Chicago

I'm in Chicago for the first time in three years. I strongly considered living here after I graduated college, but decided to learn to build skyscrapers in NYC instead. I think it was a good decision, but the opportunity to attend an options trading seminar and do some dancing has brought me back.

This trip was really intended to be the calm before the storm that seems to be brewing in my life. Right now I'm six months into an effort to create a successful real estate development start-up. One of the lessons that I obviously needed to learn was the importance of sales, marketing and income. Without income and cash flow all businesses die a painful death.

Coming out of Bovis, I had made what I believed to be some serious connections with investors and other entrepreneurs. I thought all I needed to do was make my skills with project management available to be successful. In retrospect, this was an immature approach to starting a business. I should have spent much more time moonlighting to build a consistent consulting business. With even a paltry income, I could have more easily quit to focus on my real estate pusuits. All this is preface to the fact that it is now time to obtain a much larger source of income to start the process over again. The past six months have been humbling and in that sense, perhaps the best use of the time I could have made.

The lessons are:
1) create an income before relenquishing the first
2) focus heavily on sales in the first few months
3) build sales around the vision and grow
4) real estate investing is a slow to pay business, so you must have immediate income coming in right away

So now, what are the options? Find better gigs for Asgard or find a serious income for Andrew Malone and get back to moonlighting.

More on Chicago later.