Life of a 22 year old Entrepreneur

Any entrepreneur with any knowledge knows that there are two things vital to success – contacts and motivation. Money is always secondary. In most cases, without the two former elements, success is rarely possible.

None of my companies would have gone anywhere without the people I knew. When you are a new entrepreneur, you oftentimes have few resources to draw from. Funds are limited and you can usually not do everything yourself. Some do try (cough, Daniel from Solari Studios, cough), but what they find is that they end up burning themselves out. Naturally, an entrepreneur seeks control – its an innate urge when you have the drive to start your own companies. But the hard truth remains…you need others to succeed.

Practically all of my games have been developed with the support of others. These are, surprising, mostly people that I’ve met online. In fact, other than the artist on Office Life and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, I’ve never even spoken to these people over the phone. The Internet age is surely one of the most exciting times for an entrepreneur.

For your own business, seek our forums and sites that cater to your particular industry. There are plenty of people out there looking for opportunities. Even as far as portfolio builders or work experience, people want to start things. You lose nothing by asking.

Now that I’ve moved to a new city, I’ve figured its time to expand my contact base. Online contacts are fantastic if it works out, but nothing beats face to face connections with people. Being in a new place, I’ve decided to start to branch out. I’m attending my first Orlando Entrepreneur meetup. I’m seeking out local contracts. I’m planning on attending game development group meetings. No matter what you have to do, get in front as many people as you can.

Can a previous introvert become an extrovert? You’re damn right. It simply takes a shift in conscious awareness of oneself. I’ve been an introvert for most of my life. My mental conditioning and environment has reinforced this every day. Worst of all, I have reinforced this time after time. Self talk can make you into whatever you put your attention to. The more you tell yourself “You’re shy, you don’t like talking on the phone, and you’d rather avoid social situations,” the more you are going to believe it!
The day you say “You LOVE to meet people! You LOVE to make personal connections with everyone you meet!” the more you will believe – and the more you will become it.

Your mind creates your life.

Live consciously.

I was going to write today’s post about the topic of image and confidence, but something happened that I need to express instead. If you recall my previous post, It takes Money to Make Money, I spoke on the matter of getting into a mindset of allowing for money to flow.

Well guess what? I received further proof today of how true this is.

Out of the blue I get contacted by someone at an investment firm looking for opportunities. We ended up talking for an hour about the potential of casual games, advergames, and online games. What began as an exploratory discussion on how to best work with liscensing their properties, ended with potentially tens of thousands of dollars of in contract work and improving sales. After that, I just sat back with a shit eating grin on my face, understanding the potential of the laws of the universe.

Whats even more fascinating is the vibrational thought frequency that seems to always rule human consciousness. Have you ever said to someone “I was just thinking that!” Well, it crosses physical boundaries too.
After I wrote my previous post, I ended up at Steve Pavlina’s blog - one of my personal favorites for self-growth. It just so happens that his latest post was not only about the Law of Attraction, but how it particularly relates to income growth by becoming a vibrational match for that.
I highly recommend checking out his latest podcast.

It really is just incrediably interesting how these vibrational frequencies work. Another example comes in the form of character attractions…

A year or so ago I was on my way home on the train after finishing my interview at Atari. I felt fantastic about how it went and was really excited about the job. It when you are in those ‘everything is perfect’ states that you really shine. You feel high on the excitement and life seems to be so much brighter. Well, the feeling must have radiated. I was sitting behind this guy and had this intense feeling that I had to talk to him. I never talk to people on trains.

I sat there for a good five minutes trying to think about what I could bring up or say. Now, despite my metro good looks, I’m perfectly straight. Which makes this even stranger - why in the world would I feel so compelled to just talk to some stranger? So I stand up and wait for my stop. Suddenly, he turns toward me and says “Do you work for a marketing firm?”

Stunned that my vibration was so intense that it caused him to initiate conversation, I just said “Uhhh…no.”
Then I follow up and see why he asked and it seemed the very bland folder I was carrying seemed to be of frequent use of a local marketing company (Odd in any respect, it was pretty much a clear folder with no logo or writing).

In any case, nothing came from it, but it was just a relatively strange occurence that proved to me how we are connected at the very least on a basic vibrational level.

While you’re here, I promised personal details. Figure now I’ll lay the groundwork…
A big part of moving to Orlando from Boston was due to my living situation. A few months ago, my relationship with someone of almost five years ended. She was a huge part of my life and we both moved from Georgia to Boston to be together in part. So when that ended, it threw me for a huge loop. In essence, it felt like a member of family had just passed away. It was her decision and thats always hard to accept.
Like any death, emotions are overwhelming and you fall a bit into a daze that forces you to take a hard look at your life and rethink your subjective reality. For me, my reality was going to be a life of being with her, interspersed by working. I was so set on this that when this notion flipped 180 degrees, I had no idea what my life meant anymore.

Things that used to be important, were no longer. Why work towards something when you have no one to share them with? The hardest part about anything along these lines is when your concept of reality is so ingrained that its too difficult to handle anything that deviates from this. Think of when you found out that Santa didn’t exist or that your parents are really only normal human beings too. It can be devastating if you held notions otherwise for an extended period of time.

In any case, it did two things to me. One, it forced me to figure out what to do next. If I stayed in Boston, I’d end up working at a local game company there and need to find another place to live…The other option was to get the hell out of the city and start fresh. Thats when Orlando opened up to me. My brother and sister-in-law lives here and I figured, this is my best bet.
What is most interesting is how the universe comes to make way for you, when it forces you out of something. I wouldn’t have ended it, so for life to decide that for me, it better clear a path for me! It just so happens that I decided at the last minute to skip doing my third 6 month co-op (many many months before this happened), which allowed for me to graduate in December. If I hadn’t, I would have been forced to endure another half year with no other option. At the same time, major contract work came into my life at just the right moment which allowed me to make the move with a solid income and not an incrediable worry about finding work just yet. Oh, and I got my gallbladder removed. Hows that for a good ending?

To quote a track from Deltron 3030…

“Crisis percipates change.”

This event opened my eyes to reality. The world is not what you think it is. So many people spend so much time with their mundane daily tasks that they never come to doubt what they live in. They live their lives, take care of business, and have occasional entertainment. But how will you feel at the moment of death? Everything you worked for, the pain and pleasure you went through, its all gone.
Why not uncover reality now?

In any event, this drastic break in my ingrained understand of reality and the direction of my life is what continues to bring me pain, but with pain, it forces me to look at life differently all of the time. I soon as I begin to settle into a comfortable understanding of my world, the thought of the shattering of my former life instantly comes flooding back. Painful memories and emotions surface, and then I’m suddenly faced with reality again. There is no turning back now. There is no comfortable relationship or setting that you can ease back into. I imagine it something of a wall. Formerly faced with extreme adversity or an uncomfortable situation, I had this open door behind me that let me run from the conflict and relax in my secure relationship. Now, when I turn around, all I see in a brick wall. This is the biggest driver I’ve ever faced in confronting the world and reality as a whole.
Now the trick is figuring out how to manage the pain to the point where its only a driver, not a hinderance.

I hope you now have a basic understanding of me. My focus now is self-growth, spiritual progression, and of course having fun building a media empire

You guys will surely continue to hear of my latest business ventures, successes, failures, self growth insights, and maybe even a few dates!

Cheers…

We’ve all heard the expression…
It Takes Money to Make Money.

And we’ve all come to some general understand of the phrase. You typically need to invest money in something to reach the point of completion and success. Whether its putting money into the costs to develop a video game, investing in the stock market, or paying for advertising of a new product or service.
But there is so much more to it…

Anyone who is interested in the Law of Attraction understands that you receive whatever it is you attract, or vibrate. By putting your energy and thoughts and feelings into something, it will eventually manifest. This isn’t simply requesting it one day, but sincerely putting extreme and constant effort into it. From a non-metaphysical perspective, this is elementary. If you put effort into something (for example, practicing a sport with a goal to play the big leagues), it will eventually happen. Put in enough effort and your goals are realized. But there are so many things happening on the subatomic level as well.
But that’s not for today!

Only opens the way for me to explain further about the topic…
It takes money to make money. Put simply, the universe works on constant flow. Money goes out, money comes in. Its so important to keep this flow moving or else the energy will remain stagnant. For example…

For most of my life, I’ve been a huge penny pincher. I’ve always saved money, didn’t feel much need to spend it on others, and put such a concrete value on it. “Why would I spend $50 on a dinner that is gone within an hour, when I could buy something more tangible like a game.” Yet it was a vicious cycle. The less I spent, the less money came into my life. Sure, there was money – but it was always the expected amount of money from the expected sources.
Then, starting a few months ago, I broke the cycle. I started to spend money. On myself. On others. And for whatever. It didn’t matter what I spent money on, what mattered was that it was leaving me. Hell, I even did something I’d never done before – spent $140 on sunglasses.

And guess what happened?

Yep, money started coming in. I landed a big development contract out of the relative blue. My new game started gaining sources of revenue. People started paying for me. New things opened up for me. Am I rich yet because of it? No, but I’m definitely happier. Money isn’t as big of a deal to me, because I know I will always have what I need. It feels good to let go of money. Sure I still have reservations and I’m not as generous as I’d really like to be, but these things take time and I’m still working with it.

The important thing to realize is that you always get what you give. Keep the flow of energy going in whatever you do and the cycle will replenish itself. Don’t go out and start wasting your income now, but consider how you view money. If you have strong attachment to it, now is the time to start moving that energy.

In the words of Flava Flav:

Give Thanks
Live Life
And Release

You dig me?

Entrepreneurship is in the blood. MBA programs make good managers. Drive makes good entrepreneurs.

-Me. Now write that down.

Glad to have you with me today!

This journey that we are about to share is one that needs background. Lets talk about what it is I do and where I plan to go.

Long story short, my current focus is on independent game development…

I run two development studios:

Injoy Games – www.InjoyGames.com - casual game titles

Weapon Studios – www.WeaponStudios.com - core gamer products

In addition, I have also launched a new portal geared towards a hardcore gaming audience:

Game Garrison – www.GameGarrison.com

These companies are operating as virtual companies, allowing me to manage each entity carefully and be fully in control. In addition to these, I am branching out into different fields to diversify and I’d love to share another of my upstart companies with you, but I can’t, just yet. It revolves around TV programming, that’s about as far as I can go for now. But trust me, stick with me here and you’ll be the first to know what the ‘next big thing’ is.

Lets talk childhood…

Since the age of 8 my mind has been into creating a company. Some kids ask for toys or games for their birthday – I asked for office supplies. No joke.

Back in elementary school, I used to carry a briefcase packed with rocks, homemade necklaces, custom drawn Street Fighter folders, pencil grips, and whatever else you could imagine no child actually needed. That was my first taste of real commercial success. You know you’ve penetrated a market successfully when you call up one of your repeat customers and their mother asks “Your not going to sell my son anymore rocks now are you??” Yep, I was living large.

At 12, I got a hold of my fathers Palm Pilot I and put it to better use – games. I quickly got attached to the only RPG available for the system called Kyle’s Quest. This was one of my first tastes of true indie gaming. The author was nice enough to give me a free copy and I quickly got to work on developing levels for the game. It was later released as a retail product, with two of my campaigns included. Though not a success in the stores, it exploded online.

Around the same time, I dabbled in web design and met another like-minded designer. We got a job to develop one hundred template pages and were promised roughly eighty thousand dollars – needless to say, that was my first taste of getting burned. Like any entrepreneur, you go through plenty of these before you hit the sweet spot, better I received it early on.

At 13, I got much more interested in game development. I was into MUDs early on and got a taste of programming and designing in a couple of systems. I tried my hand at a slew of languages – qbasic, visual basic, c, lpc – but I never had patience to dive in deep. So that’s when I decided that I wanted to be a producer instead – problem was, at 13, I didn’t know what exactly a producer was. To top it all off, as all good game developers know, your first project is supposed to be a killer app MMORPG.

A virtual team of roughly a dozen people was assembled and work set out. As soon as it dawned on us the daunting task ahead, work ceased as fast as it began. Next strategy, 3d action RPG. The thing you don’t realize when your first starting out is there is a clear chronological order that you go through when developing the game. The sad truth, despite popular opinion, you DON’T want to develop cinematic cutscenes and music scores before you even know how the game will be programmed. Write that down too.

Next project was initiated by a team mate that found a casino chain that was interested in a multiplayer FPS for in-room gameplay. The initial offering was $10K – and at the age of 14, that’s a lot of money. So we scrambled together and started concepting. A week later, we hear the casino pulled out of the offer – it dawned on them that if people are IN their hotel room and not down in the casino, they are actually LOSING money. Ah, brilliant.

A bit later, I began talking with a soon to be notorious Netherlands publisher called Crystal Interactive. Being young and involved in the game development scene, I ended up working with them and acting as a junior acquisitions manager. I’d find and sign new developers to have their products published with them. Unfortunately for both of us, they never paid me or the developers that they published with. It was a bit scandalous.

A couple years passed…mainly puberty. Or was it girls. In any case, development work took a hiatus for a bit. Senior year of high school I buckled down and set in motion the future of my work. After years of being involved in failed projects and broken promises, I decided that if I wanted something done right, I had to do it myself.

I grabbed a copy of Multimedia Fusion (www.clickteam.com), nabbed some concept sketches and art from past projects, and set to work to develop a cyberpunk game in the vein of Dope Wars called Tokyo War. The project took only a month or two and I did all the scripting with MMF, while contracting out sound effects for about $20. A bit rough around the edges, but I had done it – a complete game.

This is where the true fun of independent development comes in.

Self publishing is a big step for anyone. It takes a lot of time and experience to really know the best way to go about it. Luckily I was in a situation that allowed me the opportunity to give it a go and make mistakes.

I launched WeaponStudios.com and solicited for web designer to give it the look and feel I wanted. Fortunately, I was able to find someone looking to build their portfolio so I got it for free – try finding that these days. Tokyo War was up on the site and sold modestly. But the fact remains, it DID sell! Several hundred bucks came in handy and pushed me to get rolling on the next project.

So here I was off to my first year in college. Now, what kind of game could a college kid make? Or rather, what kind of game could be SOLD to those same college kids?

That was the day that Dope Farmer was born.

Two months of work, splitting eventual profits with another programmer, artist, and musician. We had a hit on our hands.

So, the school I went to is known for its co-op program. Time for my first co-op. I flew home to Atlanta to interview with a large insurance broker which seemed to be promising. The afternoon after the interview, I receive an email from Atari asking everyone to come out for an info session. After confirming that I could get a face to face interview that day, I made the last minute decision to hop the next (6am) flight there to make it in time. Early morning plane to subway train to commuter train to taxi – made it with only minutes to spare before it started.

As soon as I walked in, I sat down and waited. The HR manager asked my name, and upon hearing it, left everyone in the room and rushed me to the second floor to meet the Executive Producer. I chatted with him for about ten minutes – games I liked, what I didn’t like, what’s wrong with games today, etc. I left him a demo disc, but I seriously doubt it was ever looked at.

Long story short, the position was for Marketing Asset Manager – which I didn’t get.

But the story doesn’t end there. Instead of that, a new position was created specifically for me in Product Development – eventually turning into an Associate Producer role. Needless to say, working at a video game company beat out working with risk management for an insurance company.

This was a six month experience and I left with a little more than some free games:

Credits:

Atari Anthology (Producer) – Xbox/PS2

Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 (Associate Producer)

Axis & Allies (Assistant Producer)

Not bad for a co-op.

The studio closed only weeks after my departure – Coincidence? I think not.

I’d love to say that it was my sheer skill and strength that kept the company together, but it was probably all my mistakes that caused the eventual collapse. At least that’s what they tell me.

In any case, it was a good experience and nice to see the retail game dev world from the publisher perspective.

So back to school I went. Trudged through another semester of classes and then began my co-op search once again. I wanted to experience games from the game developer side this time around. I interviewed at Irrational Games (SWAT 4, Tribes 2, Freedom Force, System Shock), Turbine (Ashron’s Call, D&D Online), and Floodgate Entertainment (Age of Empires PocketPC, Madden Mobile, Neverwinter Nights Mobile).

I got offered a position at all three companies. They all varied (remember, co-op don’t get paid much, if at all) but ultimately I landed on Floodgate. Wanting to do the whole indie thing, I figured I might as well join a truly independent company.

I had a fantastic experience there and met some really great people. I saw development from the mobile perspective this time around and talked up casual games as often as I could. Little did I know, this paved the way for Injoy Games to go full-time.

Flash forward six more months. Back to school, getting through my final semester and ending up developing and pitching my business plan for our capstone entrepreneurship course. Finally – graduation! Time to face the real world…

I land a contract for Injoy Games to work with Floodgate on development and here I am. Full-time game developer, working on a contract game, developing our own IP, expanding our portfolio into other sectors of the market, and adding to my own portfolio of companies (TV TBA project).

That’s enough for one day.

Let me introduce myself…

My name is Alex and I am an entrepreneur. Alright, maybe that’s a bit presumptuous. Lets start from the beginning.

I am a 22 year old recent graduate. As of Jan. 1^st 2007, I am no longer indebted to the pursuit of higher learning. What an exciting time right? Well, until you realize that its now time to make real money. Fortunately, I’ve been prepping for the last 22 years of my life.

When I decided I want to start a blog, I was going to write about my current specialty – developing casual video games. Then I realized – there is so much more to my life than that one aspect, both professionally and personally. People can read countless books and blogs about starting a business and its pitfalls. Few people bring the true human element out in their musing. And for the most part, blogs are for musing. I don’t want to educate you on industry news or examine techniques for business – I want to offer you a look at a real human being.

From the business perspective, this is about seeing what drives a person to be an entrepreneur. What kind of person are they? We are going to get personal here – real personal. You as a reader are going to get to know me more than most people ever would on the surface. I’m now at a point in my life where I can be fully candid. In this blog, you are going to learn about all the businesses I already have in my portfolio and all the businesses I am working to open. You’ll hear about every success and every failure. You will feel how I feel during these times. Not only will you follow my journey as an entrepreneur, but also my journey to unveil my doubts of reality and existence as a whole. My existential crisis and pursuit of true reality equally rivals my passion for business ventures.

Stay tuned and you will peer into the soul of one very multi-faceted entrepreneur.

And with that, here is one promise I can make:

By the time this blog is over, you will have witnessed the rise of a millionaire. This, I guarantee.

While it will be fascinating to share this journey to wealth with you, what I cannot guarantee as of yet, and my ultimate goal in life, is that I will reach perpetual happiness and complete self growth. So many entrepreneurs sacrifice everything to reach their one-pointed goal of success and fortune. I am not willing to sacrifice my soul. Wealth comes in many aspects and without this joy, everything is completely meaningless. Lose sight of this, and you’ve lost yourself.

Are you ready to take this trip with me?