Missed…by that much….

The title is a refernece to Get Smart the 60’s spy spoof with Don Adams I think his name was. A precurser to Leslie Nielson’s Spy Hard movies. Anyway we’re talking about heroes, who somehow end up succeeded despite their actual heroic efforts. I tried heroicly to do all kinds of stuff for work, some of the stuff actually worked, some didn’t and some, I have no idea yet. I do feel very discombobulated today though. I sent out thousands of e-mails (I’m really not what you would consider a spammer, more of a direct marketer) I contact people who could really use our services. I don’t make stuff up. I don’t even push hard. It’s mostly just “have a great weekend, and think of AffordableSearch every now and then.”

Plus I’m sending these e-mails to people whose job it is to find vehicles like AffordableSearch in which to advertise. That’s what they do. It is very dissapointing that people like this, not all of them, but definitely some, will not talk to me on the phone when I call. Remember these are people who really are being paid to talk to the likes of me. I should get a few minutes of their time, out of curiosity if nothing else.

So I’m hoping next year will be big. Matt hired someone who has expertise in promoting websites. He tells me that within six weeks we’ll be back on top of the game. I hope I can wait that long.

I really, really want to help people find an affordable home. I want our site to be the first place people will go.

So I guess we’re having movie night tonight. I asked Alex what movie he wants to watch, but he won’t say. He really wants to see that Adam Sandler movie, Click. We’ll see.

So I guess we’ll do popcorn, hot chocolate, fire, etc. Shoud be nice quiet evening.

Tomorrow, I’m hoping Baba, that’s my mother, will take the kids so Chris and I can go out for dinner. But I haven’t talked to my mom about it yet. Usually she won’t say anyhing until just before Saturday. But she always ends up taking the boys overnight.

Tomorrow, I’ll go see my dad too. My fingures are killing me, gotta go. Lets’s talk soon.

Vlad

Cast party

So my wife and I hosted a cast party at my house Sunday. There was more than enough pizza for everyone, cookies, soda, etc. There weren’t many activities for the kids but people had fun. A few board games, some gifts were handed out, hugging and some tears that the play was over. But a number of people were already looking forward to the next production.

John Goehle moves on to Brigadoon next while Terry Hedges will direct the Fantasticks. Terry originally said he has a part for me in the Fantasticks, but after my performance in Prarie Lights, which I think was actually pretty inconsistent, he probably doesn’t want to use me any more. I don’t think I have enough time to deal with that right now. But it did feel good to be involved in theater again.

I had an appointment at the YMCA yesterday and was given a set of excercises to do. Everything is computerized now. You plug a password into the machine you use and it stores data about how much you lifted and stuff. Pretty cool. Maybe I’ll go today.

We’ll see. I any out there?

I’m on hold waiting for a prospect…

So I’m calling this guy to see if he might want to advertise on our website www.AffordableSearch.com, and they put me on hold and the silence is literally deafening. The phone number still appears on my phone display, but I can’t believe I’m still connected. Someone must have done a study somewhere about how much time salespeople spend on hold. I wonder what the numbers are.

I’m lucky because I have my laptop and while I’m on hold I can post a classified ad for one of our advertisers on Craigslist or this new service ILX. I can follow up on e-mails or remove someone who doesn’t want to get my e-mails any more. The e-mails I send out don’t usually have much to do with business. I like to send out a quote that happens to be meaningful to me today. This was today’s quote:

“There are two kinds of people: Those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group because there is less competition there.”
-  Indira Gandhi  

Normally I would have to say that taking the credit is better, but at this point in my life the only person I care to get credit from, is myself.  Working and accomplishing for my own satisfaction is so much better than just getting credit.

Anyway I hung up on the prospect. I’ll call back in a couple of minutes.

You know when I was younger, I used to get so nervous about making sales calls and being rejected, but that just doesn’t bother me any more. I mean, no one likes rejection, but the main thing is to realize that it isn’t personal. The prospect is in a place where they either just don’t need me, or they don’t know they need me. Everyone who has given me more than a minute of time has been so pleasant to speak with. I mean they are just nice people. They know their business and many of them are pretty funny… There was this one president  who lead me on a series of e-mail exchanges about a mouse that was hysterically funny.

So I pass the time. Calling -mailing. Strategizing new ideas. Trying to figure out how I can just be heard.

I really want to talk about living. Living in apartments. Living with limited income. Making a dollar stretch. Eating those gross little tubular Mexican things from 7/11.  Not watching tv even though it is only six feet away from me and would be so easy to turn on right now. But I won’t.

AffordableSearch must succeed. I’m not kidding not just for me and the team but because it really helps people. I’ve seen the e-mails. They go from a you couple just starting out in life looking for a one bedroom, to a mom with an 11 year old son who has to move to a different city for some reason, to a guy on disability, on his own. That one gets me. I mean that could so easily be me.

So anyway, the prospect. Once they realize this is a good deal they sign up. And that makes me happy because I get a commission, obviously, but also because that guy on disability has one more apartment community to look at, and this could just be the one. People need cheap apartments. In order to get the cheap apartments, they need to be able to find them and that’s what we do. It does make me proud. I’m not just selling widgets. I’m connecting people to their new homes. That’s not bad.

I’m really back this time…

Life is not, and cannot be linear. I refuse to believe that a person on a given course, logically planned and charted, will stay that course unswervingly in all circumstances. I am absolutely sure that Ghandhi, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King Mandela and all their ilk, had second thoughts, doubts, missteps, failures. Some that have come to light through historian’s pens, others of which we will never know.

If anyone still reads this they may be dissapointed to hear that the circumstances relating to my melt-down several months ago will never be written in my hand. But the outcomes, I will be happy to crow about now and in the forseeable future. Henceforth let it be known that I love my wife with my whole heart and every chromasome of my being. I am forever faithful and bound to my commitments made to this family. I have decided that drinking and smoking were antithetical to happiness and healthy survival. So I no longer do either. This week I will begin to take advantage of the local YMCA and improve my body to the very best of my abilities.

I have now begun to socialize outside my house through my involvement in Prairie Lights, the local community theatre musical. And have been elected to the board of the Port of Call Community Players in Spencerport. The play is going well and the second weekend performances start tomorrow night. The cast party is at my house Sunday afternoon.

I am not heading into evangelism or some sort of born again status by any means, those of you who know me well would find that ridiculous. But the leaf turns. My non-linear path consistently pitted and pocked with treacherous, often self laid, traps, seems to be headed in the direction of my choice. I’m happy. Still snags here and there, but none insurmountable. None daunting. None beyond a minor blip. I am confident.

So how is everyone else doing?