We just started a new website: howtolivelbi.com The process of doing this has reminded me of a time in my childhood when my big brother decided to teach me how to wrestle. He was seven years older than me, so maybe he was 12 and I was 5. Anyhow, it went kind of like this: I got on my hands and knees, and then, WHOMP, I was on my back. Pinned. Then, my brother would say, “Do you want to do it again?” “Um, …,” I’d say.
This is what the past few months have been like. “Do you want to work on the website thing?” “Um…” And then I’d be flat out: helpless, half-nelson-ed or something, feeling inordinately stupid, on hold for half an hour with a domain company about some email glitch. Pinned, yet again.
Let me just tell you what my skill level is when it comes to the Internet. I can’t remember my user name for seemingly ANYTHING. Likewise, my password. So, I spend an inordinate amount of time Googling questions into outer space like, “What should I do next?” and clicking the HELP button countless times. Why, really, do they even bother to have HELP buttons on computers? In my experience, there is nothing more UNHELPFUL than a HELP button… As far as the Internet goes, I am eternally five years old.
Nonetheless, we have prevailed. Thanks to a very patient website company. And a whole passel of noodging friends who believe in us.
But, like everything you accomplish in life, it’s been a lot of back and forthing. A lot of going nowhere before you go anywhere. A lot of fear of the unknown. A lot of, “I wrote down that password somewhere but I can’t remember where I put it.” A lot of getting wrestled down by life. A lot of getting back up.
My brother lives in upstate N.Y. now. He doesn’t know that he did me a big favor back when I was five teaching me how to wrestle. I remember him after the tenth pin in two minutes asking me if I gave up yet, if I said “Uncle,” yet. “Um, nope,” I’d always tell him. Who knew that he was really teaching me how to start an Internet company.
