A total of 24 members have generated $49.28 for recovery through their online purchases at AllMyAffairs.com. It may not seem like a lot, but that is only in about one month's time. It also means that 1000 members will generate nearly $25,000 a year. That will help out a lot of people.
A lot to be thankful for. Enjoy your day.
It may not sound like much, but someone spent about $19 today at one of our merchant partners. It only generated a little over $2 for recovery. But multiply that by 10,000 and we're really making a difference here.
I'm just excited because it is the first purchase not by me.
“There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth...not going all the way, and not starting.” -Siddharta
AllMyAffairs.com will be back up by Monday morning. Hopefully for good.
This has been a complete lesson in patience. Despite living in recovery, I find that so often (maybe more often than not), I still want what I want when I want it. I wanted a smooth website launch for All My Affairs. It didn't happen. I did the best I could, but factors beyond my skill level prevented it from happening. So I must practice acceptance.
I apologize if I told you about the site and there was nothing there. I also apologize to those of you who have registered and created accounts.
Just kidding, but my mother just ripped AllMyAffairs.com to shreds! She told me she couldn't understand what was going on, she didn't know how to use it, and I wasn't clear in what I was trying to do with the site. God Bless Mothers!
I can't wait to make some of the changes she suggested. We sat for about an hour talking about the site - what works and what doesn't. I'm incredibly grateful for her help!
The first week has also seen a number of problems, not the least of which was the site being down twice - once for a day, the other time for a few hours. We are resolving the issues as they arise. Thanks for the patience. Hope your weekend is good!
This process has been pretty cool for me.
I want to thank some people who helped make this possible.
Thanks Vikas and the entire team at Xicom. Your support, professionalism, and execution have been impeccable. I would recommend your outsourced website programming to anyone.
Thanks Chris C. for your feedback, thoughts, and interest. Especially with the other things in my life distracting me from this, your encouragement and friendship means a lot.
Thanks Dad. The dialogue and support has been incredibly helpful. You are a mentor to me.
Thanks Pat H. for your guidance. Even though life has been pretty nuts for you, you haven't forgotten about me. You are a wonderful example, even when you don't realize it.
Thanks to everyone who has offered a word of support or advice or encouragement or interest. I hesitate to put a list, because I will forget people, but I will: Montana, Geoff, Mazer, Tara, Butter, Jim, Tony, Shu, Gene, Jeff, Heather, Bonnie, Ann, RT, Brooklyn, Kevin C., Peter C., Tim Y., Lowy, and everyone I forgot -- Thanks.
Oh yeah - the site has launched. Go be a part of. allmyaffairs.com
The site is up, but we are still working through a number of issues.
Certain Site Elements like Contact Us, Password Retrieval, and Google Ads need to be fixed. The developers and I will be working on this over the next two days. Hopefully, everything should be set by Tuesday or Wednesday.
In addition to fixing bugs, this week we will be talking to our recovery causes and adding new online stores to increase choice and recovery dollars.
We are making progress. There is such thing as perfection.
AllMyAffairs.com looks like it will launch on schedule. That means the middle to end of October. It has evolved from a sober social network into a place to share your gratitude towards a recovery organization that has helped you. (a non-anonymous organization). It will also be a place to help out that organization financially through your everyday shopping. As it has evolved, it has become more about giving and less about me. That's a good thing. I'm very excited for the launch.
As excited as I am, it is difficult to stay in the moment and say, "Whatever happens, happens." I constantly think back on the past. How did it get here? What if I hadn't accepted investor money and just done something else? Would I be better off?
And I think about the future. What if a million people use it? What myriad of problems and attention is that going to bring? And what if no one ever uses it? Months and many dollars wasted. What am I going to do then? Am I going to go practice law? (It's funny how with everything else I've admitted about myself, I have trouble admitting I'm a lawyer.)
And I notice:
I'm too negative.
I'm too fearful.
I see things only in black and white.
I'm a lawyer.
Well, I guess all those things can be quelled with practice.
It's funny - I have never before said, "I'm excited." It's too risky. It exposes me to too much possibility for hurt. But I said it, "I'm excited." And I am. Come what may.
I heard someone say last night that he'd "rather be happy than right." Thanks Mark, I feel the same.
I spent a short lifetime wanting to be right in all situations. Sometimes I was, sometimes I wasn't. But my ups and downs, in many ways, were determined by how much I had to fight to be right. Because even when I wasn't, I was going to convince myself (and you) that I was.
I just read a book called Fooled by Randomness. It made the point that humanity and especially the United States, look down on those who change their mind. It is seen as a bad thing to completely reverse course based on new information. Instead of incorporating the new information into our outlook (and thereby changing our outlook), we adjust how we see the information so that it fits our outlook.
This is dangerous. There are countless examples of this in the world, but I'll let you come up with your own, lest I alienate people from my website's goal to help recovery.
I have little patience for human imperfection. Mine or anyone else's. It is a horrible, horrible character defect. I hold myself to an impossibly high standard and when I don't meet it, I take it out on others who have also not met my high standards.
I watched The Philadelphia Story last night. Dexter says to Tracy, "You'll never be a first-class human being until you've learned to have regard for human frailty."
If there is no better or worse, no first-class or second-class - there is healthy vs. sick, compassionate vs. uncompassionate, connected vs not connected. I need to aim to be, in all cases, the former.
(And forgiving of myself and others when we are not.)
