There was a Paula Abdul song that was particularly popular when I was growing up. The chorus went something like, “Two steps forward; two steps back. We go together cuz opposites attract.” And so on, and so forth. Thinking on these lines now, I find myself puzzled. I thought the term was two steps forward,…
Category: entrepreneur
North of the border
It is the final day of April, and I am sitting in a third floor room typing away as the rain falls in a cold, wet blanket outside my window. These past two weeks, I have traveled under the auspice of Story-to-Song to two very different locations, cities, and climes in Canada. Last week, I…
What now?
The Sandbox may be over, but my work as a startup entrepreneur is just beginning. The past three months feel like a surreal, frenetic blur. They were very real and quite invaluable. I took an abstract idea and found a way to turn it into a viable business with tangible products. I even worked with…
Believe it or not
Last night, I performed at an exhibit opening at the Arts League of Lowell. I had submitted my first recorded album for an exhibit honoring the life of Kerouac called “Travels off the Beaten Track.” I knew that David Amram would be playing earlier in the gallery opening, but I got the go ahead to…
Against All Odds
Tonight is the final awards ceremony for the Merrimack Valley Sandbox Winter Accelerator Program. It has been a challenging and very rewarding three months. Yet, I think I speak for everyone in my class when I write that this evening’s final ceremonies will be bittersweet for all of us. A couple of weeks ago, a…
Fake it ’til you make it
I went to an extra Sandbox session this morning. I went into the session thinking that it was about fundraising, but the more appropriate title would be “Pitch Practice and Ego Destroyer.” I came home with a hopeless feeling in my heart, heaviness in my chest, and a lump in my throat. You will feel…
Talk to everyone because you just never know
There are many people who have walked in and out of my life and had a formative affect on the person I am today, how I engage with the world around me, and the values I try to embrace and infuse into the work I do, particularly with regard to sustainability and songwriting. I wonder…
Speak like you are a Fortune 500 Company, but don’t quit your day job just yet
Don’t call us, we’ll call you. It’s not you, it’s me. These clichés were ringing in the back of my mind during one of our recent evening sessions at the Sandbox. There were two gentlemen seated at the front of the room. They were entrerpreneurs with startup businesses in the Boston area. They each introduced…
E is for Entrepreneurship, not for Easy
Life does not stop when you become an entrepreneur, and I nearly let life keep me from getting to the Sandbox session this past Thursday night. Class was in Lawrence, and I was having a not so great day. I was moody. I had been sick on and off for the past month and hadn’t slept…
Guiding Song 