Story of a Three Dollar Man

In January of 2007, I almost closed my web agency’s doors.
I had only $3 to my name.
I hadn’t paid my employees in a month.
I was behind on rent. Bills. And owed the IRS a grip of money (over $100k).
Hard work, Success story, business, Grande and work, Starbucks coffee

In 2005 I was closing $20K+ projects. But something happened in the following two years… by the time I was ready to give up, I was struggling to ink $1,500 projects. I lost my confidence. Hard work, Success story, business, Grande and work, Starbucks coffee I blamed the “industry” and all of the commodity products and services coming out. I grumbled about overseas outsources. Everywhere I looked, I found aspects of my business I was dissatisfied with. Story of a Three Dollar Man. I would say things like:

“No one has budgets for web projects.”
“Clients don’t understand what I do.”
“I can’t get paid what I’m worth.”

And there I was. Staring at my bank balance. $3 says a lot. It told me that my business was broken. It told me that I needed help. It told me that the decisions I was making drove outcomes that weren’t fulfilling me. And it told me I couldn’t do this alone…

The hard part to swallow was that I was working harder than I had ever worked. Putting in 60, 70, even 100 hour weeks. All with no payday. Story of a Three Dollar Man.

Maybe you can relate…..

Have you ever been at the point of giving up? Calling it a day? Ready to go do something else?

Story of a Three Dollar Man. Sometimes we have to hit rock bottom before we can go up. Our toes have to tickle the rocks at the bottom of the ocean. And mine did.

Stick with me over the next few days. I want to help you. I want to tell you exactly what I learned at the lowest point of my business career.

After feeling sorry for myself about my last $3
 long enough, I decided I needed to do something. Take action. So I knocked on my business partner’s door and said the only thing that came to mind…

“Let’s go grab some coffee.”

If it’s my last three dollars… at least I’m going to enjoy it.

Just need to get a Grande and not a Venti – since a twenty ounce coffee at Starbucks runs $3.12 and would have overdrawn my account.

The conversation that followed was the start of a long road from the bottom. A road that led to us building back up a profitable web agency. That led to me getting out of debt. That led to me getting paid what I was worth. That led to me scaling my business. Led me to being able to buy a house. Do good and go on vacation.

And ultimately a more fulfilled life.

PART 2, I’m going to tell you exactly what I implemented after this conversation.

I’m going to tell you about my MILLION DOLLAR LUNCH.