Past Mistakes

“A Buck At A Time” is a very appropriate title for this blog. That's because I've reached a point in my life where I'm just trying to make (you guessed it) a buck at a time. You see for a long time... Actually, let me back up and start at the beginning.

My name is Aaron Jeremiah Ethridge. I was born and raised in South Carolina, USA. I've been married for over eighteen years, I have seven biological children, a basically-adopted son, and another one on the way. And since I was about fifteen years old I've been working trying to get rich in a variety of ways. Why is any of this of interest to you? Well, it may not be. Then again, it just might be. It all depends on how you got here and why you've come.

You see, I intend for this blog to be a record of what I've done to try to make a living and what success (or failure) I've run into. Should I succeed it might help you do the same. Should I fail you might learn from my mistakes. In either case it could prove entertaining and I want to keep a record of all this for myself anyway. It's very important to try to learn from your past mistakes.

Actually, “Past Mistakes” may end up being one of the regular subjects on this blog. Of course, if I were to just dive in and start talking about all my past mistakes (in business alone) it could end up being a full length book, so I had better divide it up into small doses. I'll also try to tell you what I plan to do about it. Then I'll be able to compare what I've done with what I'm doing and gauge the success of each change scientifically.

And I suppose this would be as good a time as any to get on with it!

Mistake #1: Trying To Work With What You Don't Have

Bill: Ted, while I agree that, in time, our band will be most triumphant. The truth is, Wyld Stallyns will never be a super band until we have Eddie Van Halen on guitar.

Ted: Yes, Bill. But, I do not believe we will get Eddie Van Halen until we have a triumphant video.

Bill: Ted, it's pointless to have a triumphant video before we even have decent instruments.

Ted: Well, how can we have decent instruments when we don't really even know how to play?

Bill: That is why we NEED Eddie Van Halen!

Ted: And THAT is why we need a triumphant video.

Bill, Ted: EXCELLENT!

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)

Although building plans around making use of things that you don't have might seem comical, people do it all the time. I, myself, personally, do it constantly. I could give you a long list of examples, but for now I'll just ask you to trust me about it. Until very recently I incessantly said things like “Once I get BLANK I'll be able to BLANK and that will lead to BLANK.” Well, that amounts to: BLANKETY BLANK BLANK!

It is VERY important, in fact, I would say it is imperative to look at your real resources before you make plans about your future. Up until now I've almost always counted my chickens before they hatched. I've learned the hard way that you just can't do that. There's no such thing as a “sure thing”.

That leads us to:

Fix #1: List Your Available Resources So You'll Know What You Do Have To Work With

What are my resources? Well, I'm kindof a Jack-of-all-Trades. And I don't mean that in a great way. I know enough to make a living at a number of different jobs that I don't want to do. I don't know enough about any of them to end up at the top of the pile in them. Still, at the moment that's basically all I've got. So, I might as well just list it out:

My Current Worldly Resources:
I'm a video game designer (credited... and I own the IP)
I can program in C++/C#/PHP
I'm a certified Network Engineer (MCSE, CNE, CCNA, all way out of date)
I am an amateur novelist (I've written two unpublished novels)
I can code websites that other people design
I can do computer hardware diag and repair
I have contacts that can publish any game I make on Steam
I have contacts that are able to get me some freelance networking work

That's basically what I've got that I can currently make a living with. (Yep I'm down to basically no material resources. I don't have any money, any property to pawn, or anything like that. I do have a bunch of debt, but that's not really a resource and we'll get into that later.) You'll notice that I left out any spiritual resources. It's not that I don't believe that I have them (and I certainly do), it's just that when compiling a list like this I think it's important to look at it from the physical point of view. Spiritual resources will manifest themselves in ways that are hard to predict and even difficult to understand sometimes.

In any event, that's what I've got at the moment. So, what do I plan to do with it. Well, we'll get to that soon. For now the fact that I've got the list is enough. I'm planning to work with what I've got, not with what I don't got.

And that, in my mind, is step #1!