It's a good thing I've been off-line on my social media sites these last one hundred days. The last time it was this intense leading up to St. Patrick's Day was my transition from employee to entrepreneur in the publishing business many moons ago while living on the west coast. Five top marketers, a former boss, and one of the best software engineers in the country came together to form Zoom Photo Ads and compete with one of the richest companies in America. The plan was so bold that my own family feared I would be would lose everything and be doomed to bankruptcy.
The 100 hundred day countdown to launch began ticking when our software programmer quit his job as the top programmer in the nation and joined us as a full partner on Christmas Eve. "I can invent the necessary software when I'm on my own time and have it fully operational by March 10, leaving me one week to test the software prior to launch," Steve said confidently.
My partners and I went all in. We held our breath when Steve told us his test run was negative the week before our official target date. "I can work the kinks out but there won't be time to test the software and I won't know if it works until I push the launch button."
Our reputations were on the line. Our former employer had all eyes on us as we moved with lightning speed to set up over 1.000 distribution points in 30 days. There was a counter effort in place to stop us. We simply put our heads down and followed the business plan we hatched in secret during our one year of preparation to compete with our former employer. We launched on time and Zoom was born on St. Patrick's Day.
My first experience as an entrepreneur inspired me to become an independent publisher. I tend to go against the grain when it comes to doing things the same way everyone else does them. While independent publishing may be looked down upon by top authors who surround themselves with highly skilled publishing teams, I find great joy getting things done using my own team of volunteers who help me because they believe we can make a difference together.
I'm holding my breath that "Live Long and Prosper" is born on St. Patrick's Day. Stay tuned. Have a great day.
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