2008 July « It’s All About Me

Archive for July, 2008

The Farsund Blues

Published July 22, 2008 lessons , private life , sailing 0 Comments

We’re currently trying to sail from Gothenburg (Swedish west coast), to Fraserburgh (Scottish east coast), on a beautiful Dehler 34 (pictured below).

The first leg went splendid, and we did 170 nautical miles in less than 30 hours, arriving Farsund late Saturday evening. But since then, we’ve been stuck here, being forced to eat expensive Norwegian ice cream.

We tried to take off earlier this morning, but the wind outside Lista Fyr was just too evil, and we had to turn back. Which was probably a good decision:

“The seas outside Lista look inviting when the weather is fine, but in fact, the lighthouse sends its warning signals out over one of the most dangerous coastal stretches of Norway. During the days of the sailing ships, ships often ran aground along Lista’s coast. In 1781, as many as eight ships ran aground just during the autumn months.”

We’ll do another attack this night. But if that fails, I’m afraid I’ll have to use good ol Ryan Air to get me back to the UK.

Stay Away From Your Roots

Published July 15, 2008 lessons , private life 2 Comments

My great grandfather was a Swedish farmer, who ruined his back trying to support a hungry family of eleven. I believe he would have been disgraced if he saw me today, as I was struggling with a potato-patch close to our summer house. I had no idea where they were hiding.

“In Sweden, even the horses are blond”

Published July 7, 2008 friends , private life , random 0 Comments

A quote from a surprised foreign friend, who visited Sweden for the first time this weekend.

Tales From the Past - Ljungskile Fasadrenovering

Published July 1, 2008 lessons , marketing , private life 0 Comments

This weekend an old friend and business partner is getting married, and I’m flying back to Sweden for three days of celebration. The occasion made me remember the startup we both were involved in setting up - Ljungskile Fasardrenovering. In English, I guess the name would translate to something like “Chesterfields Carpenters”. We specialized in painting and renovating old houses on the Swedish west-coast.

I learned two things from this experience. First of all, I realized that I’m completely retarded when it comes using my hands. I can’t even paint a simple wall without messing it up, or falling down, or getting abnormally tired. My business partners realized this even earlier than I did, so after 3 weeks we parted.

I also realized that there’s a huge demand for cheap professional services, which is far from being met by the current suppliers, at least on the west-coast of Sweden. These kind of business are safe bets for any entrepreneur (who likes to work REALLY hard) not only because of the untapped market, but also since you’re not up against Internet super stars from all over the world.

I attach the flyer we used to get our business. For one day, we drove around in my fathers Volvo, pushing these down any mailboxes we could find. We did say upfront that we used unqualified students as labour (=ourselves), but that didn’t stop people from contacting us. Ljungskile Fasadrenovering HB was booked for the whole summer, and made a healthy profit. I didn’t see much of it though, since I was chilling on the beach.