LegendaryLife Blog

I feel like I’ve been living in a cave for the past three years, working crazy hours building up WoodMarvels.com and now that I got some momentum going… am finally able to stick my head out and let the sun shine on my face for a change before I head back in and get my Vitamin D from my computer screen once again.

When I started i3DS and my journey into entrepreneurship over a decade ago, I never could have predicted how crazy the ups and downs would have been. One thing though, throughout all these times that I haven’t forgotten about was the value of partners to get you to where you wish to be in life. Whether they are somebody whom you love that keep you grounded or business partners who allow you to enter new markets and spread knowledge of your existence to their client base.  If you run a business especially, partnerships are the way to make something good into something GREAT!

I’ve been so busy in the trenches of relevance that today it struck me how far I’ve come along in my entrepreneurial journey when I took a few seconds to review the headlines on the WoodMarvels.com blog.

• Partnership with one of the world’s largest laser cutter manufacturer (Trotec) showing my stuff at the VIIE Sydney Australia show
• Partnership with one of the USA’s largest CNC router manufacturers (ShopBot Tools) showing my stuff at the 2010 NY World Maker Faire
• new product launches
• hitting a hundred youtube subscribers
• having my products featured at Ponoko.com’s website
• … and the launch of another company!
• … and just for fun, I’ve done all this while moving to another foreign country with nothing but three pieces of luggage to my name with associated headaches!

This all happened in less than 3 weeks! Insane! Cool! I honestly had no idea, I spend a few minutes writing then move on right to the next thing. If the conversations I’ve had with entrepreneurs go through… this month will be even crazier than the previous… and the previous before that one.

The Bottom Line

Passion is a dangerous habit, it makes you forget the pain and live in the pleasure of accomplishment!

It seems when ever I start a business – I do so way ahead of the adoption curve… I’m sure 3DMarvels.com is no different. Basically, it does what WoodMarvels.com – providing electronic files for woodcrafters lucky enough to have tools including a CNC Router and/or Laser Cutter of some amazing projects. In this case, it provides electronic files for people lucky enough to have a 3D Printer

I don’t mean to repeat myself, but checkout the blog article I wrote about at WoodMarvels.com for the details.

http://blog.woodmarvels.com/announcing-the-launch-of-3dmarvels-com

Of course, you can visit 3DMarvels.com directly as well.

Here is the first 3D animation produced for 3DMarvels.com by the way… learned a lot and still lots more to learn! Still a heck of a good start!

One of the cooler things I did when I was younger, not that I’m that old… was to get my scuba diving license. Though I haven’t enjoyed scuba diving for a very very long time, the thrill of simply being able to breath under water never left me. What I also remember was how cool the cylinder looked, it wasn’t welded, but formed from a solid piece of Aluminium which to me, was always a mystery. I knew that this meal was malleable but after seeing this video, my interest and long-standing questioning was resolved. This is how they made them scuba tanks!

This video also explains why those tanks are so darn heavy too!

Video showing the making of a scuba tank

Life is rarely perfect at any given time… so waiting for a perfect time to follow through with a commitment is another way of excusing lack of action on a goal or dream.

The best time is always NOW!

There is always a reason not to do something, usually, far outnumbering the reasons to actually DO something. Fear of the unknown, financial, societal, friends, family… all of this creates a pressure of conformity rather than that of adventure.

For instance, if you are offered an incredible opportunity to travel and learn but instead, try to put up roadblocks, delaying even the simplest actions such as getting a passport then most likely, this will only be a dream. Each decision requires small, incremental steps but fearing taking the first one means continued procrastination and excuse as to why it isn’t going to happen.

Fear must be conquered

We all want security, a good relationship and a beautiful house but most people, instead of dealing with what their circumstances as they are NOW, decid to delay action out of fear until all these “dreams” become true before following through with the first step. Put another way, they want the meal in front of them before they go out and buy the ingredients required to make it.

Fear has it’s role in life… but I think society adds a whole new level of them in order to keep people in line like everybody else. There is an old Chinese proverb that sums this up nicely.

The first bird flying out of the tree gets shot

This is told to us from childhood in one way or another. Religion tells us that we must be married before having sex, schools tell us we need a degree before we can get a high paying job. Society tells us that the perfect life is a house, 3 kids and a white picket fence. Why? Because it’s the best way to keep people under control… these are all methods of control, nothing more. I’ve never seen other animals, even our closest relatives get married before starting a family and they look rather content eating plants with a few occasional hunting jaunts in the bush. I’ve never seen an unhappy bird flying around because he didn’t have a nest to live in.

Water, Shelter, Food

These are the basics of life, with them, you can be as happy or depressed as you want. The reason that more than half of the people who have “jobs” are unhappy with their life is because society has added many extra burdens to their life which have nothing to do with happiness. For instance, I don’t have a car… who cares? But we are told that it’s an important part of a happy life… by car manufacturers no less We can either allow ourselves to be influenced by others whose “care” for us isn’t genuine or simply tell them “that’s bull shit” and live our happy merry life.

Nothing is ever perfect, there is never a perfect time, a perfect place nor a perfect circumstance for success… you make due with what you have and continue from there.

The Bottom Line

A poorly executed plan executed today is always better than a perfectly executed plan tomorrow… as tomorrow never comes.

I started on my second book, part inspirational, part workbook and all passion. I originally started on this book on Feb 8th of this year and it has taken me till the 26th to get it proofed, laid out and a host of other changes before it became available on Amazon! (read about it here)

What did I learn publishing this book?

A hell of a lot, my first book, WoodMarvels.com: Top Sellers took about as long to publish and in hindsight, this one blows it out of the water regarding what I learned.

• Get your proof proofed several times and double-check it digitally before requesting another one! I went through 6 proofs of this book because there was always one small thing that was missed which added well over two months to the publishing date.
• Colors are a pain in the ass! My cover and inside was originally all full color, color correcting over 70 images isn’t any fun so I simply did everything in full color but decided to get it printed in gray scale to save me the trouble except for the front cover.
• Have a good internet connection! Uploading a 200mb file several times isn’t any fun.
• If you are not an American, you cannot get your book released on Kindle! Originally this book was to be Kindled but a few days ago, I was told this was no possible… I guess somebody forgot to tell this to J. K. Rowlings.

Why is this book special?

Other than the fact that there is a heck of a lot of work, which I did all myself, from layout, publishing, graphics, comic strip etc… I’ve read more than my fair share of self-help and motivational books out there and this one is the only one I know that has a mixture of humor, comics and simple task based projects.

Why is your name not on the cover?

Well, this is a book to help YOU transform your life… I though it would be silly to stick a big picture of ME on there with my name in bold letters. I’m taking a different approach towards self-help books… in that the focus is 100% on YOU, not the author.

Can I view a sample?

Absolutely, follow this link to view inside the book – be warned though, as of writing this blog, Amazon seems to have stuck a very early proof in the book in the “Look Inside” feature. I’ve just uploaded the correct versions of all these with the inside in gray scale and the cover looking far better, I figure it will be a few days before they update it. Somebody screwed-up somewhere and it should fix itself soon enough.

Transforming Your Life From Blah To Legendary!: A Guide For Massive Positive And Lasting Changes In Your Life

Is that it?

No actually, I’m less than a month away from releasing my second volume of WoodMarvels.com with 4 pages shy of 200 and a wicked upgrade from my first one… using what I learned from my first volume and this one has taught me how to do things right in the publishing world! Also, my science fiction story 2847AD is slated to be moving along in a few weeks as well. Stay tuned!

The Bottom Line

Publishing your own books is fun!