The Story So Far…
So… it really did all start about a decade ago with a couple of different business ventures; id64.com and something called "Quizzard". To cut a long story short, id64.com was a web hosting and development business that enjoyed some success, and then sort of faded away as the two people involved (me and my mate Jason) headed for different parts of the world.
Quizzard was a great idea very poorly executed – the basic idea was a massive database of trivia quiz questions/answers that would be used to generate weekly quizzes for use by local pubs and clubs. We had a couple of customers and it worked well for them, the main problem was I didn't really have a clue how to get the product "out there".
For quite a while this really was the end of my "entrepreneurial" career – I decided that I wasn't cut out for business, reverting to the belief system I had grown up with; essentially that success is something that happens to other people, particularly those who already have access to money. In many ways it's quite comfortable to accept your fate as an employee, you just focus on getting the best, safest and most secure job you can and blame "life" every time something doesn't go your way.
Trouble is, I'm a bit of an obsessive type, and this initial foray into the world of business left unfinished business. Deep down there was this niggling feeling that I couldn't let go of. A belief that I didn't have to accept things at face value, and a belief that being born a "nobody" didn't mean I had to spend the whole of my life that way.
After moving to Australia in 2005, I spent 12 months working in a job with long hours, poor pay and represented a step back of about 6 years in my programming career. I only stuck it for 12 months because the employer had advanced me some of my salary to pay for moving costs and I would have to pay that back! At the end of that period I decided to become a contractor; the IT scene in Perth at the time was vibrant; the city was enjoying all the benefits of a mining boom and all the major players in the resources sector seemed to have at least one major IT project underway.
Somehow though I ended up as a database contractor doing script conversion work for a WA State Government department!
With hindsight, the government role was/is perfect (I am still doing the same job almost 5 years later at the time of writing this). It provided a bit of stability for a while and gave me time to think, time to ponder what I really wanted to do with my life, and the 9-to-5 culture gave me ample opportunity to work on other things in my own time.
So the stage was set, however there were still obstacles to overcome….
