About Mike Shafer

Like virtually everyone there are some things that matter more to me than other things. Some of the things that matter more to me are the issues that effect the creation and conduct of businesses, large or small, and how changes in IT (information technology), social factors and government policy impact the same.

Drawing on about 30 years of small business experience and having spent more time than I probably should have in college and elsewhere studying the subject I sometimes have a few things to say on these matters.

Likewise as a professional in the world of IT I see first hand the impact of the application of information technology and by the necessity of directing my own business I have to give consideration to the implications of this constantly changing arena.

I’ve done a wide range of things in my life which hopefully gives me a broader base of experience to draw on. As I believe the final product speaks volumes more than the marketing I’ll let you be the judge of my works.

As to my background if you’re in a hurry and just want the executive summary then I’ve been/am:

• Business owner / entrepreneur
• Construction worker
• Professional pilot / flight instructor (airplane)
• Engineering student
• Business school grad
• NYSE Licensed Stock Broker
• Financial Analyst
• Timber frame carpenter
• Computer consultant / network engineer (CCNA)
• Amateur scholar of history
• Web developer / on-line entrepreneur
• White water kayaker (class IV+)
• Outdoor enthusiast / backpacker / X-country skier
• Experienced in Wilderness / Primitive Survival (Earth skills)
• Basic emergency medical skills (volunteer Paramedic in 1970′s)
• Martial Arts: Kyokushin karate / Kali / Stick Fighting / Target Focus Training
• Bicycle enthusiast (Mountain and long-distance touring)
• Politically Libertarian – fiscally conservative / socially liberal
• Professional Writer
• Generally clear-eyed realist with a touch of hopeless romantic

As mentioned above I’ve done a number of things over the years that have given me a wide range of experiences. Experience that I bring to any project and in particular to my writings.

If you want something more interesting than a boring laundry list then here’s the whole (well almost whole) story. Well at least what I would consider to be the more interesting parts.

I’m probably going to say more than I should here but then hell everyone needs an outlet. Some folks like to complain (too many), some go to bar and tie one on; me I like to write. And learn about a wide range of things. Keeps life interesting as I don’t do “bored” too well. But then, I can’t remember the last time I was bored but as they say, “I digress.”

Beginnings

The relevant history of my life begins somewhere back in the murky mists of time known as the 1970′s. About 1971 to be exact when I finally was legally allowed to leave that hell-hole of a kindergarten known as high school. That training ground of the old industrial economy, that one that no longer exists here in the States, where at around eighth grade or so some person or group thereof with all the right degrees decided what you were fit to do. Good thing Einstein ignored these people. I know I did. One fine educator told me in my senior year that “You’ll be lucky to make a good garbage collector.”

Obviously this fellow was a fine, inspiring leader. Unfortunately for his prophecy I never aspired to that exalted status but chose to study Engineering instead and did just fine. Good enough that Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) offered me an academic scholarship but there was a catch. Tuition – full ride; living expenses – do dice. Didn’t matter that I was now 25 and had been living on my own since I was 19. My parents lived in the area and that was the deal. In their opinion I could move back home. Not an option and thus began the next relevant experience of my real education; buying my first business.

Business 101 – The Real Thing

Now a pizza shop looks real sexy when you see the cash flow. It is less so when you put in the 70-80 hours/week that it usually takes to make that dough. The green kind that is. Not a problem. In those days I had an energy level that made a manic-depressive on a high look tame. Wish I could have bottled some of that! I guess we all wish something here and there.

The plan was that owning a pizza business was perfect. Good money and flexible hours. Sounded good until my dad decided after three months he really wasn’t into all that work. OK, I’ll do it all. Bad move. The business became an end in itself and I never took the scholarship to finish my engineering degree at CMU.

But now I was hooked on business and back off to night school at the local community college I went. Hell I had to take an accounting course just so I could understand what my CPA was saying! Well one accounting course lead to another and the next thing I know about eight years of night school had come and gone, it’s August 1991, and I was the proud owner of a BSBA in Finance with an accounting minor. Well I can’t remember how proud I was or not but relieved was definite. No next semester; we’re done, baby!

B-School’s Over

So here I am armed with an official degree and ready to make my mark on the business world. I was getting ready to head off to San Francisco as that’s were the opportunities for financial analysts were at the time but that had to put that on hold. Dad managed to check out in 1985 as the result of a car accident leaving mom in a bad way and then her father passed in Nov. 1990 so she needed my help in getting rid of the rental property first.

Street Smarts 101 – The Very Real Thing

I have to assume that the powers of the universe decided I needed some real education in survival and street smarts. A kind of finishing school for the aspiring entrepreneur. That course of study would arrive in a mere two months in October 1991.

The inner city neighborhood where we owned the rental property turned into a battleground as the gang and crack dealing wave then sweeping the US arrived in a neighborhood near you. Unfortunately it wasn’t just near; it was here. It’s interesting how some personalities (like mine) can adjust to the sound of regular gunfire. Hey it was at least a few blocks away. What’s the big deal?

Now that’s not really the way you want to live but then just running away wasn’t an option. You see I suffer from a little known genetic disorder known as Celtic ancestry. My mother’s side are Scot and Welsh and well, we never could spell “surrender” very well. The details of the next two years I’ll pass over lest I bore you and remind myself of memories I would just as soon not have.

In sum seeing how I didn’t take any guff from the local gangs I wasn’t real popular. At least not with them. And that was cause for friction in our interpersonal relationships. In 1993 I moved about three miles away to a local suburban area. The quiet was deafening. I had a new appreciation for vets with PTSD.

The good part of this twist in the path of life was I had, along with my mom, bought the duplex next to ours and had remodeled it. The rental income from the several buildings was sufficient that I could enjoy the fruits of my labor for a bit which I did. I spent the next three years reading about 3-4 hours per day and doing computer work part-time. Life was good and the learning was even better. I think I had Thoreau’s “Walden” memorized by then.

Following a Dream – Raising Big Timbers

Come 1996 I was growing rather restless with just doing computer work and reading a lot so I started working on a long held goal of building a timber frame building. I started working at construction in the spring of 1996, having done a bit of that in my college days, and worked on meeting the right partner to take on such a project.

In April 1997 I started working for a contractor that seemed a good fit and by August he decided to layoff most of his crew and he and I started an informal partnership to test the idea. We landed a small timber framing job that September and learned the “ropes” of the trade the hard way! (The experienced business types out there will recognize this euphemism as “didn’t make any money”.) But we had built our first frame and it came out darn nice.

The partner decided that timber framing wasn’t his thing so we amicably dissolved the brief relationship and I started my next framing project. And so it went for the next four years and a number of increasingly beautiful frames. I got my 15 minutes of fame when a 1999 project building a replica of a 15th. century English Cottage for which I did the frame got on the back of the April-May edition of Fine Home Building magazine.

Taking the Consulting Business Full-time

And so we arrive at 2001. The economy was in a tail spin after the events of 9/11 and I was already in the process of returning to doing computer consulting on a full time basis. Been there – done that since. I added a Cisco CCNA certification to the resume in 2007 and am currently working on the CCNP with an eye towards the CCIE in routing and switching. In the past several years I’ve been combining my consulting experience and technical expertise to take on an increasing number of interesting writing assignments.

Sidelines

I guess I should add that back in the early 1980′s (1980-1983) I became a professional pilot and flight instructor which was one of my original two goals (the other being a degree in engineering). I was working on building the time to get into the airlines but the bad economy of the early 80′s, an unwritten but widely known age discrimination position by the airlines and the financial failure of Braniff Airlines made that a tenuous career choice at best. I haven’t done any flying in a while but I sure as hech still get chills watching “big iron” go airborne. If you’ve ever been “up front – left seat” with the throttle pressed full-forward you know what I mean. No other feeling like it. Guess it’s in the blood.

As per the laundry list above I’ve done a number of other activities over the years including training at Kyokushin karate, white water kayaking and currently long-distance cycling and mountain biking.

As mentioned I don’t do bored well and I don’t believe in “getting old” as “old” is more an attitude than fact. I workout, am in better physical shape than most 30-somethings (and it’s been a while since then), laugh a lot and bring that youthful energy and enthusiasm to my writing, work and life in general.

So contact me and tell me about your writing project. I guarantee we’ll have fun working together and, more importantly, you’ll like the results.