My Defining Moment

Bear with me as I recount one of my defining moments and related it to my current Praps project. Then you will understand my motivation for doing Praps.

My wife and I were watching a recent episode of Dr. Phil when he was discussing bullying and interviewing some real victims and perpetrators. During the show he talked about "defining moments" in a person's life that made the person be who they became to be. He noticed the victims' defining moments were mostly about achievements, whereas for the perpetrators (the bullies) the defining moments were usually traumatic, like seeing a parent arrested. 

So I got to thinking about my own defining moments and I definitely remember one very clearly. I too was bullied in elementary school by my peers. It was an almost daily occurrence and I at times dreaded being at school. One good thing was that my home was right next to the school's playground so during recess, if the day's bullying was too much for me to bear, I would run home to tell my mother and she would come talk at the office for me and bring me some temporary relief. Anyway those early years really defined who I was to become years later.

I remember the summer before my 5th grade I attended a summer vacation bible school program at our neighborhood church down the street. It was then that I said the sinner's prayer and confessed my sins and asked Jesus into my life. You know, the born again moment. Well, it turned out to be more than just a spiritual awakening for me. During my 5th grade I gained the confidence to ignore the bullying and to refocus my energy into my schoolwork. I prayed so much for the bullying to go away. The bullying continued but I was less focused on it, even though I did abhor it whenever it occurred. 

When I graduated from elementary school and went into middle school, I saw many new kids, apparently graduates from other elementary schools. Then I noticed that just like me, there were other kids who were starting to be bullied. It always seemed to be the quieter and gentler kids who were picked on. It was at those moments, when I saw myself in those abused kids, that my tipping point boiled over and I started to do something about it. I had enough. 

It was only a few short weeks into my 6th grade that I gained the strength and stamina to take abuse and to dish it out as well. Only this time, I was dishing it out back at the bullies who were trying to gain the upper hand on me and those other unfortunate students. I remember being in fights so many times during PE and even down the halls between classes. The old bullies were still around and quickly realized I was no longer the same. The new bullies were already giving me some respect because they did not know my history. 

I remember the anger and the passion against the bullying whenever I saw it, especially during PE or recess, when the bullies thought they could get away with it. I really lost track of how many times I jumped in to defend someone else. It was almost numbing, getting hit on the face and stomach or getting kicked on my shins, and trying to dish it out even more before they got the best of me. In a matter of a school year, I had transformed into a fighter, even a street fighter since occasionally some of this bullying happened on the street on my way home. 

Regardless of the intensity, I never lost sight of not being a bully myself. And yet, my intensity was spilling into my class. I remember my dad and I having a conference with my 7th grade English teacher, who with tears in her eyes told my dad I was a really bright kid but interrupting the class too many times. I had gone mad and out of control and it took a sobbing teacher to bring me back to my senses. It was then I decided I would remain strong within and yet gentle as a lamb. I would continue to defend others and myself, and adamant about maintaining a good learning environment for all. 

And that brings me to my current project. Sure I would love to see success for myself, but it's so much more than that. I have five kids and a wife and any kind of success is really just keeping my family afloat in this tough economy. This project is really about bringing success to a segment of people who may not have had the opportunity before. 

Throughout this project I have been focused on the best means to bring this success to others. In so doing, there have been many bits and pieces of the project in which I have made decisions not commonly made by the profit-minded. As I reveal more details, I hope to explain why this project has taken the turns it has. As you begin to see more of the project, just keep in mind it is what it is in order to best maximize the benefits to others, both to the consumer (in terms of affordability) and to the designers (in terms of commissions). 

In a way you could say I am trying to defend those who lack opportunity against those with so much power, it's not even funny anymore. I mean, in a way you could say the bullies of today are the big corporations who are so profit-minded that they could never introduce a product like mine to the masses for so many different reasons. Perhaps the profits margins are too low. Perhaps the paid out commissions are too high. Perhaps they fear loosing control of the whole concept.

Well regardless, I believe the various industries involved in my project would rather go about producing a product like mine in totally different means. The problem is that greedy corporations and organizations leave very little profits to be shared with the common folk. But what if my experiment, which is all it is up until now, can really flourish. What if my project can make others utterly successful? Let's give it a try. Help me help you.

I really hope I can bring this to market, as there are many bits and pieces yet undone in the grand scheme of things. Yet with your help, all this can be realized much quicker. Please stay tuned in, as I reveal more specific ways in which you can participate and help.

Some of my friends who attended school with me may also remember how helpful I was to them to get them to understand their schoolwork, both in high school and in college. Perhaps at times a little bit too helpful (as in sharing answers). I hope I can continue this same passion via my praps. I hope you can have your very own praps really soon. I promise I am going to give you all the answers really, really soon. Thanks!

Stop All The Whining Already

I read the TechCrunch story Siri-ous Mind Blowing: Video Evidence Of Apple's Prophetic Past - Circa 1987, and I am deeply humbled. What am I talking about when I've said I've been so frustrated for the past 6 years because not all the technologies have existed to accomplish what I envision? Poor little me for not being able to finish my project sooner. Tell me about a self-pity party!!! Read that story and you will know what I'm talking about.

The visionaries at Apple, which included Steve Jobs, are people made of steel IMHO. They are persistently rock solid to the core. I mean these people have had to endure a quarter of a century to bring their vision to light. They must have the heart of a champion who never, ever quits. I can only imagine what they had to endure.

You see 25+ years ago, the conditions and technologies were very different than what we have today. To have the vision of a voice-controlled assistant back then and to begin working towards it must have taken some real guts. Knowing that so many new technologies would be needed, and no one on the horizon able to provide them, would discourage just about anybody. No third parties to turn to for help, not even a soul talking about the non-existent technologies. 

And yet, there were the Apple visionaries, starting a conversation about these things. One by one, the list of missing technologies increased in number. They would be needing this and that and even that....to accomplish the Knowledge Navigator, or Siri. As they continued their planning, the insurmountable heaps of missing pieces must have looked overbearing, but still they took the very first step.

And that brings me to my personal project, my very first step which I took just a few years ago. In light of Apple's mind blowing prophetic past, I now have new found strength. Thank you Apple visionaries for showing us the way. It is a long dark road, but the glorious day will come.

As I write this, I wish the same hope and destiny to all those unknown and uncounted visionaries who are pursuing their own dreams. May you keep chugging and pounding until and beyond you reach your sweat-earned goals.

Revolutionary??? Yea, Right!!!

Hard to believe? So what's so revolutionary about what I'm doing, and is it even revolutionary? Let me take a stab at it and we'll come to some conclusion.

First of all, the premise is that I've got a product which attaches onto fabric or solids, and onto this piece full-color art can be attached and detached again and again. But today, there are already things that can attach onto fabrics and onto solids. That's no big deal. I guess what's different about mine is that it can "receive" art pieces. Then when you don't need it anymore, just take it off. The other difference is that it can be produced extremely cheap and fast. But again, that's nothing new. There are plenty of gadgets which can be produced cheaply and fast.

Alright, alright. What's is the big deal after all?

Well, I think the big deal is on the production side. Being that I'm just one individual, I've had to search far and wide and study all sorts of processes, combining them in new ways, to produce what I want and whenever I want. That's what's called "on-demand".

Here it is in a nutshell: My product can be produced "on-demand". Yep, no inventory required. It is produced and shipped to the customer the same day it is bought.Theoretically, it can be in the customer's hand within minutes, more realistically the next day, and absolutely by week's end.

Ok. Let's take a step back and see what this really means.

Let's say a customer wants to buy just ONE design. Then just sell him one at the same unit price you would sell him a million pieces. Production costs are the same for each and every single design. That's right. Why should a customer have to buy 100 pieces to get the benefits of economies of scale? That customer doesn't care what your production costs are for one pieces versus a million. All the customer cares is the retail price for any design.

So if we can get over the hump of economies of scale, then other possibilities are possible. Imagine this. The customer sees a design she likes, but would like to customize it a bit, say changing a color. That should be easy enough. But it will turn out that single customization will be the only one of its kind ever, and that customer will be the only one who will ever buy that design.

Enter PRAPS. Stay tuned because this is going to get really, really good, and fast. And as a teaser, this is just the first product to annihilate economies of scale. Let's get this rolling and you will see what I'm talking about.

:-)

Venting My Frustrations

Let's see. It's now 2011 and I started this project back sometime in 2005. That's means I've been at it for six years going on seven. Shouldn't that be enough time for me to have gotten this thing off the ground by now??? I have hoped so, for so many years, but things are not that easy as so many other dedicated and hard-working start-ups know.

In my case, what's been so frustrating is that the industries I am using to facilitate my project are not as automated as they think they are. Sure, there are some very smart people working on automating the infrastructure behind these industries, but over the last few years, things have not been moving as quickly as I would like them to. We talk about bringing manufacturing into the 21st century but we are obviously lacking in many key areas. 

You see, I have been a one-man show, so to speak, and I therefore have been trying to automate as much of my project as possible in order to give it the best chance of succeeding and showing others how things can work better if more industries embraced more automated processes.. Otherwise, I've feared my project will flop and not give any credibility to what I have envisioned. 

Because at this point you not fully know about my project, you may not find any of this interesting and can't tell what I'm talking about. Sorry. I guess in a few short days or weeks or whatever I decide, you will know more. Some of what I'm talking about is mainly for the big thinkers who think about manufacturing, automation, fulfillment, etc., probably industrial engineers.

I think the impetus for driving improvements in these industries must come from innovations or creative uses of such improvements which could drive commerce. Without a real business need, the improvements will never come.

I actually started up another project at around the same time as my present one, and spent a great deal working on both at the same time. Because of expenses and time, I've been mostly dedicated to this present project for at least the past two years. So I have that other project on hold but I did publish some of the technological needs I had and still do, that kept me from accomplishing what I envisioned. Those thoughts are collected on my other post MyTechNeeds.wordress.com.

Anyways, when my project does go public, it won't be perfect and lack innovation in key areas. This is because those smart people who are looking at all this business of automating processes have not been successful yet. It is in my best interest for them to succeed and I hope everyday for their breakthroughs. I've always believed that if you help others succeed, you will succeed as well.

And in fact, this project will precisely help others in more than one way. I hope to provide jobs for Americans, and provide huge business for certain industries. And that's just phase one. My ideal goal is to provide jobs for people around the world. I believe the product I am introducing can be manufactured anywhere in the world for customers living in those same countries. My first test base is of course the USA.

All this venting leads me to my next thoughts about all the shortcuts, revisions, and redesigns I've done to my product just to circumvent the lack of automation. In the end, though, my product is so much better because I have reduced it to its bare bones and is now so much easier to manufacture. I'll share some of these thoughts in a future post.

Thanks for reading! I hope we can soon work together for the common good of so many people.

It's Time. Let's Start This Thing.

Well we all must start somewhere. Although I have some other blogs which I’ve had for many years now, this blog is specially dedicated to my Praps.com project. If you actually read this within the next few weeks (hopefully not months!) then you won’t find my website open to the public. I have it passcode protected, otherwise I would probably run out of bandwidth. Poor me. :(

Anyway, I’m really in the business of helping people. I have actually been helping others since my school days, when I was somewhat book smarter than my peers and I was therefore fortunate to be able to help others along with their school work. Needless to say, I continued to help my peers even as an adult.

The first group I am now trying to help are the starving artists who have great talent and are usually underpaid and under-appreciated. I’ve seen too many great pieces of art, just too much talent, that it hurts me to think these people are not making much money. In my opinion their art pieces are worth a million looks and bucks.

Enter my Praps project. While I can’t talk too much about it quite yet, I can say that such a project is long overdue. Even though we have the App Store for developers and iTunes for musicians, we don’t have much for artists. A developer or musician can make millions by charging just pennies for his digital goods, not so the artist. Yes, some artists are making a decent living by using some awesome websites to sell their art. However, I don’t see this same opportunity open to any and every artist out there.

So that’s a rather sparse introduction to my very personal Praps project. I hope I can continue to share my passion I have for this project and why I am doing it. There are so many ulterior forces at work creating the right conditions for something like this to really take off. I hope you will join me in creating this opportunity for artists and beyond. Thank you.