I’ll Keep It Going

Well, now that I’m no longer hitch hiking around the country, the question remains as to what to do with this blog. I already deleted my Grad2Nomad twitter account as well as my Facebook fan page. I just felt like those were elements that I introduced mainly for people to follow me on my journey.Well, a new journey is beginning, but I’m returning to being me, Aaron Anderson, and not being known as a nomad anymore.

I think I’ll just use this blog as my personal blog from now on. In reality, I could still be considered a “nomad” in a sense, and I still feel like I’m searching for my place in life. Just because I found a job doesn’t mean that I have stopped wandering and looking for what will give me fulfillment in life. I think the URL still gives a pretty accurate description of my station in life. I’m still a recent grad that hasn’t yet found his place in life and so everything I do is still temporary at this point. Now the blog will be known as my nomadic journey in entrepreneurship. I really think that all of my decisions and jobs will be temporary until I successfully build a company of my own.

With that being said, let me update you on how this job is going. To be frank, I don’t really think I’ll ever be completely satisfied in a job unless I have complete ownership of it. I won’t ever have complete ownership unless I build a business around an idea that was mine to begin with.

Now, entrepreneurship excites me in any form. I get excited with the potential of building a business and being involved in the process whether or not I came up with the idea. But, I still feel like there is a missing element of fulfillment when I’m not working on something that I’ve created. However, I realize that I can gain and learn much by working for others and helping other small companies to grow and be successful.

In that case, this job is a great fit and I’m very excited for it. I have a lot of autonomy and I’m able to try and figure out the best ways of growing the business here in Las Vegas. I’ve already learned a lot and I anticipate growing and learning more with each passing week. I feel privileged to have a job that gives me so much autonomy and that will help me learn the essential skills and strategies to help a business grow from inception. Although this business has been around for a while, this is the very first office that we have opened(besides the Salt Lake office). Since the business grew organically in Salt Lake, the company has never had to learn how to open and grow the business in a new city before. That’s my challenge, and I’m loving the excitement of learning how to do that.

I think that’s all I’ll say for today, since I really need to get back into the habit of writing these blog posts. I have a lot to say about the challenges I’ve faced already and the strategies I’m implementing for going forward. I also have plenty to reflect about pertaining to the things I learned as a nomad and what I learned about myself from this experience.

Gear and Stuff

This morning I went to a service project and it was a lot of fun. I didn’t really want to at first because it was snowing when I got up this morning. But, I’m glad I did.

After I went to work later today, I stopped by an outdoor store to check out their backpacks and sleeping bags. I’m still trying to decide on what size of pack I want and how much gear I should bring along with me. David Schmidt(my friend that went to Rome) tells me that I should only bring two changes of clothes. However, I would like to bring more than that. I’m just trying to decide what’s the right amount. It will probably cost me around $150 for a good bag, which isn’t that bad.

I was pretty surprised to see how small of containers sleeping bags can fit into these days. They showed me a $300 down sleeping bag that fit into this little tiny sack. It’s perfect and I need a sleeping bag like that. I think I should be able to find the money to buy both a backpack and a sleeping bag.

I also started doing some research tonight to look for any companies that might be willing to sponsor me. I think I’ll just contact a bunch of random companies and see what they say. I mean, it won’t hurt to try, and I’ll learn from the experience. If I do end up finding anybody who wants to sponsor me, that will be sweet. The more I think about this trip, the more I want to publicize it and try to make it a successful venture, not just a fun adventure. But, whatever happens, it will be memorable.

Entrepreneurship Baby

My birthday party was a success. I didn’t have quite as many people there as I would have liked, but it was still pretty good. I’m sure if I was going to school and I was more involved in the Provo social life, that I would have had a better turn out, but that’s alright.

Now, it’s time for me to start getting focused on my blog. I just registered the domains Grad2Nomad and GradToNomad.com. I’ve been trying to figure out how to get the blog hosted with my own hosting, but it’s hard because of my limited technological knowledge. I’m sure I’ll figure it out soon. Once I get it up and running, I will be able to start marketing it.

Also, I’ve had some renewed interest in RateMySummerSalesJob.com. I think that’s because my main interest is in starting businesses. As I think about the different careers I want, I really just want to start businesses. If I work in a career, the main requirements that I’ll look for are the ability to be extremely flexible so that it will allow me to be an entrepreneur.

Anyway, I’ve been talking with Todd Knight about helping with the rating website. He says he’s interested, but I’m going to try and get the Romanians to fix what they can first. I want to get that up and running before I leave so that I can also market it while I’m out and about. Well, I’m really loving life now, and I’m really interested in getting out and being social again. Now that I’m having some direction in my life, it helps me to be more confident in my personal life.