The Man in the Arena

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Teddy Roosevelt.

What Thursday is like

Up at the crack of 8:30 today so that I could say bye to the kids and get ready for a meeting at 10AM.
I know. You are saying “8:30 Mark? It must be nice.” I would tend to agree if I was not awake at 2AM looking at adwords and tracking clicks though. I am a night owl by nature and when you send people emails at 2AM they know you work.
Anyway, off to the meeting this morning. Meeting with the guys at DealPen for a presentation on social marketing for business. Not what you are thinking however. This was about making connections and improving communication through social media, not trying to sell your stuff.
All in all it was two hours well spent.
Have another meeting with the guys there tomorrow and before that I am meeting with Jeffery Brown who was with Apple in the 80’s as an inovation guy. Pretty damn cool if you ask me.
Plowing forward on figuring out the next steps for Otterology.com. Sounds like it will involve me creating a giant software company and forgoing sleep for the next several years. Nothing really new there.
Over the next few months I will be meeting with people on the side of the table I want to be on in 10 years.

A whole new world and I can not imagine doing anything else with my life.