly grateful for her love.
3. Fraternity – I know what many think of “frat boys”, but my social fraternity, Lambda Chi Alpha had a very positive impact on me. My management and leadership skills blossomed within that group of 100 young men. There were many brothers (members) like David Russell, Philip Dockery, Greg Williams (Coach), Shawn Smee, Chad Lewis and many others who guided me and led me down paths that have made me a better person and leader.
4. Mentors – Again, I feel so grateful that several people with much more experience and knowledge have taken me “under their wing” both professionally and personally. I’ve learned from some of the best in several industries and have tried to make them “look good” for taking a chance on a young guy like me.While some have one person they see as their mentor, I’ve been blessed with many. I list these in no particular order, I’ve been mentored by great folks like Sid Easley, Brenda Bryant, David Laird, Jim Hill, Steve Williams, Dr. Kern Alexander, Harold and Greg McReynolds, Joe Reagan and Tab Brockman. If you don’t have or haven’t had a mentor, I’m sorry, but I suggest you don’t force it. Let the relationship happen naturally, you’ll know when it’s there.
5. Business Partners – As I mentioned earlier, not all of my ventures have been successful and neither have my professional partnerships. Sometimes personalities, work styles and circumstances don’t make for good partners. That being said, I’ve had great luck with others. People like Rob May, Rick Tur, Kevin Lowe and my brother, Scott have worked with me through peaks and valleys with understanding and class. Now the team of Daily Idea is entering that phase of finding its stride and I hope these partners can be like the ones I’ve named.

My last year in college, I sent an email to 20+ friends asking them what they were most thankful for? The response was astounding. Even college-age kids were touched that I would care to ask and the stories they shared were touching. I’m grateful Kami gave many of us this nice reminder to think hard and then give thanks.

How does one wrap up such an emotional and introspective post? By saying thank you one more time. Those who I’ve highlighted and others who I’ve accidentally omitted, I appreciate the positive impact and uplifting power of friendship, love and care you’ve given me.

Our personalities and skill sets are at times so divergent people are surprised by how we’re such good friends. We do share a love for problem solving, have successfully created and sold our own web content and we both separately encountered business partners that didn’t quite fit. From those successes and failures we are very aware of being fair to others. Finally, we are frequently accused of working too much (little do they know we don’t find it to be “work”). There may be a few more, but none will say we’re cut from the same cloth.

Rob is the more analytical, number-crunching, patient scholar who can out-think anyone. I, on the other hand, am the high-strung, marketing-minded, obsessed with content, press-the-flesh, offline/online networker. Even all the personality tests show wildly differing profiles. So where do we connect? There is a formula to our mismatched success.

1- We define areas of control. Sometimes Rob gets the final call in a financial decision, sometimes it’s me choosing functionality of an app. Either way, the lines are established from the outset.

2- We’re focused on the same goal… building profitable ventures. When things are at an impasse, we examine how the outcomes affect the goals. When in doubt, follow the path to the goal.

3- We discuss and debate without friction. This may truly be our secret sauce. I’ve never formed a partnership where so many differing opinions can be fleshed out without feelings getting hurt or impeding progress. I cannot overstate the value of #3, it’s worth more than all our ideas combined.

Yes, there are times where it’s nice to hear an echo of your same opinion, but differing views, interests and consideration for each other are what makes us such a strong team. We think (possibly over-think) possible pitfalls, opportunities and outcomes which has better prepared us for competition.

I’ve had almost 10 other partners with differing levels of success, but my advice is ultimately about teamwork. When considering a partner in any business don’t always look for just a complimentary skill set or background. Be sure you can make it as a team. Your startup will require many more hours than you plan or expect and it’s that teamwork that will get you through the long, hard slog.

Most people enjoyed their Memorial Day weekend with their family, a mini vacation or just taking it easy. I had to start moving out my inventory from a failed retail startup called Better Living. This post will give you a visual of the moving process of my two year-old startup business.

The bricks and mortar stage ends tomorrow and I know the web can’t save what’s left of it. I’ll be posting about the steps we could have avoided and those that we couldn’t this week. For now enjoy the sample of hard work just to move its remains (I’m the one in the red).