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!

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!

I saw this video yesterday about what happens to male chickens (chicks) in the poultry industry as was thoroughly surprised to say the least. I had *assumed* (a very bad word and set of ideas) that, like cows and other animals, they were fattened-up for slaughter like their female counterparts. It still isn’t pretty, but this is how our food supply is grown. Nope, these baby male chicks, a few minutes after being “hatched” by a machine get their beaks cut and then are ground-up alive.

Does this video convince me to become a Vegan or Vegetarian? Nope, but I can’t say I eat much chicken anyhow as, although healthy, it just doesn’t taste good in my opinion. Salmon or tuna are far healthier in every way than chicken.

At least the females get to live right? Well, give this video to watch their fate. I’m not sure if it’s much better then that of male chickens. If I had a choice, I would ask to be born as a male chicken to be honest.

Symptom of a larger problem

Alright, that was disturbing wasn’t it! Well, this is nothing compared to what humans are doing on a daily basis across various fields, from open pit mining activities to the incredible waste involved with clear cutting entire forests or deep ocean trawling. The reason why our species has done so well on Earth is because we are very good at controlling information (preventing others from seeing the truth), gathering once a resource is found (exploiting it with little regard as to the consequences that may happen to others) and continuing this myth regarding the importance of ourselves above all other creatures.

We have a serious Napolean complex, species wide, when it comes to the rest of the natural world. I sure hope that if aliens ever come to visit us, they don’t treat us the same way we treated Earth or its other living citizens.

What is the solution?

I think videos like this, and there are no lack of them relating to just about every intensive industry out there, should be used as a warning. I don’t believe in God nor any type of higher being but I do believe that what you sow, you will reap. As such, treating life no different than if it was a rock has and will catch-up to us big time in the future. What can we do to solve this situation? I think the first is a return to community based farming practices. For instance, it makes no sense why eggs need to be shipped all around the country (or world for that matter)… setting-up small regional co-ops for plant and other nutritional requirements needs to go away from this industrial scale enterprise back into small ones where children can learn about the food they eat and the real work involved with traditional farming.

I have no problem eating chicken or other animals, I am not nor will I ever become a vegetarian, but this senseless, unnecessary cruelty we are so well at perpetrating really needs to stop.

Humans are worse!

Considering the trillions of dollars spent every year on technologies that are dedicated towards the destruction and killing of other people (the military), humans may treat other animals badly but we also invest in the capabilities of spreading this ability onto others of our own race! I don’t know of any other animal that, on a daily basis, tries to develop weapons that will more “easily” kill another of its species. Nature is cruel, but because of our evolved consciousness, instead of trying to reduce the amount happening around us, we seem hell-bent on bringing it up to a whole new level due to insecurities, failures and unfounded fears.

The Bottom Line

When humans lose touch with nature, industrial farming practices are able to thrive.

I believe in the philosophy of constant improvement, I wrote about this and how it applies to one of my businesses here:

http://blog.woodmarvels.com/cycle-of-constant-improvement

Doing a final review of the final proof for my life transforming book… so close! I can’t wait for it to be finished and released… it’s going to be awesome!

As you may or not be aware of, in addition to LegendaryLife.com (phase I is complete btw, working on phase II before launch), I am also the proud owner of a site called WoodMarvels.com. It is a site that sells blueprints, EPS files and even physical, laser cut kits!

The Beginning

When I first began WoodMarvels.com, I wanted to create a site that allowed people access to inexpensive blueprints to make wooden models unlike anything available on the marketplace. I wanted to create some really cool looking pieces of work and allow others to build it for their friends and family. Wood is an amazing material and I wanted to bring what is possible with it to a whole new level.

At first, the site only featured downloadable blueprints but about 5 or 6 months into it, I thought, “hey, not everybody has access to woodcutting tools, I wonder if I could sell kits!” About a week later after some research, I found a site that could do JUST THAT! Fantastic! I can now offer woodcrafters plans and those without a shop or cutting experience, laser cut kits which they can assemble with glue. I started gaining attention within various communities and got some designers to show their work on my site.

A full year later, I began to be approached to sell the models I created in EPS format, I ignored these calls initially… who would want EPS files I thought to myself? If you are not familiar with EPS files, they are a digital format that is used as a path reference for laser cutters and other machinery. If you put a line on an EPS file, the laser cutter will cut along that line. It took some convincing that there was a market for it but as usual, I came back around and decided to offer it on my site, a process that I am almost done doing. My biggest fear was that of control, giving-up your EPS files to the internet means that anybody can reproduce your work as many times as they want without any loss in quality or distinction from products bought from my site. It’s equal to releasing the files that make-up a car to the world and then waking-up the next day and everybody has your car but you never got compensated for this mass-produced copy.

The Middle

Well, just today, I realized at how much WoodMarvels.com has evolved, from an idea to a physical business that is making money for other designers and allowing people around the world access towards making some extra money on the side. How is that? Well, I am selling commercial production licenses of all my models in addition to many of the other designers who have joined with me in offering this. By sharing my expertise, others are able to find joy and challenges in their lives, able to find a different avenue to create additional confidence in themselves and most importantly, spreading the fun of wood as a very viable alternative to plastics for everyday household items, including toys!

The End

WoodMarvels.com is growing rather well, client lists keep expanding and so do the offerings. I am generating sales for designers and new opportunities are arising. We are also going to be written-up in a major magazine in a months time! How will it all end? Who knows, but for now, I am really enjoying the rid up and with a second volume being proofed right now for WoodMarvels.com along with the one I wrote for LegendaryLife.com, still a lot happening!

The Bottom Line

What you start with isn’t always what you end-up with.

Buzvia: WoodMarvels.com