During the Holiday Season - we have a chance to reflect on how we have spent the last year. Perhaps, as I once again review this years events, the full history of the past that has brought us to where we are today - with the good fortune to see the end of 2011, yet another beginning in 2012.
When we consider how we've come to these places in our lives - many of the challenges we have faced, always rests with me as a wonderful way to better understand who I have become, and too, who I have yet to become. Certainly, we can't always find compassion in our hearts as much as we should. Understanding the "other persons'" point of view can be difficult at the best of times. Suffice it to say that so long as we try to see things from anothers perspective, we are just that much stronger, open, as we grow, as a person inside ourselves.
Things change. Change is the inevitable tide that carries us forward. So, what will I change as this year closes and another opens? That is the reflection time I refer to - the truth is always available.
This is the time for contemplation. January is the time for commitment. There is never a rush to reflect on what we might do better - in due course the answers seem to emerge. As I sit here now, watching the storms on the beach - the waves crash with an angry froth. I can only brave for a moment the torrent, on my board, in my wet suit. I find myself walking on sand rather than snow. By this chilly northern Pacific ocean I can somehow see the worlds flows more clearly. The fridged waters clear scattered thoughts. The challenge to paddle and catch a wave, outside the confluence of the rip-tides and the beach, somehow seems the perfect analogy to business, life, balance. The crash of waves changes, but does not cease.
The inevitable rush of views in the world that collide to deliver, like the ocean, an energy to propel us. The skill to paddle beyond the rough waters and to surf down the face of a wave is something that is never "easy". But, with practice, like in any practice in life, we can do it.
So as the New Year approaches I'll think about those waves yet to catch in business, in life. Beyond those challenges set upon the shore - with every challenge there is the enduring nature of human spirit that lets us know we are alive. We are able to face even the most difficult of circumstance. There is always another wave to find beyond those who would strive to keep us down, in torment of the rough weather. There is always a new wave to ride beyond those who would hold us back for their own egoic satisfaction. No matter the storm, there is another wave to discover and ride.
Happy Holidays - Merry Christmas ! Ride the wave - enjoy every minute. The crush is an indicator of the "break" we can alwasy find to ride.
Please visit our Santa Bizabacus Space and share your Christmas Wish with the World !
Best for 2012 - may you find your wave to ride with the thrill of success well deserved .... Tim
PS: Today I'm launching the Frank T. Vasko Foundation in memory of my Dad who passed away five years ago this week. Frank loved his family, fishing, nature - please visit the Sacred Waters Bizabacus Space and help preserve our natural environment by supporting the Sacred Head Waters project for generations to come.
A search of the web is an interesting experience - especially if you've ever been "defamed" in the media - I know how this goes first hand. The net provides un-tapped information about, well about, just about, anything - separating the fact from fiction often takes a bit of digging. I've been asked to speak so many times about my history, my own first hand experience with a defamatory article that truly changed my life, that I thought I would just post it to be found. This one event, sensational article brought about by fame seeking journalist, brought me more happiness than I could have ever imagined the day it was published.
Since it's publication, the turn in my road brought me to become a University Professor, a Canadian citizen, a technology entrepreneur, and once more, a father of three additional, beautiful children whom I adore along with the other two who have journeyed with me all along - from single fatherhood to growing our new family and life together. I thought I might just post this last 18 year journey with some links that tell part of the story along the way - to tell about my personal mission to build technology for other entrepreneurs and would be enterprenures.
One article, one event in my entrepreneurial career, for ever changed my life. I have journied beside ghosts - a dead reporter, a dead newspaper and the echo of a voice that tolled the bell of what would set me on a path to shape the rest of my life. "That which does not kill us makes us stronger" Friedrich Nietzsche or, as so eloquently put by Rudyard Kipling in his poem "If"
"..If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools..."
I first crossed the threshold into building an internet company in 1995. Back then I learned, first hand, what Kipling, and Nietzsche were referencing. Since this game of dancing with ghosts of voices past began, I've lived, watched, learned from what was once my broken life. Blossom's of wonder that never cease to make me marvel. Here is a chronological history of events, talks, academic papers - a part of what has brought my journey forward. It has been a wonderful climb back up the mountain.
Career Before the Truth I'd Spoken was made int0 a Trap for Fools - Age 30 - 35:
“You see things; and you say ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say ‘Why not?’” George Bernard Shaw & Robert F. Kennedy
1994 Establishing the Largest Print-Media & Direct Mail Marketing Company in a 5 State Region
1995 Creating largest on-site US Post Office on private premises
1995 My first vision of the Internet - a group I established - I saw the world would forever change
1995 We were the fastest growing print media electronics group in 5 State region & Fifth fastest growing public company in the US
1995 Expanding Distribution For Electronics Division to Wal-Mart - my operations across Asia
(I learned to speak Mandarin while operating our three factories in Xiamen China/ Kaohsiung, Taiwan/Bangkok, Thailand)
1996 The Defamation - the negative article that has shaped my years (I've chosen not to link this "...trap for fools" - my Way of finally saying goodbye :-)
From here, I discovered the power of the media. Before the Internet ... the power of the newspapers was ubiquitous. While I filed suit against the newspaper, I discovered the power of money, the power of the Chief General Counsel of the Rocky Mountain News, who, conveniently, was married to the woman Justice sitting on the bench for my case. Going against the multi-billion dollar paper company, and their largest customer was a game of money, not justice. Yet, this single discovery, when uncovered and quietly brought forth, affected the woman Justice's ruling in my favour when brought to her attention "we know ..."
And, so goes justice in America. As ever, then, like today, big money wins law suits. It is what pays for politics and pays for the massive legal machine housed in marble halls. Where it can, the money keeps quiet the voice of truth on the scale of justice. Now, this too, is breaking-the-back of the Country I left so many years ago - for this very reason. Marble can not for ever hold up against the quake of the true voice as only the web can offer. From wikileaks to wikipedia, from social networks, Facebook to our nanocent and new Bizabacus ... the cracks begin to appear.
I had watched the things I gave my life to broken,
And stooped down to build 'em up with wornout tools...
Thus, it is here I began my next journey, in a Canada, with a mission - to ensure that everyones true "business voice" could be, would be, heard.
Like Facebook has done for personal life events, stories as they unfold - I sought the Way to capture every element of the business, the entrepreneurial story as it unfolds ... and that is what CMaeON has done with our platform. It is much harder to do for business - keeping the business record straight. It required dealing with every aspect of business ... from the accounting, to customers communication, to marketing, to the ineveitible nature of the law and attorneys ... this 12 year journey to program this has reached a point where I can say - not one bit of data, not one truth of what actually happened, not a single email or accounting record, will ever be lost on our systems - and that means, no "story", good or bad, will ever be told, without the actual evidence available to set the record straight.
Albert Einstein once stated ...
"...as far as I can see, people here (in America) have no chance of doing this [speaking openly],
the result being that the Press, which is mostly controlled by definite interests,
has excessive influence over public opinion.” Einstein Ideas & Opinions
The Tim Vasko Next 15 Year Journey Age 35 - 51:
1997 - 2000 University Credentials ... Professor at University of Victoria
2002 Tim Vasko Speaker for eHealth Finance to speak at Legislative Assembly Canada - Parliament Victoria BC 2002 Legislative Session: 3rd Session, 37th Parliament SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON FINANCE AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES
2004 - 2006 Tim Vasko - Founding Speaker COPharm Conference for Online Pharmaceuticals Also, See, Copham & Various Papers
2004 - Tim Vasko Key Note Speaker at Camosun College CAPSTONE 2004
2005 Author: BIPED - Business in Process Enterprise Design by Tim Vasko
2005 Tim Vasko - Speaker / Ottawa Health Canada Conference
2009 Tim Vasko Key Note Speaker: University of Victoria Business School Faculty & Graduates
2010 Tim Vasko Speaker New York City RealEstate Technology
Studies by Author, Professor Dr. Brian McKenzie, Ph.D.
2007 - A Hermetical Approach to Entrepreneurship
2010 - "The Social Network" - The Facebook Story along side Tim Vasko's and other entrepreneurial stories as a basis for entrepreneurship
And on the disappointing subject of meeting Pamela Anderson - before her smear campaign that her publicist made to get her domain name and web site without paying . Even with celebrity that gets massive internet hits - we can see the measure of truth that will forever be available, to expose those, who would have it otherwise remembered.
2010 Convergent Sues Pamela Anderson for payment in Canada Court (before her smear campaign begins).
And so, for as long as I have left, my journey continues from here ...
"If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!"
Life is a journey of un-ending learning. Never be afraid to take it, live it and love life, family, friends who are ardent supporters along the way. I have been blessed in too many way's to count after the daunting "story" that changed my life. And, I have been able to work with brilliant people to build my vision and realize my dream - the entreprenurial, business voice platform. Every business can use what we've built. For their operations, compliance, streamlining and create their own success and vision for the world.
To build a hub, and entreprenurial revolution, it was an necessity to capture the true essence of the dynamics of business - far beyond any CRM technology, the internal business system processes that happen "in-side" - had to be turned to the "outside" . It is the only way to draw upon, benefit from, the full circle of the world wide web our society has created. We have done this now. It is this accomplishment that has made this mission possible. It is this "downside - up" approach that has helped me and my team create and master this platform so powerful for business - 1to1REAL, Bizabacus & eHealth Global - 1to1Pharmacy & MD . This 15 years has simply been a sojourn in creation of this technology - just a part of the story to take form and shape from here.
Not every business will need the 1to1REAL - CMaeON platforms because of an over zealous newspaper or reporter (both of whom are RIP - unable to be challenged). Though they are unable to speak again or see how they have changed my life to bring me to Now, or, how my team at CMaeON, and I have changed the world. The subjects of Karma, Samsara come to mind ...
Now, every business can use it, or, of course, choose to not. Regardless, the worlds voice, the business voice, the track of the story is forever a matter of material tracking - the power of the truth. It is when we face the truth, know the truth, in the battle to succeed that we ensure success. A "Real" platform to do this has been achieved
"It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles ..." Sun Tzu
Fiction and fantasy of "what may have happened ..." shall be kept to novels. eMails and records captured, the processes of business move from here to today's virtual skyline in the Cloud. Question any business who "does not trust the Cloud..." For it is the great equalizer - enterprise level power for every enterprise. The only business that will shy away - may well have reason to not wishing such a trail of bread crumbs to be followed.
Our Cloud based busienss platform was built for entrepreneurs of any size. It has been a mission from learning and heart ache - that has lead to the brilliance of a new Way of business delivered by a dedicated team. Formed, envisioned from a depth of some 30,000 plus hours of personal global enterprenurial experience, 1to1REAL and this platform has come to be. Built from learning, processes flows across industries -through trying economic and financial times - with experience that extended from mass product marketing, to my personal mission help other entrepreneurs succeed and avoid the pit-falls of failure.
Perhaps it was built becuase I was accused by a reporter who I never met. More a fiction writer than journalist - a writer who never bothered to interview or call me. This ghost man who wrote a sensational story that changed my life. All I know of his is he wandered, lived in a fantastical world of desks cluttered by paper - writing more from fiction than of fact. He, who lived this way, died an early death at the age of 56. I recieved the obituary clipping in the mail from a friend. He was just a few years older than I am as I write this now. No matter, his story, or another, my life seems to been painted in a way to create what 1to1REAL - CMaeON represent and do. The ghost's story's were painted on a canvas, now,extinct - my story is painted on a technology canvas very much living, growing and alive. That faded ink has changed my life - driving me to turn to pixels that will be forever renewed. We can never predict how we are called to what we can, or must do. Sometimes we are simply called by Ways we can not understand.
CMaeON and the 1to1 Suite of global technolgies has been my lifes' mission and one of some brilliant people I've come to know and love. It is work based on wonderful and tough experiences, knowledge, passion. Both then and now - I wouldn't have it another Way. I do, perhaps, hope that the path may not be so ardous for others - so haunting as mine from the game of this ghost. But, too, it is what makes us stronger to face the challenges that make us accomplish what we can give back ... no matter what comes our Way.
"Out of the darkness that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank what ever gods may be,
for my unconquerable soul...." from the Poem Invictus, William Ernest Henley