i'm not a businessman...
i'm a BUSINESS, man.
Jay-Z, on Kanye West's "Diamonds from Sierra Leone"
Great lyrics abound on Kanye West's just-released "Late Registration," continuing Jay-Z's legacy of intelligent lyrics over innovative, catchy beats. No wonder this guy is on fire.
Ben Folds just released an iTunes Originals album this week as well that is fantastic. But does he ever do anything badly? He can even duet with WILLIAM SHATNER and not skip a beat.
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Lori frequently jokes with me that the iTest has been a terrible investment from the beginning and its only gotten worse. And from a current financial perspective, she would be right: thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours have been liberally poured into the project, with little financial return.
Additionally, it appears that our first sponsor, who will remain nameless here, has fallen through. This sponsor would have righted the financial ship, and then some, while using some of its technology to vastly improve the underlying infrastructure of the way I administer the annual competition.
Separately, the IRS is giving me a hell of a time with my non-profit 501(c)(3) application. They have issued a second round of questions, beyond the original application, for me to complete. Since I filed the form to apply for tax-exempt status, 9 months have passed and I still feel no closer to receiving the tax break. At this point, I am ready to discard them and move forward with the iTest as a private for-profit enterprise...but we'll see what happens over the rest of 2005.
I don't have time to feel sorry for myself, though. Nothing has fundamentally changed about the competition from when I created it in March 2004: the competition is a watershed educational tool that has never been done before, connecting the elitest of upper crust private high schools to the poorest of inner city public schools through mathematics and student competition.
Furthermore, there is no real competition. Competitive mathematics is a humorless field with a profound lack of innovators or capitalistic interests. Therefore, its not a surprise that the field hasn't moved forward much at all since I was in high school. Making this problem even worse is the growing disparity in the educational system between the "haves" and the "have-nots," which is creating a younger humorless class of high school students. I have witnessed many of these math-or-bust kids myself and found the experience disturbing.
Enough about those people. The key paradox here is that the more children we help and the more we improve the current state of the educational system, the more we set up the iTest to make a financial killing as a premiere educational brand.
My vision for the iTest is to become a portfolio of the nation's best competitions for high school students, while still being readily accessible to lower-income students as well as "normal" kids of all income-levels. We continue this march with a stellar iTest math exam to be given in September, and the launch of the iTest CS in April '06. Similar to the SAT II Subject Tests or AP exams, given in an array of fields....the iTest competitions will set the standard for high school academic competitions and will command interest through prizes, through innovation, and through humor.
This can't help but attract corporate interest. What we're doing is too innovative and too unique - and too popular! we're heading over the 30,000 student mark this year in math... - to not be noticed and funded. Or bought out.
Regardless of what the future holds, and Lori's instinctive questioning of my efforts, the iTest has begun, and success is not a matter of if, but when.
Additionally, it appears that our first sponsor, who will remain nameless here, has fallen through. This sponsor would have righted the financial ship, and then some, while using some of its technology to vastly improve the underlying infrastructure of the way I administer the annual competition.
Separately, the IRS is giving me a hell of a time with my non-profit 501(c)(3) application. They have issued a second round of questions, beyond the original application, for me to complete. Since I filed the form to apply for tax-exempt status, 9 months have passed and I still feel no closer to receiving the tax break. At this point, I am ready to discard them and move forward with the iTest as a private for-profit enterprise...but we'll see what happens over the rest of 2005.
I don't have time to feel sorry for myself, though. Nothing has fundamentally changed about the competition from when I created it in March 2004: the competition is a watershed educational tool that has never been done before, connecting the elitest of upper crust private high schools to the poorest of inner city public schools through mathematics and student competition.
Furthermore, there is no real competition. Competitive mathematics is a humorless field with a profound lack of innovators or capitalistic interests. Therefore, its not a surprise that the field hasn't moved forward much at all since I was in high school. Making this problem even worse is the growing disparity in the educational system between the "haves" and the "have-nots," which is creating a younger humorless class of high school students. I have witnessed many of these math-or-bust kids myself and found the experience disturbing.
Enough about those people. The key paradox here is that the more children we help and the more we improve the current state of the educational system, the more we set up the iTest to make a financial killing as a premiere educational brand.
My vision for the iTest is to become a portfolio of the nation's best competitions for high school students, while still being readily accessible to lower-income students as well as "normal" kids of all income-levels. We continue this march with a stellar iTest math exam to be given in September, and the launch of the iTest CS in April '06. Similar to the SAT II Subject Tests or AP exams, given in an array of fields....the iTest competitions will set the standard for high school academic competitions and will command interest through prizes, through innovation, and through humor.
This can't help but attract corporate interest. What we're doing is too innovative and too unique - and too popular! we're heading over the 30,000 student mark this year in math... - to not be noticed and funded. Or bought out.
Regardless of what the future holds, and Lori's instinctive questioning of my efforts, the iTest has begun, and success is not a matter of if, but when.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
First blog post in a while...between a pretty intense job, tutoring an 8th grader in Franklin on the side, preparing for the iTest launch, working on a new album, and attempting to stay sane...I guess that explains it. And, lest I forget, moving into a new, bigger apartment. Oh, and one more thing...I'm married now! :)
I view being busy as a blessing. For me, it means I'm currently working on a combination of things that are my choice to be working on. Working from home facilitates this - though I spend at least 50-55 hours a week on my job, those hours can be moved and manipulated in ways typical office jobs could not to accommodate my other passions.
My job as Strategic Initiatives Coordinator at Actus Lend Lease is off to a good start. I feel like my boss has put me in a position to succeed - a position where I can bring something to the table. That is a very gratifying thing that I try not to take for granted. The ability to have an impact, and work with executives ranging from age 40 to 70 who control one of the largest real estate companies in existence is a very welcome change from previous school environments. It is all of this that led me to reject a job offered to me just a couple weeks ago, while I was just hitting the one-month mark with Actus, that actually would have compensated me a good bit more, though without giving me nearly as much influence and ability to contribute.
I feel very lucky to have Lori in my life, and look forward to her starting up at Vandy law school this fall after transferring over the summer. I know she is looking forward to it. Everywhere she has gone, she has excelled, in terms of her legal studies. She has especially turned her game up a notch at the Tennessee Supreme Court this summer, where she has gotten a remarkable amount of uncharacteristic praise from the justices there for her writing skills and the level of detail in her legal scrutiny of various cases. Vanderbilt will simply be another stomping ground on her way to a successful job somewhere.
The long-awaited fantasy football draft is coming up! Its a chance for everyone in our little group from high school to catch up with one another. I am really looking forward to it this year as well because ESPN's league is so vastly superior to Yahoo's in the way it enables even more communication between all of us.
Anyway, thought I would update the blog with what's been going on. I will be updating this more regularly as I learn to keep work from exploding into 60-70 hour weeks and keep it contained to about 50 hours a week. Its a lot harder than it sounds.
I view being busy as a blessing. For me, it means I'm currently working on a combination of things that are my choice to be working on. Working from home facilitates this - though I spend at least 50-55 hours a week on my job, those hours can be moved and manipulated in ways typical office jobs could not to accommodate my other passions.
My job as Strategic Initiatives Coordinator at Actus Lend Lease is off to a good start. I feel like my boss has put me in a position to succeed - a position where I can bring something to the table. That is a very gratifying thing that I try not to take for granted. The ability to have an impact, and work with executives ranging from age 40 to 70 who control one of the largest real estate companies in existence is a very welcome change from previous school environments. It is all of this that led me to reject a job offered to me just a couple weeks ago, while I was just hitting the one-month mark with Actus, that actually would have compensated me a good bit more, though without giving me nearly as much influence and ability to contribute.
I feel very lucky to have Lori in my life, and look forward to her starting up at Vandy law school this fall after transferring over the summer. I know she is looking forward to it. Everywhere she has gone, she has excelled, in terms of her legal studies. She has especially turned her game up a notch at the Tennessee Supreme Court this summer, where she has gotten a remarkable amount of uncharacteristic praise from the justices there for her writing skills and the level of detail in her legal scrutiny of various cases. Vanderbilt will simply be another stomping ground on her way to a successful job somewhere.
The long-awaited fantasy football draft is coming up! Its a chance for everyone in our little group from high school to catch up with one another. I am really looking forward to it this year as well because ESPN's league is so vastly superior to Yahoo's in the way it enables even more communication between all of us.
Anyway, thought I would update the blog with what's been going on. I will be updating this more regularly as I learn to keep work from exploding into 60-70 hour weeks and keep it contained to about 50 hours a week. Its a lot harder than it sounds.
