I am doing some spring cleaning and taking these 3 sites offline. They were a fun project and reminded me how much I hate working with WordPress :). I pulled the content over here for now that I had written.

I launched these to test a larger project I was playing with (to build a community for entrepreneurs). I am glad I did the tests as I learned that entrepreneurs really don’t have time for anything as most of them are in a pretty hectic place. And, I got a good look at the content mills around that entrepreneur space.

Given the publicity and prestige given to startups and business owners you would think that the USA is in the middle of a huge entrepreneurship boom. The opposite is true, we are seeing some really worrisome numbers emerging around business startup rates (this is something I’ve been reading about through 2015 and 2016 and it has me concerned, still doing a lot of research).

4 scary facts!

1. The number of businesses being started has fallen for decades. For the first time in 2008 the number of businesses closing was greater than those being started. Why is this worrisome? New companies are the ones that create 95% of new jobs. Existing companies create very close to 0 jobs when you total it up. The number of employees at new companies versus established has dropped from around 3.8% to 2%.

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2. Between 2010 and 2014 only 104,600 firms were created. Between 1983 to 1987 ~500,000 were. We are in a downward trend and the question is why. Demographics? Internet? Changing employment needs or habits? What?

3. The number of metro areas with more business startups than closures has shrunk consistently over the last 40 years. Prior to 2008 80% of metro areas had positive rates, in 2009 that was only 11%. Even after the recovery from the recession only 60% have positive business startup rates (2014).

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4. Over time it also appears that much smaller number of metro areas are the ones responsible for the bulk of new firms and subsequent employement growth.

In 1983 to 1987 29 metro areas were responsible for 50% of new firms in the USA.

In 1992 to 1996 30 metro areas were responsible for 50% of new firms in the USA.

In 2002 to 2006 14 metro areas were responsible for 50% of new firms in the USA.

In 2010 to 1014 5 metro areas were responsible for 50% of new firms in the USA.

Given Americans relocate for jobs 50% less than a decade ago that means that the bulk of these advancements are happening in just 5 metro areas. You don’t even want to see the stats outside of metro areas as small town america’s business start rates are hurting really bad.

I highly recommend you read the full report that Economic Innovation Group put out. There have also been a lot of stories in the WSJ and similar over the last couple years. Thanks to EIG for some of the screen grabs I added to this post, really impressed with them spotting this trend and starting to bring attention to it.

PS. Apologies for spelling/grammer, super late when I wrote this.

Happy new years!!! I am really looking forward to 2016 :)!!! Lindsey and I get back from our year abroad in January, and after a month in Fayetteville we are moving to Boulder or Denver for a year. I’ve lived 3 of the last 4 years abroad, and 2 of those years I was moving to a new place every 1 to 3 months. I am ready to settle down a bit, and have a little more routine (crazy I know!!!).

I like to plan and I wanted to share my 2016 goals. I am trying one new thing this year, I am building out a weekly / monthly plan for how I am achieving these goals. I read a book that suggested this so I am going to give it a shot. In previous years I did this but in a very haphazard way.

For 2016 here are my 10 goals:

Two Major Focuses:
1. Make my new business a success!!!
2. Do yoga 3x a week.

And, eight more:
3. Further build my morning habit of rehab and meditation.
4. Read two books with Lindsey on marriage to spur discussion and to improve/learn.
5. Update: In January the doc told me i need to stop running due to my back. So I am shifting this goal to: Bike 3x a week and see if I can shift over to that.
*Previous goal: Be able to comfortably run 3 to 5 miles soon.
6. Build up to 10 minutes of non stop ball rehab workouts by the end of the year.
7. Go mountain biking or sledding at least once a month.
8. Read 100 books.
9. Make sure to make time for friends & family in Arkansas & Colorado.
10. Join Vistage and EO once I am living in Denver.

2015 In Review…
2014 was a very bipolar year for me… it was the most difficult year of my life, and also one of the best (because of Lindsey). 2015 was very challenging as well. A lot of the chaos and anxiety of 2014 leaked into 2015 and my list of goals was super focused because of this pressure. I accomplished a lot, and a lot changed. I learned a TON in 2015, especially about being married.

So, what happened in my 2015?
Lindsey and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary in December! Lindsey likes to joke that we spent this year 18 inches apart because of the super small apartments we stayed in :). We had some very challenging moments this year, and we learned a lot and are stronger for it. After one year of being married I am amazed by the depth of feeling and reward that it can bring. We also had some tough moments that made us both feel like utter shit, but thankfully they didn’t last very long, and we are trying to get better at resolving them fast and nipping them in the bud.

Joel and I sold the business we started back in October 2008. It was a very difficult decision and occupied a huge swath of my focus from February 2014 to June 2015. I am glad it is over and ready to move on. And, I started a new business along with some great people.

Lindsey and I spent the year abroad since I work remote and she was applying to grad school! We spent 3 months in Nice France, Split Croatia, Nottingham England, and Vienna Austria. It was a great year and I am thankful we got the opportunity. We did some amazing hiking in the woods of France, along the coast, and stumbled upon a lemon festival.

– Sandy (Lindsey’s mom), Lindsey, and me did a road trip through the Austrian & German alps. It was a blast!
– Lindsey and I visited Budapest for a weekend. It was only a few hours away from Vienna via train.
– Lindsey’s dad and stepmom visited us in England and Scotland and we saw a ton of London that I had never seen before. We had a good drive in Scotland too :).
– My dad and stepmom visited us in Nottingham for 3 weeks and we had a blast! We visited Ireland, parts of the UK, and even got tortured.
– I did a 56 mile bike ride from Nottingham to Sherwood Forest! I idolize Robin Hood and even did archery growing up in case he was a career option.
– Lindsey and I spent a week disconnected from the internet up in the Scotland Highlands for my birthday. It was beautiful and much needed after a difficult week telling the team about the sale.
– Lindsey and I visited a bunch of Croatian islands while living in Split. Croatia is tied for my favorite place in the whole world. Check out the pictures and then book a trip. I want to move there.

I walked all of Hadrian’s Wall which has been a long term goal. In 6 days I walked a total of 98.5 miles :). Pictures of Day 1, Day 2, Day 3,Day 4, Day 5, and Day 6.

I fulfilled a trip I’ve wanted to do since college too! Lindsey and I took a trip to the Cathar region of France. The castles there are mind blowing and I had such a good time hiking and crawling around them. It is a super remote area and one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. I hope I get to go back and do more exploring one day.

The world lost an amazing person in 2015, Ying passed away in June. I miss her. She keeps popping into my dreams every so often to say hello.

I am glad it is 2016, and looking forward to another exciting year. I hope you are too!

I’ve gotten a lot of help and gifts of opportunity in my life, from family, friends, and random people I’ve met along the way. I love Kiva because it is a way to help others with a goal they are working towards, and it lets you see a face behind the bundle of loans.

Who have I loaned too?

I joined in September 2007, and since that time I have done 481 loans. Over time you get your money back so the number of loans you do just goes up and up. Just make sure to give money each year to them too to keep this running.

The country I’ve loaned to the most is Iraq at 13.3%, because I am trying to rebuild that country after we partially broke it for the second time. In second place is Pakistan, because I think people there are awesome, and need more opportunity. Ditto for a lot of the countries in my top 20.

Click the images to zoom in :)

Some other cool stats:

67% of my loans are to females, 33% to males.
I’ve loaned to 56 of 84 countries Kiva operates in.

If you are interested in trying out Kiva just click here, it is only $25 dollars to do your first loan!

This is the single best article I’ve ever read that describes the ups and downs of entrepreneurship: The Psychological Price of Entrepreneurship. It is worth the read, some other good pieces are linked below too:

Depression and Entrepreneurs by Brad Feld. He has a great blog and talks about a lot of really good issues he has encountered. Like thiss and this.

The Fearsome Nightmare Entrepreneurs Never Talk About. Short but still a good post.

When Death Feels Like A Good Option by Ben Huh (CEO of Cheezburger Network). Like the INC article said, a deeply personal post by Ben but worth the read and some of his other posts go into more detail.

A while back President Obama was giving a speech somewhere and stumbled while delivery of line and said:

“If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business—you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”

The “that” in that line was the roads and bridges, but when delivered sounded like he was referring to the business. IE, you didn’t build that business. Republicans have used this in ads and as a theme. This is very similar to something Elizabeth Warren said a while back too:

“I think the basic notion is right. Nobody got rich on their own. Nobody. People worked hard, they build a business, God bless, but they moved their goods on roads the rest of us helped build, they hired employees the rest of us helped educate, they plugged into a power grid the rest of us helped build,”

So why does this annoy the hell out of me?

Because it’s true! The United States is the greatest business platform in the world right now. And I’m lucky enough to be able to launch my business on that platform.

The USA is like the app platform you use with your smart phone. Apple/Google provide the hardware infrastructure that delivers your product to consumers. The USA provides the road, power, and other infrastructure that make commerce possible. Apple/Google provide the software that runs those apps and the standards that enable a good playing field. The USA provides the standards through the FDA, Health Department, FBI, etc to provide a good playing field to business. Apple/Google take ~30% to cover that infrastructure, and so does the USA (less actually).

I totally understand and love the independent vibe, its part of what makes us Americans. That raw wild freedom that is our hero story, the American who goes west, who rides off into the dark wilderness to tame, build, and master. Who creates something out of nothing. I personally have an incredible addiction to this image, it is a struggle for me to find and develop a community because I so value being highly independent.

BUT… It’s simply not true. The modern global world is one that is built on everyone’s strengths and is interwoven beyond everyone’s comprehension.

I’m a business owner and entrepreneur.
I work my ass off to create and built my business.
But, I didn’t build this all by myself.

PS.
Each year I pay taxes and invest in the American system. I’m not happy with a lot of the regulations on small businesses, and a lot of the licenses that states create, but it is idiotic to imply you are building this on your own. I’m embarrassed for Republicans, the Republican party used to have good ideas, I used to like parts of their platform, just like I only like part of the Democratic platform. But in the last 10 years the Republican party has jumped into the crazy pool. This really sucks because there is no real debate on a macro level any longer. And I find that worrisome as there are some really important macro problems that need to be solved. But the choice in most national elections now is to vote for crazy idiots who don’t say anything but soundbites, or the Democrats who are floundering because they have no one to debate real ideas with. Eeek.