This is the first in a series where I go through my entire business and career history, so you can see how I ended up where I am today. I’ll go through all the major events of my past business life, but before I get started with my history, I’m going to give you an overview of where I am, in terms of business, today.

I own three small businesses: a business consulting practice, a lifestyle design business for men (the main blog for that is here), and an I.T. marketing company. The first two companies have been making so much money lately that I had to put the third company on temporary pause (grrrr) while I optimize companies one and two (as I discussed here). I’m going to turn business number three back on by winter of this year. I don’t like that I had to do that, but I had to do it because, like I said, the other two businesses were doing so well. (The only problems the Alpha Male 2.0 experiences are “quality” problems like this.)

I work out of my home, by choice, and have no employees, again by choice, in keeping with the Alpha Male 2.0 business model. I work with a team of subcontractors and virtual assistants, about eight different people. I set my own schedule and work whenever I feel like it, which is usually every day, though a “workday” in my world could mean just one or two hours of work.

I make a six-figure income, about 95% of which is location independent, meaning I could be literally anywhere on the planet and could still support this income as long as I had an internet connection, even slow one. This six-figure income could be supported on just 1.5 days of work per week. In other words, I could work a long day on Monday, work half the day on Tuesday, and take the rest of the week off until the following Monday, and my income would remain. (It wouldn’t grow very much, but it would sustain.) I work more hours than that because I choose to (I love to work, and I have goals that excite me).

I love my work, all three of my businesses. About 70% of my day-to-day work is exciting for me and brings me great joy, excitement, and fulfillment. About 10% of my work I consider just “okay,” and the remaining 20% I don’t like very much. But when you love 70%, the 20% that’s irritating isn’t all that bad.

If you’re curious, that 20% comprises grunt work tasks that I can’t outsource, such as replying to certain emails, double-checking the bookkeeping, dealing with legal and tax aspects of my companies, quality assurance monitoring of subcontractors, and so on. Fortunately, this stuff only takes up 20% of my work time or less.

I follow a process of outsourcing everything I possibly can, so I only work on the highest-value tasks that bring me the most income with the least amount of work. I work based on systems that force me to maximize and optimize everything I do on a regular basis. My operating goal is to make the most amount of money on the least amount of time, something I’ve been very good at over the course of my business career. Indeed, as a business consultant (and business coach) there’s extra pressure on me to be effective and organized, since I need to be the example.

I started my first real business at age 20 and dabbled in it for a bit while I worked at a normal day job. I got serious with that business at age 22, and two years later, at age 24 in 1996, I quit my day job and went full time with my business. That was 22 years ago and I have not had a job since, thank god.

In that time, I have started several different businesses, and every one of them have made money. I’ve made many business mistakes and blown money on several occasions as well (sometimes a lot!) but in the end, every business I’ve started made a profit, at least eventually.

Today, I’ve “settled” on my favorite three businesses, my business consulting (something that comes easy for me and is very profitable), my Blackdragon / Alpha Male 2.0 business for men (something that’s so fun it usually feels more like a fun hobby instead of a six-figure company), and my I.T. marketing company (my most profitable, turnkey, automated, niched, and scalable business; it pains me to no end that I can’t work on it right now, and I’m itching really bad to get back into it later this year).

I am a creature of business. Always have been. Most people who know me only through my writings as Blackdragon think the most important thing in my life is women. Wrong. Number one in my life is, and always has been, my work, my businesses, my Mission. My woman life is always second to that.

In the next installment in this article series, I will talk about how I first got started, way back when I was a teenager. Stay tuned.

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