The Chris Struttmann Report

Despite my age breakdown I had on my 20th birthday, I’m still trying my hardest to be as awesome as I can be.

I haven’t told too many people this, but effective September 1st, 2010, I will be a partner in PhysicalAddictions.com, a very large bodybuilding and vitamin supplements online store. I will have a fairly size-able stake in the website and I’ll be working hard to make the website even bigger than it already is. This is in conjunction to all of my other clients, APRSBB, TwiceText.com and our new Brilliant Innovations Group project which will be launched soon.

Let’s not forget about school! I know that for most of you I have been completely evading the subject of school for a while; so it’s time to clear some air…. with some bullet points!

• I have completed all of my degree requirements at BCC, I WILL be graduating at the end of this semester with an A.S. in Computer Programming and Analysis.
• With any sort of luck I will be entering FIT in the Spring, UCF is the backup plan.
• The goal right now is to dual major with degrees in Computer Science and Business Finance
• Yes, I will be working a lot while going to school a lot, but guess what, nobody said being awesome was easy.
• If any of the above changes, I will let you know

So that clears that up and gets you updated to everything that’s been going on with life. Now it’s time to switch gears a little bit.

Without being too arrogant, I wanted to make a list of things that I like to do to keep myself awesome… Just a few tips and pointers, you can take them or leave them, but I’m just putting them out there… So here they are.

1. Work your ASS off!

   As you can see above, I’m doing A LOT of work right now, A TON, actually. I’m not really tied down or completely committed to anyone or anything (aka wife or kids), so I can pretty much go crazy and work hard so that one day, maybe, I can fulfill my ultimate dream of having the house on dragon point (more on that on a different day).

   I feel like if I work hard now, not only will I be rewarded later, but I’ll also also feel better about everything I’ve done. As potentially tacky as it is, one of my best friends’ dad once told me “Chris, you’re going to look in the mirror one day and realize you built it all from the ground up.” It’s so true, I have complete faith that I will have something worth pointing to one day and saying “Chris Struttmann,” and I’ll take pride in the fact that I DID IT.

   Bottom line: work hard while you can! Eventually you’ll be tied down and working hard becomes harder to do.

2. Don’t be afraid to be absolutely ecstatic about what you’re doing

   The thing is, the fact that you’re actually doing something is in itself something worth talking about! If you’re not excited about what you’re doing, how is anybody else going to be excited about it? Yes, the chances are, you might look dumb, but who cares? Because the people that cast you as being dumb, are far inferior to your awesomeness; chances are, they’re not doing too much with their lives. The people that can relate to your excitement are really your target audience, they’re the people that will help you build connections and eventually achieve your goals.

3. Don’t go changin’

   People change themselves naturally over the years, especially at my age (myself definitely included). This is a given. However, the minute you start changing yourself to conform to someone or something, you have lost the game and you need to go back to square one. Further down the road, you will look back and you’ll hate yourself for it. This ties into the next one perfectly.

4. Live life without regrets…

   … instead have learning experiences. I’ve done some dumb things in my life, but guess what, they’re all things that I’ve learned from and I’m a better person because of it. It’s that simple.

5. Do NOT forget to spend time with the ones who made you who you are

   If you’ve read this article all the way to this point and haven’t given up, then this is one is just as important as #1. This is true for everyone but especially true for me: your friends, family and all the other people that you Love are the ones that made you who you are. These people are the ones that are going to give you the best feedback you could ever get. They’ll tell you when you really are over-doing it, when you’re being a downright ass, and when your head isn’t on straight. On the balance sheet of life, these people are your highest valued assets.

   Besides, if you create something massive but you’ve blown your friends off while doing it, who’s going to come to all of your parties?

So these are just some of the rules that I like to live by, I thought I’d share.

The BIG Stuff
It’s an exciting day in the world of The Brilliant Innovations Group, L.L.C., today we’re officially beginning development of what I colorfully call “Product Number Two.” We don’t really want to divulge too much information right now (the product is still in its infantile stages and doesn’t even have an official name yet!), but what we can tell you is that this has potential to revolutionize the way small and medium sized businesses communicate with their customers. Companies with less than 500 employees represent 99.7% of the employer market, that’s a MASSIVE number and we feel like BIG can help some of those companies.

A word on TwiceText
We are absolutely not stopping development on TwiceText.com. The greatest college textbook exchange continues to grow every semester and we’re currently in the process of expanding the site to give greater benefit to more students.

Closing Remarks
We had this idea. We think we can run with it. The development cost is low and the risk isn’t terribly high. We think we can do some damage.

BIG continues to be awesome, and as long as that keeps happening, masses of individuals (and now companies) will have the opportunity to benefit.

As of time of writing, I’m one hour and twenty minutes from being twenty years old. Something I thought I’d been looking forward to for a long time. However, such wasn’t the case for the last few days. I’ve spent a good portion of the last few days overviewing my life to this point. Twenty years old is a significant milestone, which, for some reason triggered something in my brain to cause a critical review of the last ten years, which, ultimately led to two fears. (GIANT Comma splice/run-on sentence there but I’m already over it. I’ve got bigger problems)

My first fear is that I’m turning twenty! This is the end of my teenage years, the end of an era (as I’ve been saying all day)! There’s a preconceived notion in society today that teenagers are inherently irresponsible; for the most part, I agree. It’s an interesting time in your life, especially in this day and age! You’re growing up, you’re graduating high school, you’re getting girl friends, you’re going to college, you’re partying, whatever you’re doing, chances are there’s some element of irresponsibility. Society accepts that level of irresponsibility. My initial feeling is that in one hour and nine minutes, society is going to take that acceptance away from me and in those 4,140 seconds between now and midnight, I’m supposed to all the sudden start acting like a responsible adult. My under-developed frontal cortex is screaming at me “but I don’t wanna!” but yet my under-developed frontal cortex doesn’t have the power to stop time.

My second fear is that I’m turning twenty! People that know me will tell you that I work hard. People that are close to me will tell you that I work really hard, and play hard. I will tell you that I feel like I work my ass off; I’m the only person who knows how stressful it is to be Christopher Struttmann. Please don’t mistake me, I’m definitely NOT trying to start a pity-party, I’m not that person. I DO want to impress upon everyone that I work extremely hard. I’ve spent the last three years of my life working as a hard-core student and a hard-core software developer. But I’m still turning 20; I’m entering a new phase in my life yet I don’t have too much to show for all the hard work I did in the last phase. People say to me, “Well Chris, relatively speaking, you’re nineteen and you’re wildly successful for your age.” And yes, it’s true, I do sit in on a 3-way partnership of a company that without a doubt is going to change the world one way or another (believe me, we’re DETERMINED). Yes, I have created some spectacular software that is being used in all sorts of fields of industry. And yes, I do own another company that inked it’s first business deal only a week and a half after incorporating. Yet, as of this moment, exactly fifty minutes before I’m twenty years old, I don’t have a whole lot to prove it all! It’s mostly vapor! Right now, you’re probably saying “well, why in the world do you feel like you have to prove yourself?” and I say, I don’t… but it’d be really awesome if I could!

So that’s what I’m going to spend the next few years doing! I can’t stop time, so it’s ridiculous to spend time working myself up over the first fear, so I’m not going to. However, I can do something about the second one. Not only am I going to continue doing the awesome things that I do, I’m going to turn that vapor into tangible success. Not tangible in terms of me tooling around in a Porsche, but in the terms of me being able to point to something MASSIVE and saying, “Chris Struttmann.” I’m going to make sure that everyone, and I do mean everyone, knows that I’m Christopher Edward Struttmann, and I’m here to put a giant dent in the world!

It is now 25 minutes until the start of a new era.