Initially, it sounded like a good thing. Our company, which was privately held, was being purchased by a much larger entity, trading on NASDAQ. As such, it was going to give us a much larger footprint in the industry. Having been personally burnt a long time ago, I was skeptical. However, this time I was just an employee, so I didn’t have as much of a stake in it. It didn’t take long, though.

    Once a year, we would have a salary review. It was overly dramatized, in my opinion. You had to do a self-review, answer a bunch of foolish questions, rate yourself on a numerical scale, then sit down with your supervisor. It was really just a lot of ridiculous red tape. I didn’t mind too much. I knew I was good at what I did; I had been told it numerous times. So I wasn’t too nervous when I sat with my manager.

    Did I perform my duties well over the last year? Check. Did I get a good review? Check. Are you comfortable that I will continue to do a good job? Check. Am I going to get a good raise? Nope. Am I going to get a decent raise? Nope. Am I going to get ANY raise? Nope. It seemed that our parent company had a chart showing low, median, and high salaries for the job title I had (Tech Writer 3), and I had maxed out, precisely BECAUSE I was good at my job and had gotten good raises each previous year.

    There is a website, Monster.com, that has charts based on region and title. I had done my homework and knew that there was also an additional title, Tech Writer 4. When I brought that up, I was informed the parent company didn’t recognize that title. So I was told basically, "Yes, Jim, you are a vital part of our department. Yes, Jim, you are probably the best writer we have. Yes, Jim, you are getting a Zero percent raise."

    I could not believe my ears! There wasn't much I could do about it, and it certainly did not give me warm fuzzies. For the second time, I heard the phrase, “My hands are tied.” What is it with this bondage theme in business?

    As a result, I went back to my job, but without the enthusiasm I had had for so long. The job I had come to love had broken my heart. I have said earlier I didn’t want to talk about relationships in here, but I tend not to allow myself to fall in love anymore. It is experiences like this that justify it to me. I have more to say about it, but I will leave it for later.

    In any event, I had a job to do, and I was still going to do a good one. However, believe it or not, things got worse.

    I started seeing what the parent company was doing to us and also saw the lies that they were propagating on the internet. They would spout BS about how much they cared for their clients, but it became pretty evident that they cared more for their shareholders. I was being forced to lie to our clients by adding what they said to the websites. I felt I was compromising my integrity. But what was I to do?

    Meanwhile, with the internet becoming so important, we started doing more and more of our work digitally and web-based. I started getting more proficient on the internet, which would come in handy as we move along here.

    Let’s get a little away from work. We will get back in a while. We’re also going back in time a little; another mini fork or maybe a fork within a fork.

    In my personal life, as I stated earlier, I had been involved for some time with the same woman with whom I am currently involved. Sadly, on July 4th, 2001, my father passed away. He was not doing well, and we had been back to see him, but there was no reason to think anything was imminent. We went to a Padres game that night. There were fireworks and it was fun. When I got home, there was a message on my phone. I picked it up and heard my sister saying he was gone. I made plans to go back to NYC.

    At my father's wake, I met a friend of his. I went to STA with his son. We spoke and when I told him I was in San Diego, he said his son was in LA, and why don’t you guys connect? I got his son's number and said I would call him.

    When I got back home, I called. We chatted and caught up on old times. He was involved in TV, but behind the scenes. I told him what I was doing, and he told me that he was in the beginning stages of trying to get our STA class of 1963 together for our 40th reunion. I had thought about dabbling on the internet, so we thought, why not create a website and see if we can gather enough people to make it worthwhile?

    I started on it and, long story short, about 75-80 of our classmates and their significant others met in the church basement in 2003. We had food, drinks, music, and a wonderful time. It sounded like a good idea to possibly see if we could have another party and get alumni from other years to come. I set up another web page when I got home and watched the confirmed attendees' list grow and grow. By the same time the following year, we wound up having over 500 people, filled the church basement to the rafters and it was amazing!

    There were people from all graduation years coming up to my friend and me with tears in their eyes, thanking us for what we had done. Watching people running across the room, arms opened wide into the arms of others and cheering, brought tears to my eyes. To this day, it was, and probably will be, the most fulfilling thing I have ever done in my life. And it might not have happened without the internet. I was hooked. There were many people I had connected with at the party, and the topic of the website came up. Some people asked if I would do something for them. The germ of an idea was blooming.

    My significant other and I came back home and returned to our jobs, but I hated the hypocrisy the parent company was propagating, and she and I spoke about it often. I started doing a little bit of website work “on the side.” We both still had separate residences, which was sometimes a little difficult. The thought of “consolidating” came up. She made me a proposition. Why don’t you sell your condo, concentrate on doing websites and move into my house? I gave it some thought.

    Finally, I had had enough and wrote up a letter of resignation. In 2005, I embarked on my new “business” full time.