TYED ART, INC - HISTORY III

A Seed In Fertile Soil:

Moving to Las Vegas turned out to be one of the best decisions we would ever make. It was here that my infant entrepreneurial seed took root in fertile ground. After being in Vegas for a few months I found a job working for a drafting company as a project manager and lead drafter. My employer quickly became a very influential teacher and dear friend. He was the first real entrepreneur I had ever met.

A small business owner, it was he who converted my raw, unfocused energy into precise determination. He never tried to teach me anything directly. It was all through osmosis. Watching him work inspired and even enabled me to envision how I could turn my artistic talent into motivation for financial freedom. More importantly, it was my boss who got me excited about business in general. Everything about him got me excited about business. He didn't just own the drafting company, but was ALWAYS out there looking for the next big thing, the next contract, or good idea.

He and I discussed our passions and our ambitions in the world of business. I watched my boss as he negotiated with larger companies to secure, renew or augment business contracts for the company. He was always priming the pump. He always had his eyes open for the next opportunity. It was exciting just to observe the way he worked. My boss was the one who introduced me to Robert Kiyosaki's "Rich Dad, Poor Dad," my entrepreneurial bible and motivational battery to this day. Even now, anytime I feel deflated, or unmotivated, I pop in that book on CD and recharge. It works EVERY time! He didn't just employ me. He empowered me. During my 2 years at that company, every day seemed like a crash course in business education. Whether by design or unintentionally, he was mentoring me, grooming me. He taught me about leadership, budgeting, marketing, inter-office politics & policies, and about seeking out opportunity.

Our move to Las Vegas marked the beginning of a phenomenon in my life that I don't like to talk about it much. A fastination with invention. I don't consider myself an inventor, but I've had so many ideas that I started, a long time ago, to record them in an idea log book called "Brain Vomit". I call it that because it is, in fact, a jumbled mess of free flowing, disorganized ideas that have been mentally regurgitate with little regard for pragmatic application. I created a free "website" which became my first real introduction to having an "online presence." My page was crude, simplistic and extremely amateuristic and FREE. Although it's almost embarrassing now, I was pretty darned proud of myself for having done something to move forward with my business ideas.

My site was only able to hold one free image before charging me for additional images. It allowed me to set up to 5 free hyperlinks before charging me for any extras, and one of the links HAD to be a Webspawner link. Lame, I know, but I had a plan. I ended up creating several Yahoo online photo albums (also for free) and posted a bunch of my artwork there. I then used my free links on my Webspawner site to hyperlink to my free hotmail business address, and my free Yahoo photo albums. in other words my online portfolio. I used my one free image on the Webspawner site to post my Tyed Art logo to give my page a more professional feel, and wrote a short little synopsis about my business. Again, its pretty dumb now as I look back, but at the time I was pretty proud of myself for having been so resourceful while maintaining unwavering frugality.