First off, starting a blog is a huge time suck and to be honest, this is my third attempt at blogging. The first time was when I lived in Rochester (1996-2000) and was a consultant for the Mayo Clinic.
There wasn’t much for online blogs back then as it was mainly bulletin boards and online community boards that were used for typing up updates, stories, comments, etc….then came social media and then blogging went it’s separate way and sites like blogger popped up and so I tried blogging but, as usual, I never had the time (on a consistent basis) to type up goings on articles and so I typically did a once a week blog entry and even then, it trailed off rapidly until it was like once every few months.
So, every time I tried to blog, I failed at it quickly and simply gave up a few months later.
So what makes this time any different? Well to begin with, I have a lot more time on my hands….well, kinda, sorta. I mean, I’m not a young, single guy who is out and about spending money, going to bars and parties every weekend. I’m married with children now and all those weekend hours spent partying have been replaced with work….well, and family time too, I guess. lol
I got married in 1999 and for the last twenty years I’ve started 4 businesses, had a massive heart attack (working myself to death – litterally) and have just beaten stage 3c colorectal cancer (CRC) …and am right back to work (as usual).
This time however, my focus has changed a little from the usual startup, this time I have different priorities and goals. The priority is two-fold. First off, we (my wife and I) have had two major life events that has left us broke and almost completely bankrupt.
A few years back, my wife was diagnosed with spinal senosis and needed emergency surgery (a few days later) to prevent her from becoming a parapalegic and two years ago I was diagnosed with stage 3c colorectal cancer (CRC).
I’m sure you can imagine the amount of debt we have incurred on the medical side alone. Add that to credit card debt, multiple loans and a mortgage and you can see how (now that I’m done with cancer) I feel like I need to get back at it immediately. No vacations, no holidays in the sun, no fun and games, just WORK….as usual.
So, a couple of years ago I started a consulting firm SoMN Consulting Group LLC to provide business consulting services to small business owners. One of my clients Central Coast Solutions put me on the payroll so that I had some form of insurance and as it turned out, it came in handy when I was diagnosed with cancer.
My focus back then was to beat cancer (I was given 6-9 months to live) and I was only working part of the time and so it was a true blessing to at least have “some” insurance as I would have been bankrupt by the end of 2017. As it turned out, most of my chemo drugs and some aspects of the surgeries weren’t covered at all but, at least most of my appointments, labs, scans and doctor visits/follow-ups were covered.