Tuesday, March 26, 2019

I’ve been away from working on this site for a while because of a few reasons. Had a flu a few weeks ago and then working on some paperwork, tax season after all. And also cause I had to get my head on straight. This site has been a dream of mine for about a year and a half now. Thought about this since May and while I made great progress I went about it the wrong way for a while. I had been pushing myself too hard to make deadlines and also getting people that didn’t necessarily want to be involved and not realizing you can’t just arbitrarily volunteer people and just expect them to understand and see your vision and plus you really have to be gracious when they do help you. No one ever made it in life on their own. We have parents, partners, and people in our lives that help us from infancy including educators and where would we be without them? There’s a saying that “There’s no such thing as a self-made millionaire” because you have to have a team of people helping you through life and you can’t raise a child without the help of a whole village.

I neglected a bit of my health, my dignity (groveling a little bit), my reputation and some of my friendships to create this site but ultimately remembered when I went to some business meetings I’ve sat in at the beginning to learn about starting a business that you don’t want to feel cheated, you don’t want to be deceived, and ultimately it is possible to run a good ethical business. You don’t need to hoodwink anyone to be successful. And I’ve not done anything like that and have just been working on the layout. But I lost sight of the joy and reason I set up the site for many months.

This site (SWM) is also for fun, a better life, better health (for better or worse but hopefully better!) and to have a goal and freedom to pursue something much better. That’s why I’m laying down some rules for this site and holding myself accountable if possible on the Internet.

• Thou shalt not neglect thy health for this site and business. My body is the only one I have and I need to take care of it.
• Thou shalt have fun with this site and remember that no matter how much work, money, time you’re putting into the business if you’re not having fun and enjoying it that you can stop and get out at any time and try something else. If you don’t partly enjoy half the time you spend at something why do it?
• Thou shalt make it fun and enjoyable for others that are truly interested in your site and not push the site on others just because you’re interested in it. People have to want it on their own.
• Thou shalt do thy best to make the world a better place and give people confidence, motivation, and do good for others, leave it in a better place and emphasize the good in others. Provide a service for others.
• And if all of the above has been followed through and through, then thou shalt also be an ethical business business in the way you’d want to be served. Earn trust and safeguard reputation because once lost it’s hard to get it back.

This is a good ethical framework that follows the ideas in my About page. I’ve gotten away from my reason I set up this site but hope to continuously make it better for everyone. If you decide you want to set up a site, a blog, a project for yourself it’s a smart idea to set up a ethical framework, guideline and rules about what you want your focus and goals to be. I also encourage you to draw up a contract if you hire a programmer or outside help. And also word to the wise, just because you can find family and friends to help with some things on the site, never impose. They are helping and doing you a favor.

Hopefully with this in mind the site will flourish and be better and better.

Thanks for supporting our site, readers.