Stupid me

I cannot thank my friend Ricky enough. Ricky is one of my oldest friends from high school, someone I trust with the key to my house, and would personally recommend to anyone who needs an honest contractor. He renovated my parents basement in Arlington, (with a ceiling height of less than 7' in some places,) and changed a dark space with painted cinder block walls, exposed vents, and old pine paneling into beautiful office space. With space at such a premium, Ricky framed the basement for drywall in a way that minimized the loss of ceiling height to an absolute minimum, finding clever ways to transition around the many oddball shapes. Perhaps more importantly, he often stayed for lunch, and put up with my mom's many special requests. Last week, I called to tell him about a horrible investment I was about to make, and Ricky was kind enough to suggest that I "nip it in the bud."

On Thursday evening, I was playing around trying to understand how my computer network works, and clicked on a link that brought me to an offer from Network Solutions to get a domain name for $0.99, so I got one. On Friday, while I was subbing, I got a call from a salesman with an offer to build a website for me, that included a payment gateway and email. Considering that I didn't have a business plan since, as I told the salesman, I was only in the dream stage and did not have a business, I should have been firmer with my no, but the salesman answered my objection saying that I could cancel the website at any time, risk free within the first 30 days, with the exception of the Facebook profile they would create for me. Network Solutions was so sure that they could generate actionable leads, they were willing to accept the risks, so I decided to go forward even without a business plan, thinking I would figure it out as I would go.

Rick suggested I would probably be better off with a few local customers, because students who needed the special help would need me to be physically present, at least part of the time. While I can use Skype and Skrbl and messaging programs, there is no substitute for actually being there.

I thought about Ricky's recommendation, and agreed to "nip it in the bud."