IMG is nothing?

PhotoNow owns and operates photo-printing kiosks on college campuses. {Our pictures are great and the service is fast} <--that gets brackets because its Damn Important. I believe people should print their pictures.

“A picture is worth a thousand words”.

We’ve all heard this and probably feel its true, but we don’t really think about how awesome an idea that is. Its awesome because pictures are worth 1000 words in any language, anywhere, anytime. If you take a good picture and share it, the person seeing it doesn’t need to know your history or background to understand what you are talking about. He doesn’t need a dictionary or translator to figure out what you’re trying to say. He/she can look at the picture and take a message from it.

Words fail because we lack a common dialect for even the most intrinsic human emotions (love, happiness, anger, hate), but pictures are universal. Tears, smiles, hugs and kisses are all universal and when you show them in a picture, you are being eloquent in the truest sense of the word.

Economics

I’m not an economist, but I’ll be talking about how our economy works because it effects everything we do. You won’t see too many graphs on this site, but you’ll find posts about why our economy works, whats broken, how the budget and investment relates to everyday life. You’ll read my complaints about corporate greed and some posts about what Bush’s budget priorities mean for our future. You’ll learn what I think of taxes as an entrepreneur, a minority, a college grad who needed financial aid (and still has loans to payoff), and a future (hopefully) homeowner.

Entrepreneurship

I’m a small business owner. I’m the guy that a lot of corporations and politicians talk about helping; but don’t seem to do much for. I don’t do everything, but I do a lot. My business is small and resources limited, so decisions and their consequences are felt by me in a very personal way (eating nothing but ramen and Cheerios for a month). A lot of people help me. Some with words, some with actions, some with money. All are essential to my chances of success, but everything stops with me.

Some posts will be about how I got here. Some about where I want to go. Some about my mistakes and misunderstandings. Having your own business is equal parts joy, stress, and perseverance. You’re always working. I don’t punch a clock at the end of the day. 9-5 hours are a joke to me. Even when you’re resting, your mind doesn’t stop.

Web

The internet is my best friend and worst enemy. With some focus, I can learn more online in 2 hours than I do in 6 hours at the library,or, I can play games and relax a bit. But there is a danger to the internet: not all information is relevant or credible regardless of how well its presented. So much of what we read online is nonsense or self-serving gossip painted to look like expertise.

I’ll try to share with you sites that I like and tools that I use. Some sites I point you to will have biases. If I don’t think they are clearly stated, then I’ll add my own commentary.

The web has been around for a while now, but only in the last few years has it started becoming as ‘democratic’ as its proponents have promised. Anyone with a little time and an internet connection can have their own site and voice accessible to billions. Anyone can talk about anything they want. You can decide what you see, when, and how its presented. MySpace is amazing, Facebook equally so (though it makes me feel old at 26), YouTube too addictive for viewing during work hours. The web is really just getting started. Take a look at Second Life to see where its heading.

Google is everywhere but I’m cool with that for now
About the Name

“Image is nothing?” should be read exactly the way it looks. The question is for myself and you. I came into business believing in the technology and the service, but not really understanding how to present either (that understanding is still growing). When I went looking for more ideas and information, I found more than I could ever hope to sort through, a lot of this was just gibberish whether spoken or posted online. It was people trying to appear like they were experts or specialists, it was ‘friends’ who were happy to help a long as you were properly grateful (For what? I still don’t know). None of them really had much to say, but it took me a while to move beyond their ‘hype’, to see who they really were and were really saying when the masks slipped.

Then there was the other side: Guys whose educations stopped at high school, but were able to give me great advice to build on with only 10 words. There were real friends who didn’t try to ‘help’, they were just there when I needed them and looked confused when I said ‘Thanks’— like they didn’t know what I was talking about.

I guess the point of the title is that in business and life image is something, but that something can be slippery to define. You have to be weary and look behind it to really know what ‘it’ is and what it is worth. This blog is about PhotoNow’s image, images, and my image as a young entrepreneur. All are works in progress.