2013 Year In Review

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For the last few year I list the goals that I would like to achieve for the year (2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009). With this post I’d like to take some time and see how many of my 2013 goals I managed to achieve.

  • Attend more tech conferences

I Only attended 2 tech conferences this year, but both of them were completely insane and in San Francisco. Oktane 2013, the first user conference of Okta.com (a service that I LOVE), and the first California Shopify meetup (another company that I absolutely love). This year was about quality, not quantity. Grade: #meh

  • Speak at some tech conferences / user groups

Since I only attended one conference and one meetup, presenting at neither of them, this is nothing but fail. Grade: #epicFail

  • Continue to Automate more of my income

I’m really proud of the accomplishments I have made in this area. B2B SaaS apps are definitely where it’s at. This was the best year for me in that regard. Most of the work was automated, but there was some manual components that I should delegate out. Grade: #epicWin

  • Pay off more debt

This goes in hand with automating my income. This year I absolutely attacked my debt. Automating more of my income really helped this. Becoming debt free is a hard thing to do, but I’m closer now that I have ever been in my adult life. Grade: #epicWin

  • Develop another Shopify app

I’m VERY close to releasing my 3rd Shopify app but I don’t think it will happen in 2013. More important to me than releasing another app is the growth of my existing apps. Both of them were extended, optimized and updated. There was a significant amount of development that went into these that I am proud about. Grade: #win

  • Delegate more of my tasks (4 hour work week style)

This one has made my yearly list a few times now. Every year I make some progress, but I never feel that it’s enough. This year I have make some partnerships that have been helpful in offloading some task, but at the same time I’ve created some new projects that fill the void. Sort of not making anything new, I don’t know what the answer to this one is. Grade: #meh

  • Finish and publish my SEO book

Writing is a much slower process for me than I thought it was going to be. Sometimes I find it hard to convey what I want to say in written form. There have been points in the process that I have found it very enjoyable to sit down and write. The bottom line is that I didn’t get it finished or published. I’m currently about 40% done with the content creation portion. Grade: #fail

  • De-clutter my life – Get rid of things that I rarely use

I’ve really been working on this one. I’ve started listing things on craigslist and eBay and donating things to goodwill. This is going to take me some time before I feel that this is completed, but I think I’m winning. Grade: #win

  • Continue body building – Stack on more muscle

For the most part this was true. I’m still relatively big, and I haven’t lost interest. I’ve slacked off in Q4 of this year, but I’m still passionate about it. I find that heavy physical activity forces my brain to shut off for a while (in a similar way that heavy metal concerts do). My body takes over and give my brain time to rest. Grade: #win

  • Blog more about my experiences with tech and raising a son

Yeah this didn’t happen. working full time + raising a son + running a business = not much time for personal blogging. Grade: #fail

  • Test a pair of Google glasses

This has to be the most #epicWin EVER! Not only did I try on a pair of Google Glass, I was selected by Google to get a pair of Google Glass. I even went to Google to pick them up. I’m honored to be on the leading edge of wearable tech because of Glass. I was even interviewed by the New York Times magazine about Glass. Grade: #epicWIN

  • Have a  conversation with Kevin Rose, and Tim Ferris

Despite my attempts on social media, this didn’t happen.. next year. Grade: #epicFail

  • Promote my clothing line Wolves Clothing more

My delegated work efforts contributed to this one. I’ve taken on a partner that handles the day to day of this. As a result, we have gotten a lot more traction. 1 + 1 = 3. Grade: #win

2013 was a ear of growth for me. I stepped into a new position at work, my business started to really take off, and I have a toddler that I want to hang out with all the time. 2014 is going to be awesome. I can’t wait.