Fuel

So... I've been feeling lethargic again lately, but I'm definitely more disciplined than before. Now, even when I don't feel like doing something, when I'm in the what's-the-point state of mind, I still force myself to complete the necessary steps. That's not to say I don't procrastinate though. I woke up this morning at 10AM, and procrastinated till 1:30PM reading random things.

In class tonight I met a guy named Alex, who was very excitedly telling his friend about a new house painting contract he signed. I talked to him and asked him a load of questions, and even though class ended at 9PM, he was nice enough to let me pick his brain after. Basically he's interning for College Work, which is evidently a lot nicer to its interns than College Pro. They focus on getting jobs in the spring and do the actual painting in the summer. So far he signed 25k of contracts, but the average is in the 40k neighborhood. He interviewed over 20 people before he found a good marketing guy through Craigslist, and he intends to hire his painters the same way. The key thing, he says, is to be honest when setting expectations, because there are so many people on the job market right now, and not everyone of them is okay with working for a 20 year old.

Something Alex has that I don't is leadership/management experience. He says he was in this military thing for 3 years back in high school. At first he tried the nice guy approach, and nothing got done. Then he tried the dictator approach, and nothing got done. It took him a while to find the right balance.

He also told me about his brother's consulting company. What they do exactly is a mystery to me and baffling to him, too, but 3 keywords I remember were streamline, SAP, and credit. His brother taught himself over 6 months and was introduced to the trade by his college roommate.

Through Alex I got a number to another entrepreneurial student named Bill, who is starting his own website is looking for interns. I plan to contact him tomorrow. I really love meeting kids Alex and Bill in college, and I hope and hope and hope that some of these random connections will grow into meaningful relationships in the future. Over all I had a good night. I feel a lot better now about my plans this summer, and talking to Alex paved many hurdles that stemmed my drive before. Lesson of the night: when there's a perplexing problem, don't conclude that the idea isn't workable after all. There's bound to be someone who can tell you the solution.