Creating Something of Magnitude - Storeboard.com - Reflections Posted: October 3, 2012 @ 1:54 pm |
I've been working on Storeboard for almost 5 years now. After hiring a firm to create the site, I threw away everything they did (and kissed $80,000 good- bye). I then spent 5 months, day in and day out, creating about 100 pages which would become the map for Storeboard. No programming - just drawing (with Photoshop)! This was followed by 3 years of programming and here we are - still programming. The only difference now is that we have some amazing people on board (Storeboard Members!) supporting us and Storeboard is thriving - we have lift off! I have owned many businesses in my past life (newspaper delivery, mobile dj, window cleaining, janitorial, law practice, property management, real estate development, construction, and kitchen cabinet manufacturer). I remember when I started out in business there was one phone company and one way to find a business - through the yellow pages. It was nice because I knew that anyone in a particular field within the territory of the yellow pages could be found in this book. A small listing generally meant a smaller company and a larger listing meant a larger company. It was expensive to advertise in the book but it was effective and I was a yellow page advertisor for many years. Fast forward about 25 years. Now there are many different types of phone lines, many competitive directories and a lot more businesses. I took note that despite computers, business search was now harder and more expensive. It should be the opposite - easier and cheaper. So I got intrigued. I observed that websites were complicated and required a lot of cost both to create one and to maintain. Then it takes a lot of time for the consumer to find the website and to figure it out (where is the information they are looking for). Because each website stands on its own, a user can't use filters and make comparisons. I go to work every day with the goal of making business search more effective and easier for consumers, giving businesses a terrific template to show and tell about their business for free, reducing advertising costs for businesses by using the latest technology and giving them exposure, and connecting the world so that we all (yes - the world - yes - everyone) starts to do business with each other and tear down the walls that separate us. We are not there yet! But we are working on it. So here I am - still plugging away with Paul Jacobs - my programmer. I don't know where I would be without him. Paul never quits and has amazing determination. I have no idea how many programmers LinkedIn and Facebook have but I know that we have 1! You can only imagine how talented he is to be able to run a site that compares to these success stories - by himself! I came across this Steve Jobs quote that was in the tapes from his biography. I think about it all the time. Building a Company Is a Marathon "Pixar has been a marathon, not a sprint. There are times when you run a marathon and you wonder, Why am I doing this? But you take a drink of water, and around the next bend, you get your wind back, remember the finish line, and keep going. Fortunately, my training has been in doing things that take a long time. You know? I was at Apple for 10 years. I would have preferred to be there the rest of my life. So I'm a long-term kind of person. I have been trained to think in units of time that are measured in several years. With what I've chosen to do with my life, you know, even a small thing takes a few years. To do anything of magnitude takes at least five years, more likely seven or eight. Rightfully or wrongfully, that's how I think." Steve Jobs Anyone who has built a company knows it requires a lot of dedication but also a lot of support from loved ones. I could never have gotten as far as I have without my Wife and my Mom who are always there to support me, pick me up and do whatever they can to help me acheive my goals. I always remember my Father who taught me so much about achieving my goals, giving 100 percent, and all the lessons he learned in the Marines (which he joined at 15 years old to go fight in Korea), and in his career at Telerep - one of the leading television advertising rep firms and a subsidiary of Cox Communications. My Dad was one of the top television sales executive in the U.S. and never finished High School. He took every course under the sun like Dale Carnegie, Landmark Education, and Tony Robbins to name a few and read religously. He also loved audio books which he listened to while commuting to NYC every day. He even created his own of The Magic of Thinking Big before audio books existed by reading the entire book into a tape recorder. For good measure, he started a correspondence with David Schwartz, the Author of this famous book. Throughout my Father's fight with cancer (which he eventually lost), you could find him teaching his new television executives (trainees) from his hospital bed - talking into a microphone which his students would listen to in Telerep's New York City offices. He was also a 7th degee black belt in Karate and taught martial arts for most of his adult life on Saturdays. My Dad loved to talk about how airplanes use 90% of their fuel on take off and how Michael Jordan was always the first to practice and the last to leave his whole career. He alwasy taught me with the stare of a former Marine Drill Sargeant that if a job is worth doing, it was worth doing right. He did not believe in cutting corners and always preached giving everything your all. He was one of a kind. So because of my Dad and everything he instilled in me, even though I ponder quitting, I really can't. Instead I carry on each day trying to make Storeboard better and better. I'll keep at it and continue to try and revolutionize business search and how we do business on the Internet in hopes of improving the world. Check out the song - "God Gave Me You" by Blake Shelton I have attached to this Blog which I dedicate to my Wife, my Mom, and My Dad. David S. Waller is the Founder and CEO of Storeboard.com - a fast growing social media site for businesses and community members
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