Well, first of all...I think that I am probably the only one who really cares what I think.

And to tell you the truth, sometimes even I don't care. But I digress (as I often do).

I need a forum where I can pass out advice - much of it unwanted, unappreciated, and not at all relevant - because once I hit 40, I realized that I now know everything! Ok, so maybe not, but I am finally at the age where I am willing to listen and learn from the mistakes of others, whereas to this point I have not been. So I was thinking...maybe there are folks out there who can learn from my mistakes, and my experiences. And believe me, I have made a lot of mistakes, and I seem to have a lot of interesting (and often just plain weird, stupid, and unbelievable) experiences.

Now that I am a small business owner (actually, I only own half - the half that doesn't have to deal with the money issues) those mistakes and experiences are coming at me at an alarming rate. As a result, much of this blog will be about business issues. Sometimes it may sound like just plain old venting. Sometimes it may sound like that because it IS just plain old venting. But maybe - just maybe! - someone will learn something (anything) that might just make their lives a little easier, or prosperous, or more interesting. And when I say interesting, I mean in a good way...not in a "Holy crap! Why did I listen to her?" way.

So read this, don't read this...share it if it helps you in any way, warn others to avoid it if it does the opposite. And for those of you out there who are younger and less seasoned than I, just know that I too was sure that I knew everything at your age (doesn't matter what age, if it's before 40 I thought that). But I didn't. And now I do (I'm only half-kidding). And I am willing to let you learn from my mistakes and experiences...to be a cautionary tale, if nothing else.

If you don't listen to me, find someone else who's older and wiser to learn from. You'll recognize us older and wiser folks...we're the ones with gray hair. (We try to cover it, but if you look really close, we're easy to spot.)

Feel free to comment, to do your own venting, and definitely feel free to disagree with me or with anyone else who might comment. But do so respectfully. Disagree agreeably, if you will. We don't all have to get along on this great planet. But we do have to respect the opinions of others. One day you might just look back and realize that some of those "others" knew what they were talking about. Happens to me every day.