Advice

Kenneth Lay
Enron Corp.

The reason I'm writing you is because I'm in a position of looking for
advice from someone who's already 'been there, done that'. And you have
achieved what I am looking for which is to lead a company to success.

I started an online company in 1998 and about a year ago I decided to quit
my 'normal' job and go after my dream. This last year has been an
incredible learning experience in starting and running a successful
business. The main problem I'm facing today is that one year with minimal
profits has eaten into my financial cushion to the point that I am now faced
with a very big decision. In order to support my new family I need more
cash-flow to simply pay the bills.

Of course I can always go work for another company since I have an
Engineering degree from the Colorado School of Mines as well as 5 years of
running an IT department in addition to my last few years of
Entrepreneurship.

I know in my heart that my place in this world is to lead the way and
succeed in the business world. And while I have achieved great success
working for other people I know it isn't where I'm supposed to be. But when
it comes to supporting my family I sometimes need to place my dreams and
desires on the back burner.

I have considered writing programs on a consulting basis to assist in
funding my company. My skills as a programmer have led to a very different
way of designing applications in the sense that I have a great feel for the
bigger picture of what the program needs to accomplish and I'm then able to
put the code together in a very organized and timely manner.

So I guess that explains my situation pretty good. I have a few choices:

1. Continue my company using a few untapped financial resources such as my
retirement.

2. Continue my company part time and write programs and develop web and
e-commerce solutions for other companies.

3. Go work for another company.

And while I don't have any specific questions for you, any thoughts,
suggestions or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

I would love to see us playing golf together someday at a big CEO
conference.

Here is a link to a few pictures so you know who you're talking to:
http://www.smileatyou.com/wedding.html

Sincerely,

Derek Olson